Prince Edward Island reports $14.8-million deficit in fiscal 2023-24

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s Liberals are promising to cover the cost of one round of in vitro fertilization treatment for people trying to start a family.

Leader Susan Holt told a news conference Friday that the province usually covers about $5,000, which she says is far below the total price for the treatment.

She said wealthy couples shouldn’t be the only ones who have access to the procedure.

“It’s not just the wealthy who should have access to a family,” Holt said. “We want to give this opportunity to everyone. It’s something that exists in other provinces. A lot of other provinces pay for the first cycle of in vitro fertilization.”

The party says the election promise will cost about $2.64 million per year, with an estimated 240 people expected to be funded.

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs did not have public events scheduled Friday, leading the Liberal leader to highlight her rival’s low profile on the campaign trail.

“He does no promotion for the future of the province, he doesn’t talk about how he will fix the health system, when in the last six years it has been worse than ever,” she said. “And he wants four more years without presenting a vision for the health system. Blaine Higgs is absent from this campaign and absent for New Brunswickers.”

Meanwhile, Green Leader David Coon said Friday he would improve senior care if his party is elected Oct. 21.

“Our aging population deserves to age with dignity and receive quality care right in their communities,” he said. “A Green government will make investments to ensure seniors receive the care they need, where they need it and when they need it.”

Among the measures would be an increase in the amount of care provided to long-term care residents, to reach an average of 4.1 hours a day, and an increase in the allowance given to residents to purchase personal items.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – A growing number of Liberal MPs are banding together to convince Prime Minister Justin Trudeau it’s time to step down, although he appears to retain support from his cabinet.

Trade Minister Mary Ng said Friday she had full confidence in Trudeau as word began to spread about a growing revolt. Ng was travelling back to Canada with Trudeau from Laos, where they were attending a summit of southeast Asian countries.

When their plane landed in Hawaii for a refuelling stop, Ng said she turned on her phone and saw multiple media reports about efforts by some of her Liberal colleagues in media outlets such as CBC News and The Toronto Star.

“I would say that I’m disappointed because Canadians expect us to be focusing on Canadians,” Ng said.

“I’m a Liberal MP and I have full confidence in Justin Trudeau as my leader.”

Details about the strategy and breadth of the attempt to push him to resign remains unclear, though one MP told The Canadian Press the number of MPs involved is not insignificant and that unlike previous rumours of a revolt, this one is real.

That MP is not among those involved in the revolt.

Trudeau has maintained his hold on the Liberal party even as his government’s slide in the polls became a free fall and his Liberal party lost two strongholds in Toronto and Montreal byelections.

The noise grew loudest in late June after the loss of the Toronto-St. Paul’s seat to the Conservatives, but an attempt to push him out then did not garner broader support from more than one or two MPs.

It quietened somewhat over the summer, only to come roaring back in September after the NDP pulled out of the supply and confidence deal, national campaign director Jeremy Broadhurst quit and the party lost a second critical byelection in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun riding to the Bloc Québécois.

The Liberals have been unable to win back Canadians who have been walloped in recent years by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing inflation crisis. A housing shortage which many blame on growing immigration numbers, has contributed to the government’s pain.

Trudeau’s popularity has nosedived amid it all.

The push to remove him has taken on some new energy in the last 10 days as Trudeau and many of his senior staff were overseas, first in Paris for the Francophonie, and then Laos for the ASEAN.

Several other Liberals contacted by The Canadian Press Friday say they have not been approached to join the bid to remove Trudeau, and suggested the effort was being kept away from cabinet ministers who are perceived to be solidly behind the prime minister.

The Liberals survived two confidence votes put forward by the Conservatives since Parliament returned in mid-September, but the Bloc has given them until the end of October to meet demands to expand the old age security pension and protect supply management in international trade talks.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has given no ultimatum but wants to see the first phase of pharmacare involving diabetes and birth control gain more solid footing before an election.

The bill got royal assent Thursday but the government has to sign deals with each province and territory to roll it out.

Singh said Friday Trudeau needs to move quickly to make those deals happen.

The House of Commons is on a break week for Thanksgiving until Oct. 21.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

FREDERICTON – Warming temperatures, rising sea levels and coastal erosion are threatening communities up and down New Brunswick, but with just over one week to the provincial election, some voters say the topic of climate change hasn’t been given enough attention during the campaign.

Housing and health care have dominated the headlines, said Donald Wright, a professor of political science at University of New Brunswick. But he said climate change is just as important because it is intertwined with both those issues.

The province can expect increasingly hotter summers, which bring health risks, and flooding, which threatens homes, said Wright, a contributor to Yale Climate Connections at Yale University. New Brunswick has to adapt its infrastructure, emergency response and health-care system to the changing climate, he added.

“It certainly has to adapt its public health care to meet the challenges of extreme weather, extreme heat events.”

But in the recent debate with all three main party leaders on stage, not one question was about climate. “I was stunned by the climate silence,” he said.

In Shippagan-Les-Îles, a riding by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, residents are dealing with coastal erosion, flooding and eroded sand dunes, said Wilfred Roussel, candidate for the Green Party. Locals are so concerned by the changing climate that he decided to come out of retirement to run for office, he said.

Roussel, who was mayor of Le Goulet from 2012 to 2014, said people in the region who live near the water have lost 30 to 45 metres of land; houses that once looked out over the ocean are now in danger of being washed away.

“It’s starting to get very dangerous for people living in those houses,” he said. “Something must be done. And municipalities do not have the budget to do this.”

Andrew Black is mayor of Tantramar, a municipality located close to the Bay of Fundy and the Chignecto Isthmus — a land link connecting New Brunswick with Nova Scotia. The isthmus is particularly vulnerable to climate change, he said, and rising seas will potentially flood the area and destroy homes and infrastructure. The floodwater could salinate arable farmland and make it unusable for generations, he added.

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are fighting with the federal government over who should pay to adapt the isthmus to climate risks.

Coastal erosion is also a major concern, considering that much of Tantramar is located within the United Nations recognized Fundy biosphere, Black said.

“This region is well known for its teaming flora and fauna that is appreciated not only by our community but by many tourists who flock to this area,” he said. “Having our coastline erode would cause not only a climate disaster but also impact our tourism, economic development and biodiversity within our region.”

And despite the real economic, health, and environmental risks of climate change, parties shy away from the topic because they fear alienating voters, Wright said.

“They don’t want to be seen as prophets of the apocalypse,” he said. “They want to keep a positive, upbeat message. But the reality is, our climate is changing in real time, and we have to adapt every sector of our economy, every system of our economy.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs said on Oct. 7 that his climate change plan can be found in his government’s energy strategy, released in December, which aims to make New Brunswick carbon neutral within 12 years. “So I’m not going to invent a new (policy) on the bus,” he said.

Higgs has also promised to sue Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government over the federal carbon pricing scheme. The carbon tax is affecting all New Brunswickers by driving up the cost of living, and it also has “hidden costs” that many do not consider, he said in a recent news release.

Wright called the threat of the lawsuit against the federal government over the carbon price “diversionary and a waste of time.”

The Liberal platform calls for reviewing and updating the province’s emergency preparedness to deal with the increasing number of extreme climate-change-related weather events, and implementing a coastal erosion plan to protect communities.

Last week, Liberal Leader Susan Holt highlighted the need for a coastal erosion plan, and more funds to help New Brunswickers who are losing their shorelines and homes. In her platform, she said, “You see a focus on clean air and clean water, a mass electrification of the government’s fleet, and a goal to get our own grid and production of electricity to 100-per-cent non-emitting.”

The Green Party has promised to create a climate fund to help municipalities pay for adaptation measures; create a new agency to help communities protect their coastlines; and launch a youth corps to train people aged 17-30 in climate action.

“The Greens are the only ones who have made commitments that recognize the extreme urgency to make New Brunswick climate-ready to safeguard homes and save lives,” party leader David Coon said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2024.