Susan Holt is leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party. Image: Submitted

New Brunswick’s premier will deliver his annual State of the Province address Thursday night.

It is often seen as a chance for the government to tout its successes over the past year.

But the province’s Liberal leader says it would be “an insult” for the premier to say everything is going great.

“I’m really hoping the premier will deliver a realistic update to New Brunswickers that acknowledges the struggles people are facing,” Susan Holt said in an interview.

Holt said New Brunswick is facing serious challenges on a number of fronts including healthcare, housing, education and cost of living.

The Liberal leader wants to see an update on what is being done to improve emergency room wait times and ambulance offload delays.

Holt said she also would like to see the premier acknowledge the high cost of living and offer some form of relief to New Brunswickers.

She also wants to see immediate plans to address housing and homelessness, along with a decision about the future of French immersion.

“I don’t want to hear any more pats on the back for the growing population that we happen to have attracted accidentally during the pandemic or the billion-dollar surplus that they’ve been hoarding,” said Holt.

“I want to hear how they’re going to make New Brunswickers’ lives better and I’m optimistic that we might get some of that.”