'We're going to move fast,' Liberal premier-designate says
Susan Holt says legislature will convene next month to act on key priorities, including nurse bonuses
New Brunswick premier-designate Susan Holt says she'll convene the new legislature before the end of November to begin moving on several of her key election promises.
Meeting her new caucus of 31 Liberal MLAs, Holt said she is already getting briefings from the civil service on several of the key issues awaiting her when she is sworn in on Nov. 2.
"We're ready to get after the work that needs to get done as a team — urgently," she said.
"We're going to move fast."
Holt revealed that she would be meeting with departing Premier Blaine Higgs on Thursday afternoon for more discussions about the transition.
Members of her team have already been meeting officials, and she said they relayed that the final meeting of Higgs's Progressive Conservative cabinet had happened Thursday morning to tie up loose ends.
Holt said she plans to act quickly on:
- Getting $10,000 nurse retention payments — the first phase of a two-year initiative — "out the door" by the end of 2024.
- "Looking to see if we can accelerate" the removal of the provincial sales tax from electricity bills, a process that would normally take until next April 1.
- Removing the tax from new construction costs to spur more housing.
- Implementing a rent cap.
- Repealing legislation that forces the Energy and Utilities Board to shift the cost of federal clean fuel regulations — 4.3 cents per litre of gasoline currently — from producers to customers.
But she said that "carbon cost adjustor" may not be completely eliminated before Christmas.
She said she would be getting briefings on "how quickly it can go and what pieces are in place."
Holt said her government would also amend Regulation 84-20, which prohibits Medicare funding of surgical abortion services outside hospitals, to make the procedure more accessible.
That change does not require legislation. It only takes a cabinet order.
Claire
Johnson, Moncton South, Alexandre Cédric Doucet, Moncton East, and John
Herron, Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, speaking Thursday. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Broader access could include offering it in some of the 30 community care clinics the Liberals have promised to establish before 2028, she said.
Holt also pledged to quickly restart contract talks with the New Brunswick Nurses Union, whose members voted just days before the election call to reject a tentative agreement negotiated with the Higgs government.
Some newly elected members of the Liberal caucus said health care is a top issue for them and they're looking forward to contributing.
"New Brunswickers have high expectations, and they should have high expectations," said Dr. John Dornan, the former Horizon Health CEO who was elected in Saint John Portland-Simonds.
"We should be able to deliver it better. For the amount of money that New Brunswickers spend on health care, we should get better results."
Claire Johnson, a health policy researcher and expert in food insecurity at the Université de Moncton, said she wants to bring her passion for data to the table.
"We've got all this data that's supposed to be guiding our decision-making policies and the way that we govern, so that's exactly what I want to do," she said.
"That's the key, and the contribution I'd like to make."
Many of the newly elected Liberals greeted each other warmly as they gathered at a Fredericton hotel less than 72 hours after their decisive win.
The Liberals won 31 out of 49 seats on Monday with 48.2 per cent of the popular vote, the largest share since PC leader David Alward's 2010 victory.
Tania Sodhi, who defeated Ernie Steeves, the PC finance minister, by 225 votes in Moncton Northwest, called the campaign "a roller-coaster ride [with] lots of struggle.
"Everything was new for me, but we did it. I'm happy, but I'm nervous as well," she said. "I just want to make everyone proud, and I don't want to let anyone down."
Liberal
election winners Luke Randall, Fredericton North, and Tania Sodhi,
Moncton Northwest, are expected to be sworn in in November. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Sodhi, the first Indo-Canadian MLA elected in New Brunswick, said Moncton's immigrant community was rooting for her to succeed.
"They're quite proud of me, and everyone's excited and happy. Everyone's thrilled. It means a lot for them."
Holt said her team is working on making the Nov. 2 swearing-in at the legislature as open to the public as possible, raising the possibility of creating spillover viewing areas outdoors or in the nearby Fredericton Convention Centre.
She and her colleagues acknowledged the buoyant mood of this week will soon give way to the challenges of governing — though Holt said her briefings from the civil service have not included any unpleasant surprises so far.
"I say 'not yet' because we all think they're coming," she said.
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