New Brunswick says $10,000 bonuses for nurses to be paid in December, January

FREDERICTON -

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is following through on one of her top election campaign promises by giving nurses across the province retention bonuses by January.

Holt announced Tuesday that 9,950 nurses will each receive a $10,000 lump-sum payment, as promised in October during the Liberals' successful bid to oust the governing Progressive Conservatives led by Blaine Higgs.

On the campaign trail, Holt also promised an additional financial incentive to encourage nurses to stay in the workforce, promising they would each receive $5,000 in 2025.

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"Nurses play a critical role across our health-care and long-term-care systems here in New Brunswick," Holt said in a statement.

"These retention payments are meant to show our respect to the hard-working nurses in our regional health authorities and nursing homes around the province and will help to ensure that we can retain their valuable knowledge."

The new government said permanent, full-time and part-time nurses working in hospitals, home care and for the ambulance service will each get their initial bonus by Dec. 31, and nurses working in long-term care will receive their bonuses in January.

The total cost to provide the payments is $83 million, with $23 million previously budgeted and an additional $60 million added to the wage bill for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents about 1,000 licensed practical nurses, has yet to sign a payment agreement.

Though there were no campaign promises to offer retention bonuses to other health-care workers, Holt said her majority government is talking to other sectors about how to best retain staff.

The retention bonuses represent the second major campaign promise Holt has fulfilled during her first 100 days as premier. Last month,Holt announced abortions performed outside hospitals would once again be covered by medicare, reversing a controversial rule from 1984 that limited the procedure's availability to three hospitals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2024.

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