November 13, 2024
Honourable John Dornan
Minister of Health
P.O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1
Dear Minister,
Thank you for accepting to serve New Brunswickers as Minister of Health. I know that your experience as a dedicated physician, Horizon leader, and active community member has given you the tools to deliver on the priorities of New Brunswickers in this time of need.
Our government is honoured that New Brunswickers gave us a mandate to implement a vision that so many New Brunswickers helped create. We have the privilege of being entrusted with a mandate to focus on New Brunswickers by working with them and listening to them to create a brighter future we all deserve. It is their expectation of us, and my expectation of you, that we deliver on the promises we’ve made. New Brunswickers need to know that they can trust us, and that we will focus on them.
It is an honour to serve the people of this beautiful province with you. This mandate letter is intended to communicate our government’s intentions and expectations of your portfolio, and to begin the process of accountability so New Brunswickers know for what they can hold us accountable.
Our platform focuses on the priorities that matter most to the people of this province. It reflects the stories and solutions shared by New Brunswickers and it is centred on what we can achieve together. In addition to our priorities, I will also share my expectations of how we act as a government, and as ministers.
GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES
- Healthcare
- Affordability and Housing
- Education
- Economic Development
- Environment
- Leadership You Can Trust
As Minister, you will contribute to all the pillar priorities. You are expected to support this work and are accountable to deliver on the priority areas under your portfolio as outlined below.
Measurable Outcomes
- Increased Access to Primary Care: Increase the percentage of New Brunswickers with access to a primary care provider.
- Improved Retention: The retention payments, along with improved working conditions, will help reduce the turnover rate among healthcare professionals and encourage more workers to stay in New Brunswick.
- It is expected that you will work with staff to determine the appropriate measures / outcomes for the commitments below.
As Lead
PLATFORM THEME |
COMMITMENT |
Healthcare - Care in Your Community |
Establish and support 30 community care clinics that offer local, collaborative care from a variety of health professionals in one place when you need it. 10 clinics in first 18 months - established in regions around the province beginning in Fredericton followed by clinics in Moncton, Saint John, Edmundston, Campbellton, Carleton North, the Acadian Peninsula, St. Stephen, Sussex, and Sackville. |
Healthcare - Care in Your Community |
Provide dedicated non-clinical staff and administrative support to these clinics to ensure healthcare providers are focused on patients, not paperwork. |
Healthcare - Care in Your Community |
Use hospitals to their fullest potential by increasing the time that operating rooms are open. |
Healthcare - Care in Your Community |
Invest in modern technology, including centralized waitlists and standardized digital records management systems, to facilitate the seamless and secure exchange of patient information among healthcare providers, regions, the regional health authorities, and community care clinics. Immediate establishment of digital health office. |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Implement innovative approaches to recruit healthcare professionals, including nurses and doctors. |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Review and expand healthcare professionals’ scope of practice to optimize their roles. |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Work with communities and experts to ensure local realities are respected and factored into any plan to retain and recruit healthcare professionals. |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Create a multi-pronged plan developed for all healthcare professionals to improve working conditions, prioritize support for their wellness, and increase retention. |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Improve the compensation model for doctors and primary care providers, including fair pay for those who perform after-hours care. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Immediately ensure New Brunswickers can better access abortion services by amending regulation 84–20. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Provide the RSV vaccine for free for seniors and vulnerable people. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Support, collaborate, and engage with First Nations healthcare leaders in achieving their Health Transformation design and implementation process. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Implement at-home pap tests for cervical cancer screening. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Make contraception free. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Expand midwifery services and allocating funding to support training and education. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Increase access to fertility treatments by funding one round of IVF, which is in line with jurisdictions across Canada. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
A scientific review into the mystery brain disease. |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Ensure billing process aligns with best practices to provide members of the LGBTQI2S+ community with quality health and mental health care—including longer appointment times and gender-affirming care. |
Leadership you can Trust |
Make our public health office independent to ensure unbiased and evidenced-based decision-making and research are communicated to all New Brunswickers. |
As Support
PLATFORM THEME |
COMMITMENT |
LEAD |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Immediately deliver retention payments to show our respect for nurses and examine other tools that aid retention and recruitment. |
FTB |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Work with Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick to create more training and residency seats. |
PETL |
Healthcare - Caring for the People Who Care for You |
Leverage existing healthcare knowledge by working with regulators to improve foreign credential recognition for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals already in our province and looking to call New Brunswick home. |
PETL |
Healthcare - Care at Home and Long-Term Care |
Expand the Nursing Homes Without Walls model and ensure that those who want to stay at home can do so for as long as possible. |
Seniors |
Healthcare - Care at Home and Long-Term Care |
Establish sector standards and transparent reporting practices with a robust system for complaints that leads to quick responses and better overall delivery to ensure our seniors continue to receive excellent care. |
Seniors |
Healthcare - Care at Home and Long-Term Care |
Work with communities to develop and implement a strategy that better supports those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. |
Seniors |
Healthcare - Healthcare for All |
Invite First Nations leaders to create a bilateral forum and ongoing process with the goal of achieving culturally safe and equitable healthcare for Indigenous people in New Brunswick. |
DIA |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Ensure mental health professionals are located in as many community care clinics as possible to ensure mental health is being treated as primary care and reduce the frequency of acute mental health challenges. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Invest in community-based case management approaches for front-line service providers currently providing mental health support. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Increase residency seats for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, and develop a retention and training plan for psychologists, counsellors, and other mental health professionals, specifically within schools. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Create a Mental Health Advocate position to ensure New Brunswickers struggling with mental health and navigating the system have a champion. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Expand mental health court access to ensure the promotion of alternative pathways for justice. |
JAG |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Invest in treatment beds throughout the province and ensure there is a bed for anyone who wants it, when they want it, and ensure that there is an optional continuum of care for those exiting treatment. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
Work in partnership with First Nations to co-create and implement mental health and addiction programs that meet culturally safe First Nation service and practice standards of care. |
AMH |
Healthcare - Mental Health |
We will reduce wait times for mental health services below the national average. |
AMH |
Economic Development - Addressing Workforce Needs |
Focus immigration pathways on critical labour needs like healthcare, building trades and education, and supporting newcomers to make New Brunswick home. |
PETL |
Economic Development - Addressing Workforce Needs |
Phase in pay equity in the private and care sector, using a model similar to Quebec and Ontario. |
WE |
Environment |
Implement the recommendations of the Legislative Assembly’s all-party Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship to increase restrictions on pesticide and herbicide use, including examining the banning of aerial spraying. |
ECC |
Environment |
Investigate alternatives to pesticide and herbicide use and re-evaluate the safety of glyphosate with new and comprehensive data specific to New Brunswick. |
ECC |
Environment |
Update the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act to guarantee that everyone in New Brunswick has the right to clean air and water. Our government will require that all new schools, hospitals, long-term care homes, and other public buildings have modern air filtration, heating, and cooling systems, following ASHRAE 241. For existing infrastructure, we will add suitable air filtration and cooling units. |
ECC DTI |
Environment |
Ensure all government buildings are net zero and that our vehicle fleet, including school buses, are electrified by 2035. |
DTI |
Leadership You Can Trust |
Immediately review the recommendations of the 2024 reports from the Office of the Child Youth, and Seniors’ Advocate and make progress towards fixing our social policy capacity and making New Brunswick children and seniors more safe and secure. |
ECO Seniors |
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR CROWN ENTITIES
In addition to your other responsibilities, you are the Minister responsible for:
- Cannabis Advisory Committee
- EM/ANB
- Inspection Review Committee – audits on pharmacy providers
- Insured Services Appeal Committee
- Mental Health Review Boards
- Mental Health Services Advisory Committee
- Mental Health Tribunals
- Midwifery Council of New Brunswick
- New Brunswick Health and Senior Care Council
- Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory Committee
- Professional Review Committee
- Regional Health Authority A
- Regional Health Authority B
Government is responsible for the legislative, regulatory, and public policy frameworks in which Crown entities operate. As Minister you are expected to uphold your statutory responsibilities associated with these entities.
HOW WE WILL WORK
Our government is committed to evidence-based decision-making across all departments. We will operate under an ‘open by default’ principle to improve transparency and trust in government.
We will “get out of the office” and engage authentically with New Brunswickers, communities, stakeholders, and experts inspired by the disability advocacy principle of “Nothing about us without us”.
We recognize that one size does not fit all – that some communities will need different things to thrive and our legislation, policies and programs should be designed to support those unique differences.
We will prioritize partnerships, trusting and empowering the people and organizations on the ground working most closely with New Brunswickers.
The Official Languages Act, which guarantees the equality of our official languages and linguistic communities, is an integral part of our culture, our history and our future as a province. I expect us all to work together to show leadership to enable New Brunswick to fulfill its role as a leader in official languages in the country and the world.
We commit to rebuilding relationships with First Nations based on a nation-to-nation relationship that establishes trust and a shared understanding of treaty obligations.
We will be a government that cares for all New Brunswickers and that does our best to bring people together. New Brunswickers have placed their trust in us, and we will work every day to hold that trust.
I expect all ministers to serve with the highest personal and professional integrity. As a Cabinet Minister, you must follow conflict of interest rules, and the conduct outlined in the Minister’s Handbook. Our Westminster system relies on cabinet confidentiality and solidarity.
I expect you to always respect your Cabinet and Caucus colleagues, as well as those MLAs who represent different political parties.
I also expect you to develop a professional relationship with your Deputy Minister and other officials in your department. I expect your officials to keep you fully briefed on matters pertaining to your portfolio. I request that you be accessible to such officials, to seek and hear their advice, their concerns, and understand they are there to serve our government in a non-partisan manner.
Members of the Executive Council and their staff are responsible to contribute to a respectful workplace environment at GNB. A respectful workplace values diversity and inclusion, courteous conduct, equality, positive communication, and professional working relationships. Neither GNB nor I will condone or tolerate any form of harassment in the workplace.
We are going to lead with a balanced approach. That means we will watch the bottom line and deliver fiscal responsibility while we improve the services that New Brunswickers need, like health care and education and an affordable place to call home.
I look forward to the results we will achieve together for New Brunswickers. Thank you for joining me in service to our beloved province.
Sincerely,
______________________
Premier
Honourable Susan Holt
c.c.: Clerk of the Executive Council and Head of the Public Service