New Brunswick Liberals promise rent cap, tax cuts in first 100 days in office

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt answers media questions in Fredericton on Nov. 12, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray

FREDERICTON -

A rent cap, tax cuts, and payments to nurses are among the election promises the New Brunswick Liberals say they will fulfil in their first 100 days in office.

In its throne speech Tuesday, the new government said it will earn the trust of New Brunswickers by rapidly completing a series of pledges made on the campaign trail, which ended Oct. 21 with Susan Holt and her Liberal team winning a majority.

Within the first 100 days in office, the Liberals will implement a rent cap, remove the provincial tax on electricity bills and new multi-unit housing, and scrap a "clean fuel adjuster" that the premier says adds four cents a litre to the price motorists pay at the pump. As well, the new Liberal government will distribute retention payments to nurses to show them "the respect and appreciation they deserve."

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"Your government understands that trust does not come easy, but they are ready and willing to work hard to earn it," the Liberals said in their speech, read in the legislature by Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy.

The government says its priorities will be health care, affordability and housing, education, economic development, the environment, and "trusted leadership."

During the election campaign, the Liberals promised to breathe life back into the ailing health-care system by opening 30 community clinics over the next four years. Community clinics bring together doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health-care professionals under one roof.

In Tuesday's speech, the government said it is "committed to support" 10 community care clinics in 2025 -- in Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John, Edmundston, Campbellton, Carleton North, the Acadian Peninsula, St. Stephen, Sussex, and Sackville. The Liberals said their goal is to open clinics in Woodstock, the Kennebecasis Valley, Blacks Harbour, and Blackville "into 2026."

The government said it would extend operating room hours to ensure hospitals "are used to their fullest potential." Another health-care promise is to create centralized wait-lists and connected digital records management systems.

Looming over the Liberals many promises is the province's financial outlook, which dimmed last week when the new finance minister projected a deficit of $92.1 million for the current fiscal year, a reversal from the $40.9-million surplus budgeted last spring by the Progressive Conservatives. Rene Legacy blamed the deficit on higher-than-expected spending in the health department, particularly on private nursing companies.

Legacy said the government will look for ways to shrink the deficit.

Tuesday's throne speech included mention of First Nations, many of which had been critical of the previous government. The Liberals said they will invite First Nations leaders to create a forum for "culturally safe and equitable health care" for Indigenous people.

And the new government said it would create the position of mental health advocate, who will help people struggling with mental health to navigate the care network.

The Liberals also said they would expand access to mental health court -- which is part of the provincial court in Saint John, and deals with cases involving people with a mental illness or intellectual disability. Increased access to the court, the Liberals said, will promote "alternative pathways for justice" and reduce the rate of people re-entering the justice system.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.

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