NB Broken HealthCare

09/02/2026

THANKS TO YOU — WE ARE GROWING

I want to take a moment today to personally thank everyone who has recently joined us, as well as those of you who have supported us from the very first day.

To all of the new followers of NB Broken HealthCare, thank you for being part of a growing community that continues to push for better healthcare and greater accountability in New Brunswick.

To all of our members who have joined our provincial party, New Brunswick Now, welcome. We are grateful to have you standing with us as we work to build a stronger future for New Brunswick.

I also want to sincerely thank those members who have volunteered to become Riding Associates. Taking the step to put your name behind something new takes commitment, and we are extremely grateful.

Our party is growing.

Our support is growing.

And most importantly, more New Brunswickers are deciding that they want to be part of creating a better future for this province.

Major change does not happen because of one person. It happens because people come together, get involved, speak up and refuse to accept that things can never improve.

Every new follower, every new member, every volunteer and every person who shares our message is helping us move forward.

There is still a great deal of work ahead, but I am more encouraged every day by the people who are stepping forward.

There will be major change in New Brunswick — and it will happen because of each and every one of you.

Thank you for your support, your encouragement and your belief that New Brunswick can do better.

Peter Phillips
President
New Brunswick Now

www.newbrunswicknow.ca

09/01/2026

WEBSITE UPDATE

We have a new website for New Brunswick Now, hosted in Canada. It is more secure, so your data will always be protected.

Please be sure to check it out, and why not sign up for change in New Brunswick while you are there

www.newbrunswicknow.ca

09/01/2026

NURSING HOME STAFFING: SIX MORE MINUTES A DAY IS NOT A SOLUTION

Another serious issue is emerging from New Brunswick’s long-term care system — and once again it raises questions about whether government funding is keeping pace with the actual needs of residents.

New Brunswick nursing homes are currently funded to provide 3.09 hours of direct care per resident each day. That funding determines staffing levels for resident attendants, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses.

The Holt government has committed $2.6 million in the 2026-27 budget to increase direct-care hours.

What does that mean for an individual nursing home resident?

Six additional minutes of care per day.

The problem becomes much clearer when we look at the experience of Peter Oliver, a 62-year-old resident of Kings Way Care Centre in Quispamsis.

Oliver has multiple sclerosis, uses an electric wheelchair and has the use of only one arm. He depends on staff for basic daily activities, including personal care and being transferred into bed with a lift.

According to the current provincial funding model, his nighttime routine is expected to require about eight minutes of staff time.

In reality, it can take approximately 30 minutes.

This isn't a criticism of nursing home employees. Quite the opposite.

Workers are being asked to provide increasingly complex care with staffing levels that simply haven't kept pace with the needs of today's nursing home residents.

The New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes says some residents are even paying privately for additional home-care workers, foot-care services and other assistance because nursing homes don't have enough staff available to provide everything residents need.

The association has proposed a five-year plan that would gradually increase funded direct care from the current 3.09 hours to 4.1 hours per resident per day, bringing New Brunswick closer to Nova Scotia's level.

The proposal was submitted to government in July. According to the association, it has yet to receive a response.

This issue is bigger than six minutes.

New Brunswickers are living longer, and many people entering nursing homes today have significantly more complicated medical and personal-care needs than residents did years ago.

Our funding and staffing model has to recognize that reality.

Building more nursing-home beds is important, but beds alone don't provide care.

People do.

If New Brunswick is going to promise seniors dignity and quality of life in long-term care, we must also make sure there are enough people available to actually provide that care.

Six minutes a day isn't going to solve that problem.

Sign up for change - www.newbrunswicknow.ca

08/31/2026

Horizon Needs to Get the Basics Right First

Providing patients with easier access to faith, spiritual, Indigenous and cultural support can certainly be important, particularly when people are hospitalized and vulnerable. Horizon’s new system allows patients and families to request this support directly, with the program now operating at its five regional hospitals.

But it raises a much larger question about priorities.

Before Horizon Health Network continues launching new programs and initiatives, shouldn’t its first responsibility be ensuring that patients coming through its emergency departments receive timely, dependable medical care?

Interestingly, Horizon itself acknowledges that most hospital admissions come through emergency departments.

New Brunswickers continue to experience long waits in emergency rooms, overcrowding, staffing pressures and difficulty accessing basic healthcare. These are not peripheral issues. They are at the very heart of what our hospital system exists to provide.

There is nothing wrong with improving spiritual and cultural support for patients. For many people, that support can be extremely meaningful during illness, treatment and end-of-life care.

But every healthcare organization has limited people, money and management capacity. Priorities matter.

Horizon should demonstrate that it can consistently deliver its core responsibility — providing timely, safe medical care to patients — before continually expanding into new initiatives.

Take care of the patients waiting in the ER first. Then build from there.

08/30/2026

What Is the Point of a Regulator If It Can't Hold NB Power Accountable?

The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board says it cannot reduce electricity rates to “punish” NB Power for past shortcomings.

That raises a pretty obvious question:

**What is the point of having a regulator if repeated failures ultimately have no meaningful consequences for the utility?**

NB Power customers have seen electricity rates climb approximately **28 per cent over the last four years**. The utility carries roughly **$6 billion in debt**, while Point Lepreau continues to struggle with reliability and costly outages.

Yet when NB Power comes before the regulator asking customers for more money, the argument essentially becomes that the utility must be given enough revenue to cover its prudent costs because failing to do so could create even higher costs or reliability problems later.

There is logic to that argument. We cannot simply starve an essential electricity system of the money required to operate safely.

But there is also a serious accountability problem.

If NB Power overspends, struggles with major projects, accumulates billions in debt or fails to achieve expected performance, **ratepayers ultimately remain responsible for paying the bill.**

The board did challenge some of NB Power's spending. It reduced the requested rate increase from 4.75 per cent to 4.29 per cent and cut millions from the utility's proposed expenses.

But the larger question remains unanswered:

**Where does accountability actually occur?**

A monopoly Crown corporation cannot lose its customers to a competitor. It cannot be allowed to fail. And according to the regulator, today's rates cannot be reduced simply to penalize yesterday's failures.

That leaves New Brunswickers trapped in a system where almost every road eventually leads back to the ratepayer.

New Brunswick needs a regulatory system that does more than determine how much money NB Power requires.

It needs one capable of demanding measurable performance, identifying management failures, establishing consequences and protecting ratepayers from continually paying for decisions they had no part in making.

Otherwise, we have to ask:

**Who is regulating whom?**

08/30/2026

WEBSITE UPDATE

The New Brunswick Now website will be temporarily offline for a few hours today while we move our site to a secure Canadian hosting provider.

This move is part of our ongoing effort to ensure our website and information are hosted on a reliable, secure platform here in Canada.

There is no need for concern — our website has not disappeared. We are simply completing the transfer and expect to be back online shortly.

Our page and other social media channels remain available during the transition.

Thank you for your patience and continued support as we make New Brunswick Now stronger and more secure.

— New Brunswick Now

08/29/2026

New Brunswick Desperately Needs Industry

New Brunswick cannot continue relying on government spending to drive our economy. We desperately need major private-sector investment, good-paying jobs and industries that create long-term economic activity and expand our tax base.

That is why the proposed explosives manufacturing facility near Belledune is worth watching closely. The first phase alone is estimated at $600 million, could require about 500 workers during construction, and employ approximately 250 people once operating. The longer-term vision could grow to a $2-billion industrial footprint employing roughly 1,000 people.

Belledune was reportedly selected because of its port, rail access, available land and the ability to train workers through nearby community colleges. The project still has consultation, environmental assessment and engineering work ahead of it, with construction targeted for mid-2027 if everything proceeds.

If this project becomes reality, the benefits could extend well beyond the plant itself—construction activity, suppliers, transportation, skilled employment and potentially significant additional tax revenue for a province that badly needs new sources of economic growth.

New Brunswick Now believes we need more projects like this. We cannot simply cut our way out of our financial problems. We also have to grow our economy.

www.newbrunswicknow.ca

08/28/2026

New Brunswick's Runaway Debt $$$$

New Brunswick's deficit just grew again — now projected at $1.66 billion, up roughly $270 million in just three months, according to the province's first-quarter fiscal update. Net debt is on track to hit $16.2 billion this year, up sharply from $11.8 billion just two years ago.

Social Development and Health are driving most of the overspending. Social Development is over budget by more than $123 million, largely due to rising demand for income support, child welfare, and disability and seniors' programs — an extra 1,300 households have gone onto social assistance this year, pushing the total past 27,000. Health is over budget by about $108 million, blamed on higher regional health authority operating costs and rising drug program expenses. Nine of the province's departments are over budget in total, with only two — Education and Early Childhood Development, and Opportunities NB — coming in under.

Finance Minister René Legacy says the government won't cut essential services to close the gap, and points to $15.7 million saved so far by eliminating 204 civil service positions, against a goal of 259 this year. But he's offered no concrete plan for reversing the deficit trend, saying only that officials are looking for savings ahead of next year's budget. Opposition Leader Glen Savoie argues New Brunswickers haven't seen results for the spending, and calls the current pace unsustainable.

Notably, the province's own numbers show this isn't being driven by a weakening economy — tax revenues are steady, and wages are up nearly 6% this year. Credit agencies are watching closely: Moody's shifted its outlook on New Brunswick to negative after the March budget, while Morningstar DBRS held the province's rating steady but says it's monitoring for real corrective action.

We need New Brunswick Now more than ever. Let's hope we aren't Bankrupt by the provincial election in 2028!!

https://www.newbrunswicknow.ca/membership

08/27/2026

For more than three decades, New Brunswick has moved back and forth between Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments.

Different leaders. Different elections. Different promises.

Yet many of the same major challenges remain: healthcare access, long-term care, housing, education, affordability, infrastructure, government debt and accountability.

In this presentation, Peter Phillips, Party President of New Brunswick Now, looks back at New Brunswick governments since 1990 and asks a simple question:

After 36 years of opportunity, why are we still dealing with so many of the same problems?

The video also tells the story of how NB Broken HealthCare grew from a small healthcare advocacy effort into a broader movement examining the challenges facing the entire province — and eventually led to the creation of New Brunswick Now.

New Brunswick Now is being built around research, evidence, accountability and practical solutions. The goal is not simply to criticize what has happened in the past, but to look seriously at what New Brunswick can do differently in the future.

A special thank you to the nearly 2,000 people following NB Broken HealthCare, to everyone who has supported our work, and to those who have already become members of New Brunswick Now.

2028 may seem a long way away. It isn't. The work of building something new starts now.

New Brunswick Now
Care can’t wait. And neither can we.

www.newbrunswicknow,ca

For more than three decades, New Brunswick has moved back and forth...

08/26/2026

New Brunswick Now has been reviewing the publicly available Government of New Brunswick inspection information for residential-care facilities across the province.

A word of caution is important before getting into the details.

The province does not simply classify residential-care inspections as “pass” or “fail.” Inspection reports may identify areas of non-compliance, corrective actions, temporary certificates or follow-up requirements. A deficiency does not automatically mean a facility is unsafe, and some issues may have been corrected after the inspection. Our own database guide specifically makes that distinction.

With that understood, the information currently captured in our database identifies **three facilities with matters that still warrant follow-up**:

**Twin Towers Special Care Home — Saint John**

The 2026 inspection information shows a **temporary certificate through November 30, 2026**. The Fire Marshal inspection was listed as not completed. We have this facility flagged for continued follow-up.

**Laura Manor Special Care Home — Saint John**

The 2026 inspection identified administration/personnel compliance concerns. A confidentiality-related matter was subsequently corrected, while a personnel-documentation issue remained under follow-up. The facility was issued a regular certificate through May 31, 2027.

**Smith Special Care Home Ltd. — Moncton**

The 2026 inspection identified personnel-related non-compliance involving direct-care staff training and written performance appraisals. Corrective action was listed as required by February 28, 2027. The facility received a regular certificate.

These are **not allegations made by New Brunswick Now**. They are based on Government of New Brunswick inspection information that was publicly available and captured during our database audit. Our completed residential-care database contains 426 facilities and was extensively reconciled against provincial listings and inspection records.

Inspection information can also change as corrective action is completed or new inspections are published. Anyone considering this information should check the most recent Government of New Brunswick record before drawing conclusions about a particular facility.

The bigger issue for New Brunswick Now is transparency.

New Brunswickers should be able to easily see when a residential-care facility has outstanding compliance issues, what the issue is, what corrective action has been required, and whether that action has been completed.

Families should not have to become investigators to understand the regulatory history of a home caring for someone they love.

We will continue following the publicly available records and updating the information as the province publishes it.

www.newbrunswicknow.ca