Health Minister Dorothy Shephard says vaccine clinics will be available in some New Brunswick schools (Image via GNB)
For the first time since a flood of new provincial plans and updates were released, the Higgs government and opposition went toe-to-toe in the legislature.
Cabinet ministers, party leaders and critics took turns on the defence as remarks took aim at current and previous governments.
Health care reform proved to be the main target, with Health Minister Dorothy Shephard fending off the approach taken in the 16-page document titled Stabilizing Health Care: An Urgent Call to Action.
Jabs from interim Liberal Leader Roger Melanson focused on the lack of plans to address recruitment and retention across New Brunswick. While the introduced technology is a tool, he said the calls to action will actually result in little action.
“Technology will not fix our health care challenges. We need people. We need health care professionals,” Melanson said during Question Period.
Continuing with the argument, Melanson demanded Shephard provide a plan to navigate the health care system out of the crisis.
This prompted a quick response from Shephard, who told the interim leader it was the previous Liberal government – one that Melanson served on – that created these issues.
Shephard said that the liberal government allowed nursing enrolment to go down by nearly 25% and it’s the Higgs government left cleaning up after their mistakes.
Doubling down on his demands, Melanson claimed the plan highlights how “disconnected” the government’s actions are from the wants and needs of New Brunswickers.
“This government, in a document that talks about principles and guidelines, doesn’t give us a real concrete recruitment and retention plan for our health care professionals.”
These claims were disregarded by Shephard, who maintained that recruitment and retention are priorities and that her plan is tailored to the needs of New Brunswickers.
“We are addressing some of the most difficult issues in health care, and we are providing New Brunswickers with measurables and a timeline that are not only doable, they will be done.”
