Calls grow to allocate N.B.’s $135.5M surplus to health care

A number of groups and organizations are continuing to speak out after the New Brunswick government unveiled a $135.5 million surplus this week.

Originally projected at $35.2 million in March, the province says a larger population base, federal grant and stronger-than-expected economy saw the surplus grow.

It’s caused the net debt to decrease, now at $12.9 billion, an improvement of $44.3 million year over year.

While normally that would be welcomed news, those who say they are struggling to make ends meet, or find a family doctor, are calling on the province to “give it back.”

“Seniors, persons with disabilities and those on social assistance -- they are all living well below the deep poverty line,” read a statement by the N.B. Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.

“…When people are facing food insecurity, not having enough money for rent, not enough for medications or for necessities, we would argue that they would all disagree with your callous statement. Those things most certainly can all be fixed with money.”

The N.B. Medical Society has said health-care professionals have a number of tangible ideas on ways money could be spent that would see results, including subsidizing the cost of health education and increasing nursing home staff wages, so that more seniors can be moved out of hospitals and into long-term care.

And the N.B. Health Coalition feels it’s time to reward frontline staff.

“They deserve a bonus. That would be one first step to retain the employees who are already there. The second thing is increasing the number of people. That is by, recruiting more employees. How do you do that? Well, money certainly helps,” said Coalition chair Bernadette Landry.

On Thursday, Premier Blaine Higgs didn’t say no to investing more in healthcare – only that he wants to see plans for programs that work.

“If a doctor comes to me, a professional of any kind comes to me and says, ‘look, you fund this, and I’ll deliver this,’ and it means better results for the customers, the patients of our province? We’ll be there,” he said.

He acknowledged that cabinet has discussed the possibility of a tax cut, saying there needs to be a balance so that people feel N.B. is an affordable place to call home.

But with an aging population, Higgs noted that there’s more pressure on the health-care system that does need attention.

Higgs has joined other Canadian premiers, calling on Ottawa to take a look at its health-care funding formula.

“To say I’m going to throw more money into an unmanaged system and I’m not going to see any result for it? That’s not an investment. So do we need more money in health? Likely. Do we need to have federal government do their proportion. Yes,” he said.