FREDERICTON – The Auditor General report released this morning found that NB Power’s energy saving programs are difficult to access by low and moderate-income households despite 37% of New Brunswick households experiencing energy poverty, where they spend more than 6% of their income on energy. NB Power has slashed its energy saving targets and failed to implement government’s commitments on energy efficiency contained in the Climate Action Plan.

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FREDERICTON – As Premier Higgs relaxes COVID-19 measures for the general population, NB Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon says he must put in place a plan that will protect those most vulnerable to serious illness, hospitalizations and death.

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FREDERICTON - New Brunswick Green Party Leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon says the 18,000 hectares of forest and rivers of the former Tracadie Firing Range should be co-managed by the local community in partnership with the M’ikmaq Nation.  

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FREDERICTON – Many New Brunswickers were alarmed to find empty produce shelves across New Brunswick last week due to multiple major snowstorms. Green Party Agriculture critic and MLA for Kent North Kevin Arseneau says this is indicative of a food system that relies on imported fruits and vegetables, which will be increasingly disrupted by crises outside of New Brunswick, such as severe weather from climate change or major COVID outbreaks.

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FREDERICTON – Statistics just released by Statistics Canada reveal that the average cost of rent in New Brunswick has increased by 7.2% over the past year, compared with the national average of 1.6%. This, says NB Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon, is further proof that the province must adopt strong rent controls, including an annual cap on rent increases.

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FREDERICTON – NB Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon has been hearing concerns from New Brunswickers about their mental health as the lockdown takes hold – a stark reminder that the provincial government has been slow to implement its commitments from the mental health and addictions strategy it announced last year.

“Last February, the government committed to opening 13 mental health walk-in clinics around the province based on the successful pilot project in Campbellton,” said Coon. “And they committed to adding addiction and mental health resources to address increased demand for services resulting from COVID-19. These are needed now.”

It has been over two years since the Legislature unanimously adopted a motion to create a mental health advocate for the Province, but no one has been appointed. And almost a year has gone by since the circumstances surrounding Lexi Daken’s suicide exposed gaping holes in emergency mental health care services, but the ensuing recommendations remain largely unimplemented.

“The Premier often talks of living with COVID-19, so his upcoming budget must support a properly funded healthcare system so we can live with COVID-19 and the restrictions it imposes on our lives,” said Coon. “Neither medical nor mental health services should fall by the wayside during a pandemic, but that is precisely what is happening.”  

FREDERICTON – With the announcement that the province will go to Level 3 COVID restrictions this week, NB Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon says that the government must immediately offer financial support for the people and businesses who will be hardest hit by the move, including small businesses, the hospitality sector, artists and their performance venues, and those who will lose their income.

“While this is a necessary public health measure to try to slow the spread of Omicron and ease the pressure on  our healthcare system, it will have a significant negative effect on both businesses and workers in those sectors that will be closed over the next few weeks,” said Coon. “The Premier must loosen the purse strings to support those in need, to reduce the hardship they will face.”

Kevin Arseneau, the Green Caucus Advocate on matters of Developing and Strengthening Communities, has been meeting with, and hearing from, families, people in the arts & culture community, as well as small business owners about how dire their situation is.

“We are going on two years that these sectors have been negatively affected by the pandemic, and for two years Premier Higgs has completely ignored their needs.” said Arseneau. “Now is the time for him to step up and begrudgingly support those who are most in need.”

The world’s use of gasoline, natural gas, oil, and coal has thrown our climate into crisis.  The resulting damage to homes, property, and health has been evident in New Brunswick for over a decade now.  Beginning Thursday, an all-party committee of New Brunswick MLAs will hold five days of public hearings on the renewal of New Brunswick’s 2016 plan to transition to a low carbon economy. 

New Brunswick’s Green MLAs are eager to hear the recommendations from experts on what specific actions should be taken over the next five years to free our society from fossil fuels, and to protect our communities and infrastructure from the ravages of a destabilizing climate.

“The science is telling us that during this decade we must make the most profound transformation in our housing, transportation, and energy supplies that the world has ever known,” said Green Party leader David Coon, an original member of the Legislature’s 2016 Climate Change Committee.  “The hearings will be video streamed, so I hope New Brunswickers will tune in because what we decide to do over the next five years will determine the state of the province we hand over to our children.”

 

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New Brunswick’s Green MLAs say that the government needs to take immediate steps to reduce the transmission of COVID in the province’s hardest hit communities so students can go back to school, while also ensuring that healthcare workers are better protected. 

“The government should implement the Level 3 measures to limit public gatherings to slow the spread of COVID in communities with major outbreaks,” says David Coon, Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South. “This will reduce community spread and should ease the pressure on our hospitals, enabling students to return to school more quickly.”

The Saint John region has 3,176 active cases with 40 of the Saint John Regional Hospital’s 43 ICU beds filled, while Moncton has 2,152 active cases with 11 out of 14 ICU beds occupied at the Georges Dumont Regional Hospital.

“We know that what happens in the schools is reflective of the extent of transmission in the community,” said Megan Mitton, the Green critic for Education and Early Childhood Development and MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar.  “The government needs to be proactive to reduce community transmission so students can return to the classroom.”

Many workers in New Brunswick do not have access to paid sick days; however will be required to stay home to isolate after contracting COVID-19, or being the close contact of a family member who has.

“More needs to be done to protect healthcare workers, and all of those on the front-lines,” said Kevin Arseneau, the Green advocate for strengthening communities and MLA for Kent North. “This includes providing paid sick days for all workers, distributing N-95 masks to reduce the risks of front-line workers contracting the virus, and making investments in our healthcare system to make it more resilient.”