Sackville - Leader David Coon said a Green government would build out a community-based health care system that would put citizens and care givers needs before private companies’ profits.

Coon released the party’s commitment to health care reform today, saying health policy should be guided by engaged citizens, an increased focus on illness prevention, more local health care centers, shorter wait times for essential care and an immediate creation of 40 new nurse practitioner positions in the province.

“We’ve all witnessed the decline in our public health care system, whether it’s by personally experiencing the over-crowded emergency rooms or long wait times to get a family doctor or extra care for our aging parents and grandparents. Tinkering around the edges of health care reform is not working. If we start to rebuild the system, taking a community-centered focus with family health teams in the lead, we will get the expert care our family members both need and deserve.”

Coon says the other parties talk about transforming the way we do things in health care or seniors care, but that without transforming the system itself, the results will continue to be nothing more than cosmetic. “Too many people will continue to be poorly served or fall through the cracks of the system altogether. Those who deliver our public services will continue to burn out, and it will become ever more difficult to recruit new employees,” he said.

[insert quote here]

The Green Party health care policy includes commitments to:

• Cancel the contract with the private company Medavie for managing our extra-mural health services and return management responsibilities to Horizon and Vitalité.
• Place our ambulance services under public management and initiate a public inquiry into how they can be improved.  
• Give hospitals the authority to make decisions about how best to provide timely access and care to patients and enable all staff to collaborate to implement them.
• Reduce wait times for primary health care, create 40 new nurse practitioner positions, and allow nurse practitioners and pharmacists to bill Medicare for health services.
• Add eight new community health-care centers staffed by collaborative family health care teams, including mental health professionals and nurse practitioners.
• Integrate midwives into each of New Brunswick’s health regions.

The full platform can be found here: http://www.greenpartynb.ca/2018_platform

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Media Contact: Shannon Carmont
506.440.4980
[email protected]

David Coon
Leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick
403, Regent Street, Suite 102
Fredericton, NB, E3B 3X6

24 August 2018

Subject: Green party response on the question of a French language leaders’ debate

It is with disappointment that I learned yesterday that Radio Canada Acadie will ultimately not hold a leaders’ debate in French due to a conflict between Mr. Higgs of the Progressive Conservative party and Mr. Gallant of the Liberal party.

This conflict over the format of the televised French debate – an essential media event in any election campaign – unfairly deprives a third of the population of New Brunswick of an essential source of political information, essential to our democratic process.

Even as we, in New Brunswick, are on the eve of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Official Languages Act, passed in 1969 by Louis J. Robichaud, we cannot forget article 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We therefore recognise the equality of status, rights, and privileges for both the French and English linguistic communities of New Brunswick.

Respect for and protection of New Brunswick’s two Official Languages and its French and English linguistic communities is a defining characteristic of New Brunswick. Without a French debate it is the Acadian and francophone communities with their own issues that are being ignored.

The Green party of New Brunswick is ready to work with the other parties for the well-being of all communities in our province. We are dedicated to respect for and the protection of our two official languages.

We hope all the parties and their leaders overcome this partisanship and demonstrate respect for real equality between the two linguistic communities.

I am hoping for a solution to this problem and an invitation to a leader’s debate in French.

David Coon
Leader of the Green Party of New Brunswcick

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Latest Greens bring small business and worldly experience to campaign

Small business operators, a successful artist, and an internationally recognized journalist are among the latest candidates representing the Green Party of New Brunswick in the next general election.

"People ask me all the time about whether more Greens will be elected on September 24th, and I like nothing better than describing the excellent candidates we have in every corner of our province," said Green Party leader David Coon. "Today we are announcing eight more, bringing our total number of candidates to-date to a total of 31. There is a tremendous appetite to vote for an alternative to the Liberals and PCs, so I know that New Brunswickers will be sending Green MLAs in good numbers to the Legislative Assembly on September 24th."

Coon has every reason to be excited. Included in the latest group of Greens entering the election are a wide variety of capable, passionate candidates.

Former journalist Doug James is best known for his work as a foreign correspondent for CNN, where he covered the first Gulf War, the Palestinian Intifada and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He will represent the Greens in Saint John-Lancaster.

Tamara White has, for the last seven years, managed an award-winning architectural firm based in Fredericton. She has led to its growth by practicing values of hard work, fair and equitable wages, effective communication and fiscal responsibility, while at the same time also supporting other local businesses. She will represent the Greens in Fredericton North.

Former teacher Louann Savage is elevating her passion for all things Miramichi by running in that riding.

Bruce Dryer, who holds a degree in biology from UNBSJ – focussing on marine and environmental biology – will carry the Green Banner in Kings-Centre. Bruce has been interested and actively involved in politics and political issues most of his life and actively volunteered in campaigns the past three provincial elections.

Edmundston-Centre will see a familiar face represent the Greens, as she currently sits as a councilor for Lake Baker Village, elected in 2016. Sophie Vaillancourt is part of several environmental and preventive health care committees in her area.
Mural artist Fred Harrison, whose 20-year career includes painting some of the famous murals in Sussex, is the Green Party candidate for Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins.

In Moncton East, Matthew Ian Clark, a certified accounting technician, will represent the Greens.
Landscape business owner Mario Comeau is the Green candidate in Restigouche-Chaleur. Mario currently serves on the local service district for the Parish of Beresford.

Article by: LAURA MACINNIS

David Coon says the province needs to start seeing old covered bridges as an asset rather than a burden.

The provincial Green party says the province should be doing more to recover its covered bridges that are not in use and is asking the province to consider the benefits they could have for New Brunswick economically. And not just for tourism.

With elections season approaching, Coon stopped in the region Tuesday at the Starkey Covered Bridge which has been out of commission since the spring flood and the Cherryvale Covered Bridge which has been out of commission for several years he spoke to residents about the loss to the community.

“With all these wooden bridges, you would think the province would be someone on staff with expertise in maintaining them,” he said.

He said their upkeep is not just important to the province’s road infrastructure and tourism, it could be a green industry creating jobs if the province were to embrace using the natural resources it has to continue to fix and even build new ones.

“Having bridges like these is a opportunity for what we call bioeconomy. We should be driving up the use of wood in construction, but instead we are using less. But here we have this forestry sector and we should be taking advantage of it,” he said. “Afterall, we built these bridges back when we were poor and now we are saying we can’t afford to maintain them?”

Bill Fraser told reporters in Fredericton earlier this month that the The Long Creek No. 1 bridge on Starkey Road, 15 minutes outside Sussex just off the Route 10, will only be available to pedestrians once fixed. Fraser said he hoped the bridge, built in 1912, would last longer by having no vehicular traffic on it.

He said this kind of infrastructure has culture significance and that is worth saving, but traffic safety will take priority.

But Coon thinks it is a mistake to think of the bridge’s historic significance as their only benefit to the province.

“These bridges have lasted as long as they did because of their design. Because they were covered it protected the deck and helped them last longer. There’s no reason we couldn’t be building new modern wood bridges either,” Coon said.

Green candidate for Gagetown-Petitcodiac Marilyn Merritt Gray lives in Kars and said she sees a real advantage to embracing the covered bridges too.

“There are companies in the province who specialize in these types of builds and I’m sure there are a lot of engineers and apprentices who would be eager to learn this stuff,” she said. “We have these beautiful waterways for boating and fishing and infrastructure like these bridges will draw tourists too.”

“The tourism appeal of these wooden bridges is apparent, but for some reason the province hasn’t done much with them in their tourism strategy,” Coon agreed.

Reace Black, member of the Canaan-Washademoak Watershed Association, said the loss of the Starkey Covered Bridge has been a huge loss to friends and family who were once neighbours that now have a 15 minute detour to get to the other side of the river. And he said the loss of the Cherryvale covered bridge was especially felt this winter.

“We had a sudden flood in January that wiped out the main road. People were isolated for three days until the water retreated. If the Cherryvale Bridge was still functional it would have been an alternate route,” Black said

June 4th, 2018

Press release

Sue Rickards will be the Green candidate for the riding of Carleton-York in the upcoming election.  She was acclaimed by the local Green party members on June 4th at the Dumfries Maple.  

''Sue's long experience working in communities in her riding means she can get right to work for the people of Carleton-York the day after the election. She gets things done and she is passionate about seeing a renaissance in farming in her constituency to give local youth a future at home on the land,” said David Coon, leader of the Green party and MLA for Fredericton South. 

Sue had this to say about her nomination: "The Green Party is action-oriented.   Carleton-York has great people and solid communities;  we can build on that potential for a sustainable economy and healthy lifestyles.   It’s time for us to stop drifting and start paddling."

Read more about Sue Rickards: http://www.greenpartynb.ca/carleton_york

April 17th, 2018

Press release

Fredericton – According to Green Party Leader David Coon, the majority of the $12.4 million New Brunswick has received from the Canada-New Brunswick Home and Community Care Funding Agreement will pay for transferring the Province’s extra mural program from the regional health authorities to the management of Medavie. 

“The federal home care money could have helped seniors with the daily routine of living on their own,” said Coon. “Instead, it’s going to pay for the unnecessary transfer of extra mural health services away from our regional health authorities to an unneeded private management system.”

During questioning at Estimates Committee in the Legislature late last week, the Minister of Health acknowledged that the $12.4M received from the federal government  to improve access to home and community care will be used for the following purposes:

• $4.7M for integrating Telecare 811, Extra Mural, and paramedics
• $1M for additional Extra Mural staff
• $4.2M for Extra Mural to implement electronic record-keeping
• $2.5M for palliative care

“This government keeps saying they want to help keep seniors in their homes and their communities longer with better home support, but these expenditures will do nothing to help seniors age in place,” said Coon.