What Higgs can do besides peddling privatization of health care

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said he isn’t ruling out more private sector health care as an option for the province.

New Brunswick health care is suffering due to lack of resources, both in terms of those working in the system and financially. While improvements can be made and are sorely needed, privatization is not the answer.

The following is a list of things the Premier should be doing rather than advocating for profits over people:

• What works in other public models: If you want to improve the current model, there are numerous examples across the world of well-run public health care systems. Look at those programs and see what lessons can be learned before jumping to incorporating privatization.
• Deal with the actual problem: We do not have enough staff working in hospitals. This is not up for debate. Bringing in more private sector involvement will not help. If anything, the private sector will take professionals out of the public system, exacerbating the problem.
• Stop listening to Doug Ford: The Maritime premiers press conference with the Premier of Ontario was never about finding solutions for healthcare, it was about promoting privatization. The last time Higgs listened to Ford, we missed out on federal transit money because Ford told Higgs it was for subways. It was not. New Brunswickers lost out because our Premier didn’t look into it and just took Doug’s advice.
• Take steps to help the system: During the pandemic, we went from doing everything we could to protect the health care system to abandoning all protections. The resulting strain from tossing off all protections has been disastrous. Perhaps the Premier should look to put in place some protections to try and ease the burden on the system before trying to sell it to the highest bidder.

We need to strengthen the public system, not continue to hollow it out.

Susie Proulx-Daigle is the president of the New Brunswick Union. Among the members of the New Brunswick Union are health care workers.