This morning Green Party leader David Coon announced that a Green government would  immediately increase the funding to the Chief Medical Officer’s office, as well as the regional offices around the province.

“The budget of the public health department has been hacked away at for years," said Coon. “I would provide the Chief Medical Officer with the  resources necessary to help  guide New Brunswickers through the COVID-19 pandemic, without sacrificing other pressing  public health initiatives .”

Coon also announced that a Green government would ensure that the Chief Medical Officer is truly independent and able to make reports and recommendations on issues that affect the health of New Brunswickers.

"The Chief Medical Officer needs to be able to make reports and recommendations on issues that affect the health of New Brunswickers without repercussions, no matter how inconvenient it may be for the government,” said Coon.

This morning Green Party leader David Coon announced that a Green government would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and guarantee sick leave, vacation, and paid overtime for all workers under the Employment Standards Act.

“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how many workers in our economy are truly essential, but are undervalued," said Coon. “While many New Brunswickers continue to work from home today, workers in these sectors continued to go to work everyday, so that we continue to receive essential goods and services.”

Coon also announced that a Green government would offer wage subsidies to help cover the cost of the minimum wage increase for small businesses and non-profits that do not have enough revenue or profit to pay for the minimum wage increase.

"These are difficult times for small businesses, as well as their employees,” said Coon. “A Green government would be there to help small businesses make these adjustments.”

Party Leader David Coon released the Green Party’s 2020 election platform today in Fredericton. 

“We have two priorities: to keep New Brunswickers safe and secure in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to chart a path to recovery from COVID-19 that puts the well-being of people, and communities at the heart of government decision-making, while protecting the natural environment on which we utterly depend,” said Coon.

The Green Party platform is divided into three themes:

• Rebuilding Good Government and Public Services
• Building the Green Economy
• Building a Green Society

To view the entire platform click here:  https://greennbvert.ca/platform/.

"Our platform outlines how the Greens will implement the necessary supports for people and small businesses to get through the pandemic now, so they can thrive when we come out the other end of this,” said Coon. “And it provides the details on how we will assure, we not only recover from the pandemic as a society and economy, but how we will flourish in the future.”

“A Green government will spend money where it matters, not where it doesn’t. The purpose of government is to service the public good,” said Coon. “We are offering New Brunswickers the real green deal for our province, where the government works for the well-being of all with compassion and respect.”

Green Party Leader David Coon announced this afternoon that a Green government would mandate NB Power to use 100% renewable sources energy by 2035.

"With vastly improved energy efficiency, on-shore and off-shore wind, solar farms, storage technologies, and long-term purchases of hydropower from Quebec and Labrador, we can become 100% renewable in 15 years, and avoid generating power with plutonium or fossil fuels,” said Coon.

Coon committed to providing zero-interest loans for solar panels and energy efficiency measures such as new insulation and windows. He also committed to amending the Electricity Act to break down the barriers for municipalities, First Nations or housing developers looking to buy or produce renewable energy for their own use.

“Mr. Higgs and Mr. Vickers are clinging to their 20th century ideas about energy as the climate crisis intensifies,” said Coon. “But,  the path is clear. The future must be renewable to be Green, and with decades of experience in energy policy, I know how to get us there.

Green Party Leader David Coon was in Nigadoo at noon today to present the mandate of the Department of Rural Affairs and Community Development and its strategy towards internet access for all regions of New Brunswick.

According to David Coon, development must be thought in the light of the climate emergency. "The economic recovery plan must be part of the solution rather than adding to the problem. The recovery must be green and fair," he said at a press conference. Supported by provincial funding and appropriate policies, he said local and regional communities will need to chart their own course, building on their unique assets, culture and territory.

This new department will be responsible for developing and implementing a regional development policy, support for renewable energy production and the protection and development of agricultural land.

"This department will operate with a decentralized structure and decision-making authority to support regional development and will be financially supported through the Northern Fund, which we will re-establish with other funds specific to the needs of the regions," said the Green leader. "New Brunswickers want to be more self-sufficient and we can. All we need to do is tap into the creativity and vital energy that already exists in our communities. »

The Green platform also tackles the glaring problem of internet access in rural areas, highlighted by the pandemic. "All regions of the province must have access to quality internet service.  We will accelerate our efforts to provide high-speed Internet access to all New Brunswick citizens and businesses," said Coon. To achieve this, he plans to require Internet providers to submit a solid action plan within the next six months and to have it in place within a year. If they fail to provide a concrete plan, "we are prepared to create a crown corporation to provide Internet access to all regions of our province. The time for half-measures is over. It is time for action," said Coon.

By David Coon

 

COVID-19 has tested us in ways that we haven’t been for generations. New Brunswickers have shown immense personal strength through these times. Poet Fred Cogswell captured this in his poem, appropriately entitled New Brunswick.

“Not soft soil where we root together,” Cogswell wrote. But “To grow up slow and endure for long . . .All our beauty is our stubborn strength,” he concluded.

As I have travelled the province this summer, I have been reminded how we are rooted together in this place by geography, history, and our stubborn strength.

During a meeting with Chief Bill Ward in Metepenagiag, he told me that his community had been inhabited continuously for 3,000 years. Our host at La Maison Mer de Cocagne, told me how Cocagne is where the very first Acadian families to own their own land after the deportation settled. This summer I walked the land on Grand Manan that my wife’s loyalist ancestors settled to establish successful fisheries after being exiled by the American government.

 

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 Green Party Leader David Coon announced that a Green government would immediately ban the use of the spraying of herbicides, such as glyphosate, on Crown lands and under power lines.

“Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have been afraid to stand up to the big forestry companies,” said Coon. “I will stand up for what New Brunswickers want, and with 35,000 signatures on the Stop Spraying petition I presented in the Legislature, it is clear that it is time to ban the use of glyphosate and other herbicides on our forests.”

Coon also committed to ending the practice of indiscriminate clearcutting.

“Clearcutting is hurting wildlife populations and reducing the value of timber the forest can grow,” said Coon. “It is also hurting our tourism sector. When people come to New Brunswick, they expect to see trees, not clearcuts.  We will replace indiscriminate clearcutting with selective harvesting to encourage the natural regrowth of trees.

This afternoon, standing  outside of the Northumberland Wood Marketing Board offices,  Green Party Leader David Coon announced that a Green government would ensure that private woodlots return to being the primary source of wood supply for New Brunswick mills.

Coon said that he would bring changes to the Crown Lands and Forests Act within the first one hundred days of a Green government in order to ensure equitable access to the market for private woodlot owners.

“Forty years ago, woodlot owners and their families were promised a fair deal when the Crown forests were turned over to a handful of large corporations. A deal that said they would be the primary source of wood fibre to the mills, so they could continue to market their wood to provide for their families ” said Coon. “Successive  Liberal and Conservative governments reneged on that deal, making it nearly impossible  for woodlot owners to live off of the wood they produce.”

“I will stand up against the special pleading of the big guys and fight to ensure fair market access for small woodlot owners from Northumberland County to Charlotte County, and from Kings County to Restigouche County,” said Coon.

 

Joined by Miramichi Bay-Neguac Green Party candidate Curtis Bartibogue,  this morning Green Party Leader David Coon announced that a Green government would prioritize building nation-to-nation relationships with the Wolastoqey, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati people. Coon re-iterated that the first step he would take is to immediately convene an inquiry into systemic racism in the New Brunswick justice system.

Coon said he would follow this up with an initiative that would ensure First Nations would be partners in the management of Crown forests, given they had never surrendered the land.  “It is time that we turn public acknowledgements that the indigenous people of New Brunswick never ceded their lands into genuine actions that reflect this reality,” said Coon.

He also committed to supporting the training of Indigenous language teachers and Indigenous student immersion programs for the Wabanaki languages.

“Language is vital to the fabric of who people are,” said Coon. “There are fewer than 100 fluent Wolastoqey speakers and only about 2000 Mi’kmaq speakers left in New Brunswick. We need to take decisive action now to save these important languages.”