Memramcook Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says she’s not sure if Premier Blaine Higgs will call an election this week, and says it’s a “challenging situation”, especially in the Tantramar region where there’s been six elections since 2018.
If Higgs does call an early election this week, residents of Tantramar will be voting in a new riding, after the New Brunswick electoral commission changed boundaries to split Memramcook-Tantramar, returning Memramcook to a Dieppe riding, and leaving Tantramar on its own, as the smallest riding by population in the province. Mitton says she will be running in Tantramar, a perhaps unsurprising decision considering Sackville is her hometown, and where she first took on political office as town councillor.
Last month, Mitton and her Green Party colleague Kevin Arsenault were named deputy leaders of the party. Mitton says she’s honoured to have the title, which means the potential for a “bigger leadership role within the party,” something that might come in handy in an election. “The plan is for me to be able to support other Greens to be able to head to Fredericton,” says Mitton.
Green leader David Coon also told reporters recently that in case of no clear majority after the next election, the New Brunswick Greens would not consider supporting a Higgs government, but would consider doing so with the Liberals under Susan Holt. “The key thing is that we could never support Blaine Higgs’ PCs,” says Mitton. “We’ve seen what Blaine Higgs’ vision is for New Brunswick and we can’t support that… What we want to do is work for some key issues and work to address the crises that New Brunswickers are facing… the cost of living, our health care system, housing, not to mention the climate,” says Mitton.
If there’s no early election call this week, the legislature will return on October 17. In the meantime, MLAs have been in committee hearings, most recently the standing committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship that Mitton sits on. “We’ve been hearing from experts who have done modelling about how New Brunswick could get to Net Zero, meet our climate emissions targets,” says Mitton. “They’re saying we can do this, we just need to invest in things like wind, which is the least expensive option.” Mitton also cites efficiency as a major area in need of investment. “The CEO of NB Power said not long ago that they need $150 million to clear the waitlist for people who are waiting for heat pumps and insulation,” says Mitton. ”That is a very clear concrete thing we could do that would help people with their pocketbooks, help reduce their energy cost, and help us meet our targets.”
Heat pumps and insulation are not the only things Mitton thinks the government should be investing in, especially in light of the recent news of a $1 billion surplus in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. “To have a $1 billion surplus means that you’re not very good at budgeting,” says Mitton. “If you’re sitting on a billion dollars while the healthcare system and the roads are crumbling, and while people can’t afford housing and groceries, then you’re doing it wrong.”
Upcoming meetings on housing and health care
Mitton is hosting two community meetings next week in Sackville.
The first is a Housing NB tenant information session in collaboration with the Mount Allison Students’ Union. The meeting takes place in the Avard Dixon building at 7pm on October 10, and is open to anyone.
Then on October 12, Mitton is hosting another community health care meeting featuring members of the Horizon Health Network. This time the meeting takes place on the Mount Allison campus in the Crabtree Auditorium next to the Ralph Pickerd Bell Library.