News

  • Job opportunity: Administrative Assistant

    Posted by · July 22, 2021 11:35 AM

    The Green Party of New Brunswick is seeking an organized and driven Administrative Assistant to join our team.

    We are a budding energetic political party with a dynamic fast-paced environment. We are looking for someone who fits well with our grassroots culture and can work collaboratively with our local associations and volunteers across New Brunswick.

    The Administrative Assistant reports to and is responsible for a variety of administrative duties in supporting the Executive Director.

    Job description:

    Duties include but are not limited to:

    A- Support the Executive Director and Bookkeeper in producing accurate financial reports. Specific duties include; 

    • Provide administrative support to the Bookkeeper in maintaining and balancing various accounts; keep financial records; audit records for discrepancies and reconcile issues as appropriate.
    • Ensure production of payroll, remittances, T4s and HST returns.
    • Manage receivable and payable accounts.
    • Ensure efficient accounting processes to support volunteer engagement and coordination between the 49 districts and the Party; Process claims and manage local associations’ accounts.

    B -Ensure management of the Party’s Head Office; 

    • Manage information flow acting as the gatekeeper for internal and external communications, including vendors, contributors, members, volunteers and the general public.
    • Manage the databases for supporters, members and contributors; relay information to the local associations using various IT tools.
    • Support other office administration duties such as filing, banking, scheduling meetings, etc.
    • Update and maintain Head Office policies and procedures.

    C- Support various reporting and registry requirements to Elections New Brunswick under the direction of the Official Representative and the Executive Director of the Party;

    D- Provide administrative support to the Executive Director as needed.

     

    Qualifications

    • Completion of a college program in accounting, bookkeeping and/or office management or equivalent experience will be an asset.
    • Knowledge of SAGE-Simply Accounting.
    • Excellent skills with the Google and Microsoft Office suite of programs.
    • Reliable, professional, flexible with exceptional attention to detail.
    • Good organizational, problem solving and communication skills.
    • Ability to learn new tools and processes quickly.
    • Bilingualism is an asset.

    Work With Us

    We provide compensation commensurate with experience (within the range of $17 and $25 per hour) and we offer flexible hours of work (between 15 - 20 hours a week) and will accommodate the right person for the job. Candidates must be able to be physically present at the Head Office in Fredericton. 

    If interested in becoming part of our team, please submit your resume and cover letter to [email protected] by Monday, August 9th, 2021.  



  • leader calls government plan to continue burning coal appalling

    Posted by · July 06, 2021 10:07 PM

    FREDERICTON – Green Party leader David Coon is calling Environment Minister Gary Crossman’s proposal to continue burning coal in New Brunswick, past the federal 2030 deadline for coal phase-out in Canada, appalling.

    “Given the climate emergency, this is the decisive decade where it is essential we replace our dependence on non-renewable energy, such as fossil fuels, with renewable energy sources,” said Coon.  “Sixteen years ago, a legal requirement was established in the Electricity Act in order to increase our use of locally-sourced renewable power from 23 percent to 33 percent of the electricity we consume by 2016.  Today, our use of local renewable energy sources has increased to a mere 24%.  This is shocking.”

    Minister of Environment Gary Crossman has proposed a regulation to the Climate Change Act which would see NB Power continue to dump close to 3 million tonnes of carbon pollution annually into the atmosphere over the next 10 years, with slight reductions during the 2030’s.  This is his proposal to the federal government to secure what’s called an equivalency agreement, to keep burning coal until 2040.

    “We need a renewable energy and conservation plan to decarbonize our society this decade,” said Coon.  “It is nowhere to be seen.”

  • Green Party Leader statement - Marieval Indian Residential School

    Posted by · June 24, 2021 2:15 PM

    The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, following the revelations from Kamloops in British Columbia, is devastating news.  This is causing much pain and grief, particularly among First Nations people, and guilt and shame among Canadians.  As Dr. Marie Wilson, a former Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation said yesterday in the media, these little voices are calling to us to get our attention in a way the adults could not achieve with the release of the TRC report six years ago.  These little voices are calling us to action. They don’t want us to be lost in pain, buried by grief, or paralyzed by guilt.  Rather they want us to act: to act on behalf of indigenous children trapped in the child welfare system, to act on behalf of indigenous youth who are incarcerated, to act on behalf of indigenous children and youth who have lost hope and are contemplating taking their lives.  These little voices are calling on all of us to ensure the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Actions are rapidly implemented here in New Brunswick and across Canada.  I and my Green colleagues will be relentless in pressing the New Brunswick government to implement all the Calls to Action directed at them.

  • Arseneau says reversal of regulations on stamped lumber is great news for New Brunswickers

    Posted by · May 07, 2021 9:10 AM

    ROGERSVILLE – The following is a statement released by Kevin Arseneau, the Green critic for rural affairs and MLA for Kent North, in reaction to the government’s announcement that it has amended the regulations of the Buildings Code Act to exempt accessory buildings, such as sheds, from being required to use stamped lumber.

    “This is great news for New Brunswickers. This reversal was the only right thing for the government to do, but it is a short-term fix. A system needs to be put in place to certify the timber sawn by small producers so that this timber could be used in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. In addition, a complete overhaul of the forest industry must see the light of day in order to allow community allocations in order to make more room for small sawmills, small timber producers and the establishment of a local timber market by encouraging cooperation and short supply chain models.

  • Green Party leader calls paid sick days essential to fight against deadly variants

    Posted by · April 29, 2021 9:35 AM

    FREDERICTON – Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South, David Coon, is calling on the Higgs government to ensure all New Brunswick workers have access to paid sick days.  Yesterday, Ontario’s government announced a paid sick day program for workers impacted by COVID-19.

    “Whether a worker is self-isolating waiting for a COVID test and its results, or is sick with COVID, paid sick days are absolutely essential in the fight against the coronavirus variants,” said Coon. “When you live paycheck to paycheck, it can be a difficult decision to stay home when you have symptoms or must be tested. Paid sick days are an essential public health measure to stop the spread of the variants.”

    Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton tabled a motion last year that sought to provide workers with 5 days of paid sick leave, that would be expanded to 10 days in times of crisis, like during COVID.

    “We are in a race against the variants in New Brunswick as vaccines roll-out.  Paid sick days could help make the difference,” said Coon.

  • Green Party leader questions where the money is to implement Disability Action Plan

    Posted by · April 15, 2021 9:44 AM

    FREDERICTON – Ahead of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities appearing at the Budget Estimates Committee later this week, Green Party Leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon wants to know why there has been not action to implement the recommendations of the Council’s Disability Action Plan that was released last July.

    “In the nine months since the action plan was released, we haven’t heard a thing about it from the government,” said Coon. “The government has yet to bring forward a New Brunswick Accessibility Act as recommended by the Council, and the budget doesn’t include a budgetary increase for the Premier’s Council on Disabilities to assist other departments with the implementation of the plan.”

    Coon is also questioning what happened to the government’s Throne Speech promise to hold legislative hearings regarding accessibility in New Brunswick for people living with disabilities.

    “Before the pandemic and the election, the Premier had committed to having the Social Policy Committee hold hearings on improving accessibility in the province,” said Coon. “The government’s throne speech said these would happen this session, yet there is no mention of them on the schedule given to us by the Government House Leader last month.”

  • Premier’s cancellation of First Nation Gas Tax Agreements end pretense of reconciliation

    Posted by · April 13, 2021 3:06 PM

    FREDERICTON – The Premier’s decision to end tax sharing arrangements with First Nations is the final nail in the coffin of what remained of the relationship between the Government of New Brunswick and the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’Kmaq, according to Green Party Leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon.

    “The tax-sharing agreements provide essential revenue to support economic development and job creation in First Nation communities.  The loss of $44 million to First Nation community governments from the gas taxes collected by First Nation businesses will undermine the budgets of many,” said Coon.

    “Rather than address his concerns through the re-negotiation of the agreements, government to government, the Premier is rejecting them, just as he rejected the need for an inquiry into systemic racism, or the need to write indigenous rights into the Crown Lands and Forests Act.  Under this government, any hope for reconciliation has evaporated,” said Coon.

  • Green Health Critic calls on government to allow nurse practitioners to bill Medicare

    Posted by · April 09, 2021 2:22 PM

    FREDERICTON – After learning that the Department of Health will no longer fund diagnostic and laboratory tests ordered by nurse practitioners who are working outside of the public healthcare system, Green Health Critic and MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar Megan Mitton says that it is time for the government to bring all nurse practitioners into the public system by allowing them to bill Medicare for the services they provide.

    “It defies logic that we have primary healthcare practitioners who are willing to work, but unable to work within our public system,” said Mitton. “We have a shortage of primary healthcare providers, so why aren’t we paying these professionals to provide healthcare services and reduce the waiting list in our province?”

    Green Party Leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon adds that he has been advocating for this change since he was first elected in 2014.

    “For years, successive governments have committed to fully utilizing nurse practitioners, while only making incremental changes to hire more nurse practitioners at the regional health authorities,” said Coon. “It is time to make this change to improve healthcare outcomes for New Brunswickers.”

  • Green Party leader asks where Social Development’s report on group homes is

    Posted by · April 01, 2021 9:00 AM

    FREDERICTON – The Department of Social Development has failed to table its plan to improve its treatment of children and youth taken into its care.

    Following a devastating report by the Auditor General on the poor quality of care provided to children and youth in group homes, members of the Legislative Assembly unanimously requested Social Development present a plan to solve the problem by March 31, 2020.  This never took place. Under questioning from Green Party leader David Coon at the Public Accounts Committee this year, the Deputy Minister for Social Development made a commitment to table the plan by the end of this March, a full year late.

    “Over a year ago, the Auditor General uncovered serious problems in Group Homes that were placing children and youth in the Minister’s care at serious risk. Where is the plan to rescue those kids from inadequate, inappropriate, and in some cases, damaging care,” demanded Coon. “The Auditor General did her work, and as MLAs we did our work to hold the Department accountable for implementing her recommendations, and planned to call witnesses to comment on the adequacy of the plan, but there’s no plan.  Now it’s up to the Minister of Social Development to explain why his Department is failing youth and children in care.”

  • Green Party leader wants carbon tax to be spent on climate action

    Posted by · March 31, 2021 9:15 AM

    FREDERICTON – On the day before the Higgs’ government’s carbon tax increases to $40/tonne, Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South, David Coon, is calling on the government to invest the additional $28 million in increased revenue entirely in climate change mitigation.

    “With increased carbon tax revenue, we have an opportunity to tackle climate change in a way that reduces emissions, increases energy efficiency, and helps New Brunswickers save on their heating bills,” said Coon. “I’m talking about major investments in home and business retrofits, support to improve public transportation, rebates for electric vehicles, and increasing the amount of small-scale renewable power on the grid.”

    At a recent Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship committee, Green Environment critic and MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, Megan Mitton, criticized the government for putting $20 million of carbon tax revenue into research and development for more nuclear power.

    “We have a government that has become obsessed with more nuclear power, even at the expense of New Brunswickers and the climate,” said Mitton. “New Brunswickers need to know that their government is seeing the climate crisis for what it is, a crisis. The government needs to be investing in energy retrofits and tried and true existing technologies, like wind and solar - not expensive, potentially dangerous, and experimental technologies like nuclear SMRs.”