New Brunswick’s Liberal leader is embarking on a provincial tour as MLAs prepare to return to the legislature in March.
Susan Holt said she decided over Christmas to go on tour and wanted this trip to focus on New Brunswick’s health care system.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road, but because of what’s happening in our health care system, I was feeling like I wanted to get out and see it on the frontlines and talk with health care workers around the province about what they are experiencing and what they see and delivery healthcare to New Brunswickers,” explained Holt.
“You find the solution when you’re on the ground, on the front lines with the people doing the work.”
Holt will stop in nine communities across New Brunswick and meet with healthcare workers and long-term care professionals.
The Liberal leader said the province’s health care system is currently in dire straits.
“Talk to anybody who’s trying to get into a walk-in clinic. The time they spend on the phone booking an appointment you could lose your mind. Talk to anybody who’s been to an emergency room in the last month or two, or the last year or two really, because the waits are ridiculously long,” said Holt.
“We have people getting health care in hallways, and in some places supply closets and shower rooms because our ability to deliver care to New Brunswickers is just in the pits. People don’t have family doctors and they can’t get the care when they need it.”
Holt said there are a lot of people to blame for this decades-long crisis, and those people haven’t acted, but what makes her frustrated is that the crisis could’ve been solved sooner.
“For the last three or four years, we’ve had the means to make a change. We’ve had billion-dollar surpluses, and we’ve been sending money to the bankers at a rapid pace instead of investing and improving healthcare for New Brunswickers,” she said.
Despite this being a themed tour, Holt said she is always open to discussing other issues New Brunswick is facing such as housing rates and homelessness.
Here is the schedule for Holt’s tour:
- February 16 – Miramichi
- February 20 – Saint John
- February 21-22 – Fredericton
- February 22-23 – Moncton
- February 26 – St. Stephen
- February 27 – Sussex
- February 28 – Waterville
- February 29 – Sackville
- March 4 – Campbellton
Locations of Holt’s stops in each community can be found on her social media pages.
