The Tantramar region had its second visit from a provincial opposition leader this week when Liberal party leader Susan Holt visited Sackville on Thursday to meet with Tantramar council, tour the Drew Nursing Home, and talk to health care workers. Earlier in the week, Green leader David Coon hosted a town hall event at the Sackville Commons.
Like Coon, Holt’s tour of the province is focussed on health care, which she says will be the key issue in this year’s election, on or before October 21. “Accessing healthcare is the number one issue we hear from New Brunswickers everywhere,” says Holt. “They either don’t have a doctor, a clinic or a primary care home, or they don’t have confidence that if they went to the ER, they would be able to get served.”
CHMA caught up with the Liberal leader after she met with Tantramar council Thursday morning.
“The purpose of the tour is actually to take the pulse on our healthcare system, face to face with people who work in health care,” says Holt. “And because I’m here doing that, I always like to take the opportunity to connect with mayors and councils to really understand what’s going on, on the ground.”
Councillors shared a number of concerns with Holt, including access to primary care and emergency services at the Sackville hospital, concerns over freshwater flooding and the risk of tidal flooding of the Chigecto Isthmus, open access to information, and the state of rural roads. Holt asked the municipal leaders about their housing strategy, and CAO Jennifer Borne told her the town was in need of a needs assessment on housing and shelter. Mayor Andrew Black made a plea for the provincial government to tackle the way municipalities are funded, and the concern that as responsibilities in Regional Service Commissions grow, that municipalities are not left with the bill.
Holt told CHMA she got the message that “the relationship with the provincial government isn’t as strong or as smooth as it could be, because [the province seems] to think municipalities are okay, and it was pretty clear that they’re not okay. They don’t have the means to serve their residents the way they really want to.”
