Submitted by: Sherry Wilson
Hello, my name is Sherry Wilson – PC Candidate for Albert-Riverview. I have been elected as a provincial MLA several times, and have held various Cabinet positions over the last several years. It is now my greatest pleasure to be asking for your vote to become the first MLA for the new riding of Albert-Riverview.
I have met many of the great residents of this riding already, and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible before election day in October. In the interest of being respectful to your time, I’d like to briefly outline some of the things we are pursuing to make your life better.
Hello, my name is Sherry Wilson – PC Candidate for Albert-Riverview. I have been elected as a provincial MLA several times, and have held various Cabinet positions over the last several years. It is now my greatest pleasure to be asking for your vote to become the first MLA for the new riding of Albert-Riverview.
I have met many of the great residents of this riding already, and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible before election day in October. In the interest of being respectful to your time, I’d like to briefly outline some of the things we are pursuing to make your life better.
Image of Sherry Wilson provided by the Candidate Economy and Affordability
When the PC government took office in 2018, the province’s debt was $14.3 billion. With careful management, we have been able to pay that down to $11.8 billion. That has resulted in a savings in interest payments of $100 million dollars every year!
That savings has been reinvested in building things like new schools in our province. With all of our recent immigration, our schools are often overcrowded as soon as they have been completed. Now, due to good financial management, we are able to build six new schools each year, instead of only four!
When the PC government took office in 2018, the province’s debt was $14.3 billion. With careful management, we have been able to pay that down to $11.8 billion. That has resulted in a savings in interest payments of $100 million dollars every year!
That savings has been reinvested in building things like new schools in our province. With all of our recent immigration, our schools are often overcrowded as soon as they have been completed. Now, due to good financial management, we are able to build six new schools each year, instead of only four!
Tax Relief
You might be amazed to learn that, while paying down the debt, your PC government has reduced taxes that New Brunswickers pay by over $370 million!
Highlights of these tax breaks include: $81 million in gas tax; $121 million in property tax and $28 million in personal income tax. We also made adjustments to the tax brackets, that save New Brunswickers another $110 million.
We are not done yet! We have already committed that, if re-elected, we would reduce the HST from 15%, to just 13%. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has estimated that this would save the average family over $1000 per year!
I know it still feels like you’re paying a lot for everything, but we are working to allow you to keep more of your hard-earned pay – while also combatting inflation, which makes everything so expensive.
Healthcare
Healthcare is such an important issue because things are often critical when we find ourselves in need of it. Your PC government heard your concerns, and we have been working to institute accountability and collaboration within our two Healthcare Authorities (Vitalité and Horizon).
Following recommendations of the independent NB HealthCare Council, your PC government created a framework to measure progress. Recently, we issued the “Provincial Health Plan Mid-term Update” which reported that twenty-six of the thirty-five objectives targeted from the HealthCare Council’s recommendations have already been completed.
There is still much work to do, especially because New Brunswick has welcomed more than 27,000 newcomers in just the 2022-2023 year! We are glad to see new people in our province, but that also puts additional demands on all of our government services.
Regardless of these extraordinary challenges, your PC government introduced a record healthcare budget of nearly $3.8 billion this year. We have also already produced 51 collaborative clinics throughout the province, hired 337 new doctors, and over 1,900 nurses. At the same time we have given 59,000 New Brunswickers access to primary care, who formerly had none.
Housing and Homelessness
It’s important to understand that regulations about where and when new housing can be built, are almost entirely the jurisdiction of municipalities. Still, our province now has about 6000 new housing starts per year, and we’ve committed $100 million to build 380 new public housing units in the next three years.
Homelessness has become an issue of great concern. Your PC government has committed $16 million for new permanent and emergency shelters, and for outreach teams.
When it comes to the segment of unhoused people who are battling with mental health and addictions, we have determined to take a practical and compassionate approach. We have committed to no new “supervised injection sites” because, while they might reduce the immediate harm of using tainted drugs – they do nothing to reduce the real harm of drug addiction. Ensemble’s own data shows that 78% of their clients use drugs three or more times each day!
We also plan to reintroduce a carefully crafted version of our proposed “Compassionate Intervention Act.” We are committed to balancing the rights of the individual, with the obvious harms that are destroying lives and families. While the NB Liberals have been very critical of this concept, the NDP government of British Columbia has just come out with an even stronger version of compassionate intervention!
When those on the opposite end of the spectrum from Progressive Conservatives (politically) have sent a resounding message that “safe supply” does not work and that people who are not capable of caring for themselves need compassion – then we will take it as a vote of confidence that our goals are noble (no matter how far out in left field our provincial opposition might be on this issue).
Glyphosate
We understand that some have serious concerns about spraying of glyphosate in our forested areas. We can only say that we have heard you, and a complete review of the science and data has been done – both provincially and federally.
The Health Canada review (2017) and the U.S. EPA review both agreed with the conclusions of the New Brunswick Department of Health: spraying of glyphosate according to the manufacturer’s label does not pose any significant health risk. Less than 0.5% of New Brunswick’s forests are treated annually, and that is done to help ensure that we don’t see out-of-control forest fires because of dry undergrowth.
Our contractors are required to issue mandatory public notices outlining treatment details and timelines at access points to all treatment areas, in order to further reduce exposure. We do take your concerns very seriously.
In conclusion, I would like to invite you to follow our Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/SherryWilson. You will find much more information there, as well as notices of upcoming events. Thank you for your kind attention and consideration.
You might be amazed to learn that, while paying down the debt, your PC government has reduced taxes that New Brunswickers pay by over $370 million!
Highlights of these tax breaks include: $81 million in gas tax; $121 million in property tax and $28 million in personal income tax. We also made adjustments to the tax brackets, that save New Brunswickers another $110 million.
We are not done yet! We have already committed that, if re-elected, we would reduce the HST from 15%, to just 13%. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has estimated that this would save the average family over $1000 per year!
I know it still feels like you’re paying a lot for everything, but we are working to allow you to keep more of your hard-earned pay – while also combatting inflation, which makes everything so expensive.
Healthcare
Healthcare is such an important issue because things are often critical when we find ourselves in need of it. Your PC government heard your concerns, and we have been working to institute accountability and collaboration within our two Healthcare Authorities (Vitalité and Horizon).
Following recommendations of the independent NB HealthCare Council, your PC government created a framework to measure progress. Recently, we issued the “Provincial Health Plan Mid-term Update” which reported that twenty-six of the thirty-five objectives targeted from the HealthCare Council’s recommendations have already been completed.
There is still much work to do, especially because New Brunswick has welcomed more than 27,000 newcomers in just the 2022-2023 year! We are glad to see new people in our province, but that also puts additional demands on all of our government services.
Regardless of these extraordinary challenges, your PC government introduced a record healthcare budget of nearly $3.8 billion this year. We have also already produced 51 collaborative clinics throughout the province, hired 337 new doctors, and over 1,900 nurses. At the same time we have given 59,000 New Brunswickers access to primary care, who formerly had none.
Housing and Homelessness
It’s important to understand that regulations about where and when new housing can be built, are almost entirely the jurisdiction of municipalities. Still, our province now has about 6000 new housing starts per year, and we’ve committed $100 million to build 380 new public housing units in the next three years.
Homelessness has become an issue of great concern. Your PC government has committed $16 million for new permanent and emergency shelters, and for outreach teams.
When it comes to the segment of unhoused people who are battling with mental health and addictions, we have determined to take a practical and compassionate approach. We have committed to no new “supervised injection sites” because, while they might reduce the immediate harm of using tainted drugs – they do nothing to reduce the real harm of drug addiction. Ensemble’s own data shows that 78% of their clients use drugs three or more times each day!
We also plan to reintroduce a carefully crafted version of our proposed “Compassionate Intervention Act.” We are committed to balancing the rights of the individual, with the obvious harms that are destroying lives and families. While the NB Liberals have been very critical of this concept, the NDP government of British Columbia has just come out with an even stronger version of compassionate intervention!
When those on the opposite end of the spectrum from Progressive Conservatives (politically) have sent a resounding message that “safe supply” does not work and that people who are not capable of caring for themselves need compassion – then we will take it as a vote of confidence that our goals are noble (no matter how far out in left field our provincial opposition might be on this issue).
Glyphosate
We understand that some have serious concerns about spraying of glyphosate in our forested areas. We can only say that we have heard you, and a complete review of the science and data has been done – both provincially and federally.
The Health Canada review (2017) and the U.S. EPA review both agreed with the conclusions of the New Brunswick Department of Health: spraying of glyphosate according to the manufacturer’s label does not pose any significant health risk. Less than 0.5% of New Brunswick’s forests are treated annually, and that is done to help ensure that we don’t see out-of-control forest fires because of dry undergrowth.
Our contractors are required to issue mandatory public notices outlining treatment details and timelines at access points to all treatment areas, in order to further reduce exposure. We do take your concerns very seriously.
In conclusion, I would like to invite you to follow our Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/SherryWilson. You will find much more information there, as well as notices of upcoming events. Thank you for your kind attention and consideration.
*Please note that Connecting Albert County gave all Candidates the same parameters and has printed all Candidates statements and photos as provided. CAC has not altered or edited any content in these submissions.
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