N.B. politicians pepper province with campaign promises heading into long weekend

The back and forth between the two front-runners in the New Brunswick election remains in the forefront on the ninth day on the campaign trial.

During an announcement Friday morning in Hanwell, Progressive Conservative leader Blaine Higgs had some choice words for the Gallant Liberals,

“Mr. Gallant is getting close to becoming the $2-billion dollar man. With reckless campaign promises he’ll keep spending your money as long as he thinks he can get away with it and who gets the payoff at the end of the day? Brian Gallant and his friends,” said Higgs, while standing outside the building site of a new community centre.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Mr. Gallant is getting close to becoming the $2-billion dollar man. With reckless campaign promises he'll keep spending your money as long as he thinks he can get away with it and who gets the payoff at the end of the day? Brian Gallant and his friends," said Higgs, while standing outside the building site of a new community centre.

Higgs told supporters that a PC government will overhaul the local governance act, conduct an audit of all regulations and remove for-profit restrictions on city-owned utilities, adding that the Liberal government has starved cities of the things they need to propel the province towards prosperity.

“We’ve heard from mayors and councillors from communities of all sizes who say they shouldn’t have to ask the province for permission to even make small decisions that make sense for their residents,” said Higgs.

In Moncton, Gallant seemed surprised that the Tories would make such a promise, as he defended his government’s work over the last four years.

“I don’t know where Blaine Higgs was over the last four years. If he was paying attention, he would have saw we did the modernization of the municipalities act and the community planning act,” said Gallant.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I don't know where Blaine Higgs was over the last four years. If he was paying attention, he would have saw we did the modernization of the municipalities act and the community planning act," said Gallant.

READ MORE: All our New Brunswick election 2018 coverage

While campaigning in Moncton, Gallant says a re-elected Liberal government would partner with the New Brunswick Medical Society to recruit new doctors and develop better recruitment incentives. Currently, programs and budgets to recruit doctors are managed by the regional health authorities and the Department of Health.

“We have listened to the New Brunswick Medical Society and working with them we will aggressively work to hire and recruit more doctors to our province,” said Gallant.

In Saint John, NDP leader Jennifer McKenzie introduced what she calls a “bold plan to fight climate change,” which includes a Carbon Reduction Fund to help the province transition to green energy. If elected, McKenzie says her party would introduce a Carbon Reduction Fund of $30 per ton of carbon reduction that would reach $50 per ton after four years.

WATCH: New Brunswick municipalities lay out what they want from provincial election

2:00 New Brunswick municipalities lay out what they want from provincial election

“We’re not in favour of going backwards in time. We want to move this province forward in time to a green economy to a progressive society,” said McKenzie.

The Green Party also made a pledge of their own today, vowing to replace social assistance rates with what they refer to as a basic income guarantee. They cited statistics that suggest 100,000 New Brunswickers live below the poverty line.

Under the Green’s poverty plan, the minimum wage would be increased to $15.25 per hour and then indexed to inflation. As well, social assistance rates would be increased by 13 per cent for single people and five per cent for other recipients.

The provincial election is set for September 24th.