I'm willing to put in research, but I expect the party to meet me half-way. Give me a starting point, at least. If you don't give me any context for a campaign promise, if you don't explain how what you're talking about is a problem for New Brunswick and what you're proposing will be a solution, then I'm not going to bother giving you any credit for it. Likewise, I'm not going to bother with any empty platitudes, of which a party's platform during an election will be full. Saying something like how you're planning to "Develop and implement other initiatives aimed at improving the wellness of New Brunswickers and the prevention of chronic diseases" without saying what those initiatives are will result in me ignoring your platitude at best, or outright mockery in some cases.
Most of the parties` platforms are much too large to deal with in a single blog post, so when I talk about their promises and policies, I`ll try to focus on those issues the documents themselves spend most of their time focusing on. I`ll also try to provide the good along with the bad, in an effort to be as objective as possible.
So, with that in mind...
The Liberals:
Website: http://www.nbliberal.ca/en/home/
Platform: http://www.nbliberal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/FINAL-ENGLISH.pdf
The Liberal party of New Brunswick (or, more officially, the New Brunswick Liberal Association) is headed by Shawn Graham. The organization has official ties with the Federal Liberals.
They come into this election still reeling from the NB Power scandal, in which they attempted to sell the crown corporation to Quebec through a back-room deal. This resulted in a huge public backlash, but in the end the deal only failed because Quebec backed out of it - had they backed down in the face of the public outcry, I suspect they`d be doing better this election.
Their platform document is annoyingly vague at times. Lots of empty platitudes, very little substance for the most part. They`re quick to laud their accomplishments - such as claiming to have created 12,000 new jobs - without mentioning any context (those 12,000 new jobs don`t include the jobs that we`ve lost periodically since 2006, such as the 4,400 jobs the province lost in June.) Similarly, they claim the unemployment rate dropped below the national average... which is true. What they don`t mention is that this was a temporary drop, and now the rate is once again above the national average (9.6% compared to Canada`s 8.1%, a rise of 0.6% since last month.)
There are also platitudes of greater transparency which, so soon after the NB Power scandal, come across as almost farcical.
Still, there is some meat to be found here, so let`s get to it.
The Economy:
The Liberals are promising 20,000 new jobs for the province, 5,000 of which will be high-salaried (defined as 70K+). They`re very vague on how they`ll do this, save for an ICT bursary program:
In the coming four years, our job creation priority will have a major focus on emerging economic sectors such as Informations and Communications Technology (ICT), aerospace, biosciences, and growing resource sectors like mining, natural gas, and modular construction. In addition, we will continue to advance New Brunswick`s role as a northeastern Energy Hub.
Again in light of the attempted sale of NB Power, that last bit is especially interesting. Had the sale gone through, they obviously would have been in a poor position to make good on this promise.
This section of their platform includes plenty of promises to "cooperate with private industry," which is basically politico-speak for corporate tax cuts. In fact, the tax cuts the Liberals are planning despite the massive deficit we face will cost us $293 million dollars by 2012. You won't find this in their PDF, though. In fact, they're completely silent on how they intend to pay for anything they promise, which is a point I'll be mentioning again before this post is completed.
Beyond that, it's a lot of vague stuff like "develop a strategic approach to maximizing the economic potential for the province in the mining industry," where they don't bother telling us what strategic approach that will be nor how they know it will work. One is left with the strong impression they really have no clue how to accomplish the things they want to accomplish.
An exception would be development of Northern New Brunswick, where they give some concrete numbers: $90 million for job creation and infrastructure development, which they project will create 2,700 new jobs. Another point where they provide details is a plan to twin Route 11 from Moncton to Miramichi, as well as upgrade Routes 8, 11, and 17, which they hope will stimulate business (they're right, it will.) Of course, their plan depends on aid from the Federal government, which in light of the Feds' reluctance to help out with the Harbour Bridge in Saint John (part of the Trans-Canada highway), is a little iffy to say the least.
They also want to put on offer a lighting retrofit program to help reduce energy costs to businesses, which seems minor (and it is) but I've read far worse ideas in the past 24 hours as I've read through the various parties' platforms.
The Forestry Sector:
Their big plan here is a vague promise to "grow the forest industry," despite experts warning that the good times may be over and the province's priorities regarding the industry may have to shift. But then, this wouldn't be the first time the provincial government (whether this one or its predecessors) ignored both experts and public sentiment in favour of short-term gains.
Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), they're once again light on the details of how they'll make this growth happen. There's a promise to use wood construction technology, and thereby New Brunswick lumber, in the construction of government buildings - a point they have in common with the PC party - and a $6 million allocation of funds to maintain the province's private woodlot silviculture budget, but it's anyone's guess by how much this will actually grow the industry... I rather suspect the answer is "not at all."
But then, maybe I'm just saying that because I'm feeling cynical right now. You can hardly blame me, though, I just spent several hours reading and analyzing the Liberals' platform.
*ba-dum-chish*
The Agriculture Sector:
Their primary initiative here is to launch a "New Brunswick version of The 100 Mile Challenge." Basically, an "eat local" PR campaign. I'm unsure how successful this would be, nor how one targeted specifically to NB would be more effective than the 100 Mile Challenge has been in general already, but I'm willing to admit this is a decent enough idea that certainly can't hurt.
They also include a concrete idea related to aiding Agriculture, in which they promise to enhance the New Entrant Program to "ensure that young and new farmers have an opportunity to succeed" by "increasing the loan cap for new farmers and providing assistance to, and decreasing the interest on loans for, new farms for their first five years." See, this is the sort of policy I can sink my teeth into. I can immediately see how it could improve things, and it doesn't just stay in the vague platitude territory of "Do something to make things better."
Their section on agriculture also included a promise to "[strengthen] the consultation process between industry and government." Translation: Elect us, and then we'll actually consult you about something, for reals! Given that they don't explain how they'll do this strengthening, I feel safe in dismissing this particular promise with a mocking wave of my hand.
Tourism:
Here, they promise to complete the Fundy Trail, and work to complete the Trans-Canada Trail network by 2017. They also want to designate Mount Carleton as a National Park. So far, so good - concrete promises that people can understand mean something.
Unfortunately, they finish off the section with the meaningless promise to "[promote] aggressive use of new technology (such as social media) in tourism marketing." Other than possibly "we'll have a Facebook group for tourism," I have no idea what this actually means. I suspect neither does the Liberal party.
Child Care:
This is probably the best part of their platform, by which I mean it's the section that offers the most details and is clearly the most well-thought-out. The Liberal plan for improving child care in the province is as follows:
-Increase the subsidy rates for infants and preschool children by $3/day in 2012-13.
-Ensure that by 2014, 50 percent of workers in child care centres have at least a one-year Early Childhood Education Certificate or equivalent and that directors have an Early Childhood Education Diploma or equivalent.
-Expand the eligibility criteria for assistance from $41,000 net family income to $55,000 by 2014 so more families can benefit from assistance.
-Raise the rates for CHild Care Subsidy for social assistance recipients in upgrading or training programs from $2 per hour for one child and $2.50 per hour for two or more children, to $3 and 5$ respectively.
Given that child care was one of the big issues the province was discussing before the NB Power thing exploded, I actually find myself quite impressed. I don't think they go far enough, mind, but it's still impressive to see so much detail when most of their platform is so vague...
Immigration:
Currently, New Brunswick's immigrant retention rate stands at 60 percent. The Liberals promise to increase this to 80 percent, and grow NB's population by 12,000 by 2014. How do they intend to do this? I don't know. They might, but if so they're not really telling.
They do explain that they wish to improve credential recognition and assessment for professional immigrants, though. This is a wonderful idea, and something that should have been done a long time ago. We have immigrants in this province who have been trained as doctors in their home countries, but are not allowed to start a practice here because our province (and country) doesn't recognize their credentials. That this goes on during a provincial doctor shortage so severe that we're looking at getting more nurse practitioners up and running is... well, stupid is the only word for it.
They also promise to press the Federal government for a faster immigration process. Doing this is important, and a good idea, because our immigration system is fairly punitive. Of course, Harper will never budge on this given how much his office hates immigrants of nearly all stripes, but the sentiment is nice to see even if it won't go anywhere.
The Energy Sector:
The Liberals actually straight-facedly claim the following among their accomplishments in the Energy Sector:
Over the past four years, the Liberal Government has worked with communities and companies to help establish New Brunswick as an Energy Hub for Northeastern North America.
...yeah.
Still, credit where it's due. They did help make Canada's only Liquefied Natural Gas terminal, a new natural gas pipeline, and 300 MW of new wind power. So their record here isn't entirely negative, though the shadow of the attempted NB Power sale is long in this category.
Still, it's worth mentioning that they want to return NB Power to a single corporation, undoing the PC's breaking it up into four different companies (in preparation for privatization). This, they estimate, will save $80 million annually. This is an eminently good idea, so I hope no matter who forms our next Provincial government, this is implemented.
The Environment:
To listen to the Liberals, New Brunswick is some kind of trend-setter in this area. The truth is that New Brunswick is currently last place in Canada in terms of effective recycling programs.
Still, they want to restore the Petitcodiac Riber, and build a bridge to replace causeway. They also plan to "work with the forest industry to develop wood construction techniques and products to satisfy a new and growing demand," which strikes me as the opposite of an environmental protection plan. Why they listed it in the environment section is beyond me, but they did.
Healthcare:
Always a big issue for Canadians, and it grows more important with New Brunswickers with each passing year. Health and Senior Care combined has doubled in cost to the province over the past decade, and accounts for close to 40% of our province's budget. This number is likely to continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
They promise no cuts to Healthcare. Given that they're stupidly continuing with tax cuts at the same time, I fail to see how they'll accomplish this - even balooning our deficit isn't much of a solution, since the province's loan eligibility status was downgraded recently, meaning we can't borrow as much to prop ourselves up as we once could. Still, that's what the Liberals have promised.
They also promise universal access to a prescription drug program for all New Brunswickers - a wonderful idea that's been implemented successfully in many other provinces and nations to great effect. There are many such models to use, but I have no idea which one the Liberals want to follow because they don't say. Shame, they could have earned a lot of points from me on this point if they'd just come across as having a concrete idea of what they wanted to do.
They also want to "implement an Electronic Medical Record for use by primary care providers." Translation: We'll fix healthcare with these here new-fangled computers! Why, did you know they even have internets on computers now? Why this is a campaign promise rather than just something that was done ten years ago is beyond me.
Anyway, their section on health care isn't completely without detail, they do give some concrete numbers: Hire an additional 55 doctors over two years, 30 of which will be family physicians, double the number of nurse practitioners to 110 province-wide, double the number of clinics, and establish an air ambulance for northern NB. Again, no idea how they'll pay for any of this, since they're going forward with their corporate tax cuts.
Other Stuff:
They promise to freeze cabinet minister and MLA salaries, which is pretty farcical in light of the recent pay hike they gave themselves.
The Liberals also promise to limit expenditure growth to less than one percent annually. This is an arbitrary limit, and I really don't see how it will help things. What if we need more than one percent in order to capitalize on an opportunity some year? To keep up with inflation? Why is "one percent" some magic number ratio? I dunno, they don't really explain... I guess I'm supposed to be impressed by this promise of contextless "fiscal responsibility."
For education, they want to double the school supplement to families with school-age children who receive social assistance from $50 to $100 per child, and provide a literacy mentor to every student in grades one and two who is struggling to read. The rest are empty platitudes, and overall they give me the feeling the Liberals are proud of their track record on education, despite (or maybe because of) killing early French immersion. There's talk about "21st century school models" and "Entrepreneurial school models" but little information on what these actually are.
They also promise to complete pay equity adjustments for home care and child care workers by 2015. There's no mention why they're not working toward pay equity for workers in other fields, though...
And that's about it. Overall, I'd have to rate the Liberals' platform very poorly. So much meaningless fluff, plus they have their not-so-great track record casting a pall over the promises they're making (plenty of their previous campaign promises they didn't even try to make a reality.) Still, there's some good stuff here, so if they're elected again I won't exactly be lamenting the end of the province.
Tomorrow, I tackle the Progressive Conservatives.
No comments:
Post a Comment