Bilingualism
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- Make second-language training available free of charge to all adult New Brunswickers (8)
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- Introduce a program that would make conversational skills in a second language a universal expectation of New Brunswick graduates (1)
- PC Party Leader Blaine Higgs is the only party leader unable to speak French fluently but he has stated that he is taking lessons to improve (1)
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- Invest $3 million annually to develop programs to support bilingualism in cooperation with community colleges (9)
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- Increase bilingual exposure in childcare centres (15)
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Childcare and Families
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- Add 3,000 new childcare spaces (8)
- Provide free childcare for lower-income parents (8)
- Expand childcare subsidy programs across the province by March 2019 to ensure no more than 15% of family income goes to childcare (8)
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- Pledge to introduce a Family Advocacy pilot program to provide funding for up to four family advocates in under-served regions of the province (1)
- Make it easier for preschools to become early childhood learning centres and place them in elementary schools (15)
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- Introduce before- and after-school care from 6 AM to 6 PM in every school across the province where parental demand exists, creating an estimated 20,000 childcare spaces and 4,000 preschool spaces. The care will be available for children between the ages of 3 to 12 and will cost $10 per child (10)
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Cannabis
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- Create a “best-in-class” hub of infrastructure and research clusters to attract new investment to New Brunswick in the cannabis industry (11)
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- Promise to dedicate resources from cannabis profits to the research on health, safety, and social impacts of cannabis, and take measures to reduce those effects (1)
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Economy and Employment
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- Increase minimum wage to $14 over four years (8, 15)
- Legislate pay equity for local governments, universities, nursing homes, and other public sector employers by 2020 (8, 15)
- Freeze New Brunswick Power rates for four years (15)
- Permanently double its investment in the Youth Employment Fund, the experiential learning program that it created in 2015 (8, 12)
- Create a new cabinet minister responsible for small business (8)
- Launch, in partnership with credit unions, a small-business loan program for entrepreneurs who are having difficulty accessing capital (8)
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- Reduce the provincial deficit by $125 million each year, and balance the budget by its second year (1)
- Introduce a new jobs tax credit for all New Brunswick businesses (1)
- Supports all efforts to reduce and eliminate trade barriers between Canadian provinces (1)
- Provincial regulations and government contracts are made based on a “New Brunswick first” philosophy (1)
- Pledges not to grow the government until the province is back in surplus, but promises to not fire any public servants for cost-saving reasons (1)
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- Raise the minimum wage to $15.25 over four years, and index it to average inflation and wage growth (15)
- Legislate pay equity in the public and private sectors (15)
- Institute a public inquiry to assess the province’s financial and ecological deficits, and create a strategy to reduce both forms of debt (9)
- Create a new department to promote rural economic development (14)
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- Raise the minimum wage to $15 over four years (15)
- Legislate pay equity between men and women in public and private sectors (14, 15)
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Education
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- Reintroduce trades to the New Brunswick school system (8)
- Increase spending on literacy programs by 25% (currently $7 million annually for 2017-2018) (14)
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- Introduce the Teacher Freedom Act within one year, which will give local schools increased ability to choose local materials and curriculum plans (1)
- Reintroduce provincial testing and mandate the student test results be displayed on school and department websites (1)
- Establish a Red Tape Reduction Commission staffed by teachers to eliminate regulations and directives that affect teachers (1)
- Scrap the school nutrition policy (Policy 711) introduced by the former Liberal government (1)
- Launch a program to improve early childhood literacy (1)
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- Restore the system of decentralized school districts, giving them more autonomy on resource allocations and policy implementation (9)
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Environment & Parks
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- Continue to implement the climate change plan adopted in 2016. This plan includes initiatives such as the Climate Change Act; investments in energy efficiency in hospitals, schools, and homes; the development of plans to phase out coal in New Brunswick; a made-in-New Brunswick price on carbon; the establishment of the Climate Change Fund; climate change adaptation planning; and investments in new technologies, such as smart grid and renewable electricity (8)
- Create two new provincial parks and increase protected natural and conservation areas (8)
- Ban the use of disposable plastic shopping bags in retail stores (8)
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- Fight against the federal government’s carbon tax. If one is levied, refund the money to taxpayers in the form of tax relief (1, 15)
- Continue to meet the 2017 Climate Change Act targets (1)
- Introduce a management strategy for the wild turkey population (1)
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- Legislate a cap on industrial carbon pollution (9)
- Phase out single-use plastic consumer products with exemptions for those with special needs (9)
- Enact an Environmental Bill of Rights guaranteeing individuals: (a) the right to information about pollution threats; (b) the right to petition for investigations into environmental threats; (c) access to the justice system to prevent environmental harm; and (d) create a new environmental legislative officer (9)
- Provide $110 million over four years to provide homes and businesses with energy efficiency improvements and means of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources (9)
- Require that renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro) provide 50% of New Brunswick’s electricity needs by 2025, 75% by 2035, and 100% by 2050 (9)
- Meet the national goal of protecting 17% of Canada’s landscape by tripling the area of protected habitat from the present 4.7% (9)
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First Nations
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- Will govern in accordance with the Peace and Friendship Treaties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (9)
- Fully implement the calls to action of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (9)
- Secure federal funding for indigenous language and teacher training and immersion programs for indigenous children (9)
- Fully implement Jordan’s Principle to ensure that indigenous children receive necessary public services, regardless of jurisdictional issues (9)
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Healthcare
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- Invest $100 million per year for four years on equipment purchases and upgrades to hospitals, including new intensive care, maternity ward, oncology, and gynaecology units (8)
- Invest an additional $50 million over 10 years to modernize the infrastructure and technology of New Brunswick’s rural hospitals (8)
- Establish five Non-Urgent Care Centres as alternatives to emergency room care to reduce wait times in Saint John Area, Greater Moncton, Capital Region, and two in northern New Brunswick (8)
- Increase the number of training spots in medical training programs in Moncton and Saint John (8)
- Hire 90 new doctors, 50 nurse practitioners, 40 nurses, 80 licensed practical nurses, and 80 resident attendants for nursing homes (8)
- Will build three new 60-bed nursing homes and add 86 memory care beds across Saint John/Kings/Charlotte, the Southeast, the Fredericton-River Valley, and Greater Miramichi (8)
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- Expand the physician assistant program to reduce emergency room wait times at large hospitals (1)
- Expand programs like Family Medicine New Brunswick (1)
- Remove caps on Medicare billing numbers so as to increase the number of doctors who can practice in the province (1)
- Increase the training and retention of nurses in provincial educational institutions and provide more opportunities for nurse practitioners (1)
- Establish the Provincial Advisory Council on Women’s Health, with an initial endowment of $5 million to fund research projects on women’s health issues (1)
- Review the Medavie contract within six months and cancel it if it is not delivering better care (1)
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- Make the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health an independent arm of the Department of Health and restore staff and resources (9)
- Remove caps on Medicare billing numbers so as to increase the number of doctors who can practice in the province (9)
- Establish a 20 cent/litre tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and direct the revenue to healthy school food and child wellness programs (9)
- Phase out the release of cancer-causing pollutants by industries (9)
- Increase proportion of the Department of Health’s budget that provides mental health and addiction services to 9% (9)
- Cancel the Medavie contract (9)
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Housing & Services
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- Empower municipalities to expropriate, renovate, or demolish rental properties if they fail to meet mandatory provincial standards (1)
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- Implement Housing First strategies in Fredericton, Moncton, and Saint John (9)
- Enable homeowners on fixed incomes (such as pensions) to de-link their property assessments from the real estate market, instead basing them on improvements made to the house or its value at sale (9)
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Infrastructure & Transport
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- Dedicate 1% of all infrastructure spending on arts and culture projects (8)
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- Eliminate the front license plate of cars, and require vehicles to be registered every two years instead of every year (1, 14)
- Evaluate taxes paid on vehicles to reflect the actual purchase price of a vehicle instead of its book value (1, 14)
- Eliminate the surcharge on license plates for volunteer firefighters and other volunteer first responders (1)
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- Establish border tolls on four-lane highways (5, 9)
- Subsidize existing municipal transit systems (9)
- Direct the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to develop public transportation systems within and between regions not served by commercial services (9)
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Natural Resources & Agriculture
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- Modernize the province’s Crown Lands and Forestry Act, which governs the forestry industry, numerous agricultural sectors, biodiversity, and water protection (1)
- Conduct a study on the health implications for humans and wildlife exposed to glyphosate (1)
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- Increase royalty rates for all renewable and non-renewable resources in the province (9)
- Establish a New Brunswick heritage fund where all non-renewable royalties will be deposited, with the government transferring only 5% yearly to general revenues (9)
- Immediately cancel all 25-year contracts with forestry companies signed since 2014 (9)
- Amend the Crown Lands and Forests Act to replace forestry corporations with a publicly accountable Forest Stewardship Commission as manager of the public forest (9)
- End the spraying of herbicides (glyphosate) on forest lands and under power lines (9)
- Increase the proportion of the forest that is managed for conservation purposes from the current 22% to 32% (9)
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Politics & Democracy
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- Will lead regular live online conversations with taxpayers to allow them to ask questions and hold government accountable (1)
- Expand the role of the Ethics Commissioner and toughen conflict-of-interest rules (1)
- Increase the funding of the Auditor General’s office by $250,000 per year for four years (1)
- Reinstate the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Act to ensure the government reports spending in a timely and accurate fashion (1)
- Amend the Local Governance Act to give municipalities greater powers over taxation and property assessment (1)
- Establish working hours for the legislature that are predictable and friendly to legislators with family (1)
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- Reduce voting age to 16 (15)
- Increase the Auditor General’s budget over three years (9)
- Legislate a 40% cap on the concentration of print media ownership (9)
- Prohibit cross-ownership of media and non-media businesses (9)
- Replace the current system of local service districts with local elected governments (9)
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Post-Secondary Education
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- Expand the Free Tuition Program and the Tuition Relief for the Middle Class program by increasing the threshold for receiving the benefit to $70,000 from $60,000 (8)
- Eliminate interest on all current and future provincial student loans, effective on January 1, 2019 (8)
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- Increase the number of accredited internship positions for post-graduate psychologists within the province from two to ten (1)
- Promises that any private colleges and universities will be included in any incentive program introduced by the government (1)
- Consider restoring tuition and education tax credits (1)
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- Reduce to cap for the Timely Completion Benefit Program to $20,000 and extend eligibility period to account for special circumstances (9)
- Eliminate interest on student loans (9)
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- Eliminate interest on student loans (15)
- Eliminate tuition fees at community colleges (15)
- Reduce undergraduate tuition for all publicly funded universities by 25% (15)
- Expand eligibility for tuition-access bursaries (15)
- Allow graduate students to access tuition relief program and introduce new graduate student scholarships (15)
- Create new mental health services and harassment and sexual assault prevention policies on campuses (15)
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Sociocultural & Welfare
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- Expand the Women’s Equality Branch into the Department of Women’s Equality, with more staff and its own budget (8)
- Impose pay equity on local governments and organizations in the “quasi-public” sector by 2020, and to large businesses in the private sector by 2022 (8)
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- Increase access to training, addiction treatment, and treatment for physical or mental health obstacles for those working but still below the poverty line (1)
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- Introduce a Basic Income Guarantee pilot program in three regions for three years (9)
- Increase social assistance rates for individuals by 13% for single people and 5% for other recipients, and index rates to inflation (9)
- Eliminate income assistance criteria and the prohibition on sharing accommodation, and reduce criteria used to determine disability (9)
- Raise funding for community organizations and social enterprises that provide direct support to those living in poverty (9)
- Increase the scope and budget of legal aid services to a level comparable to Nova Scotia (9)
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- Expand programs for police officers and judges to learn about the realities of sexual assault (14)
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Taxes
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- Pledges to introduce no new taxes (1, 15)
- Introduce a new children’s fitness and arts tax credit to allow families to claim fees paid to register their children in artistic, cultural, recreational, or developmental activities (1)
- Reduce the double taxation on non-owner–occupied properties by 50% over 4 years (1, 12)
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- Remove the industrial property tax exemption for crude oil storage tanks, and add industrial machinery and equipment as taxable property (9)
- Harmonize corporate income tax rates with Nova Scotia and PEI (9)
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Technology & Innovation
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- Increase broadband internet download speed in rural New Brunswick to 100 mbps (8)
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- Invest in start-ups and university programs that prioritize research into alternative uses of fisheries’ waste and by-products (1)
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