FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant used an annual televised address Wednesday night to stress the need for tough decisions to fix the province’s fiscal problems.
“You talk to your friends at the Tim Hortons, at the hockey arenas, at work and you realize that we face challenges. More importantly, you feel it.”
To a sold-out crowd of almost 1,000, Gallant said high unemployment, the deficit and a stagnant economy have been talked about for too long and it’s time to resolve those issues.
But the 32-year-old also spoke of goals he has for getting more women in positions of influence throughout the province, reducing poverty and reversing illiteracy.
Gallant said many of these issues start with better health care.
“We need to get people out of our hospitals. Not only because it’s going to help us save money. It’s going to actually improve the quality of health care New Brunswickers are getting,” he said.
He said he’s working on an “Innovation Week” in the spring. The week would open the door for New Brunswickers to pitch their ideas to government.
“Let’s get away from the thinking that government creates jobs. We don’t create jobs. We need to create the conditions.”
Opposition leader Bruce Fitch said while Gallant’s delivery of the speech was very good, it lacked in the details.
“We were looking for some details on the 5,000 job pledge that he made during the election. We’ve called them on that. So they’ve changed their priority to cuts,” Fitch said.
With files from the Canadian Press
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