New Brunswick election: Liberals promise to open community health clinic in Woodstock

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s Liberal party is promising to open a community health clinic in Woodstock, N.B., if the party wins the Oct. 21 election.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt made the announcement Friday while standing near a building that she said could house a functioning clinic by the end of next year.

“A petition was signed by more than 750 members of the community,” Holt told a news conference, adding that the Progressive Conservative government led by Blaine Higgs promised six years ago to open a clinic in Woodstock, but failed to deliver on that pledge.

“For too long, Mr. Higgs … has taken Woodstock for granted.”

Higgs did not hold campaign events Friday and he responded to a limited number of questions when he took part in a virtual news conference with journalists later in the day. He was not asked about Holt’s assertion.

The Liberals are pledging to build at least 30 clinics across the province over three years, bringing together doctors, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists and other health-care professionals under one roof.

Holt said doctors and other health-care providers are eager to work in such clinics because the administrative support they provide can free them from paperwork and other time-consuming tasks that have little to do with helping patients.

The Liberals have already selected 10 areas that should get community clinics, based on previous talks that party officials have had with citizens and local leaders who support the idea and may have a building and staff ready to go. The proposed clinic in Woodstock would be the 11th on that list.

“When we envisioned the community care clinic model, this is exactly what we had in mind,” Holt said in a statement. “We’ve got local health-care professionals who are ready to roll up their sleeves alongside eager partners and space available to get things moving quickly.”

Holt was accompanied by Marisa Pelkey, Liberal candidate for Woodstock-Hartland, who told reporters that many voters in Woodstock have told her their top priority is access to health care. She also confirmed that the community is ready to set up a clinic.

“We have the space,” Pelkey said. “We have the professionals who want to work in this type of collaborative care clinic. We have the community support.”

Holt cited figures from the New Brunswick Health Council suggesting 180,000 New Brunswickers don’t have access to a family doctor.

She said the Higgs government had promised to open four collaborative care clinics a few years ago, but not one has been opened. The government has opened some health centres, “some of which have a single nurse in them, some of which have a single doctor — none of which are modelled on team-based collaborative care,” Holt said.

“This current government has made no progress on the primary care file.”

During his news conference, Higgs took aim at comments Holt made on Thursday confirming that a Liberal government would save money by abandoning certain lawsuits launched by Higgs’s government.

At one point during a news conference Holt said: “I can think of … millions of dollars that have been spent on lawsuits, on lawyers that are working in Aboriginal Affairs and other departments, working in the courts right now for lawsuits that are going to be immediately taken off the table when we form government.”

Higgs said Holt must clarify if she was talking about the government’s decision to challenge court cases launched by the Wolastqey and the Mi’kmaq First Nations, which include title claims that cover much of New Brunswick.

“If so, this would be the most expensive election promise in New Brunswick’s history,” he told the teleconference. “If there’s a financial penalty for (dropping) the two lawsuits, a conservative estimate would realistically be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

The Tory leader went on to say the Liberals have not calculated the cost of settling title and damage claims that date back to 1759.

Later on Friday, Holt responded to Higgs’s accusations, saying in an email, the Tories are “using this issue to try to further divide New Brunswickers. Higgs is spending millions trying to tie issues up in the courts. First Nations are looking for a partner that respects them and is willing to have meaningful conversations. A Holt government will be that partner on many issues. We will sit down and find solutions that are beneficial for all New Brunswickers.”

When asked why he had ruled out a negotiated settlement with the Indigenous groups, Higgs said the extent of the claims is just too broad.

Also on Friday, Green Party Leader David Coon was in Rogersville, N.B., where he promised to reduce the small business tax rate from 2.5 per cent to one per cent, bringing it in line with the P.E.I. tax rate. Coon also said a Green government would raise the income threshold at which the higher corporate tax rate kicks in, from $500,000 to $700,000.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and some of the very best employers in our communities,” Coon said in a statement. “They generally buy local for their businesses and support other local businesses, creating community wealth. This makes for a vibrant and more resilient province.”

Meanwhile, the Greens also announced they would create a department of community development and rural affairs in a bid to decentralize decision-making and support community-led regional development.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2024.

— With files from Michael MacDonald in Halifax.

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press