For Immediate Release
13 March, 2023
Ahead of Budget 2023, the NDP outlined priorities to address inequality in the province, and called on the Government to focus on people. Today in the House of Assembly, NDP Interim Leader Jim Dinn presented a letter following a meeting with the Minister of Finance summarizing the priorities the NL NDP for the upcoming budget.
“Not a day goes by without a news story or an urgent phone call from a constituent about the cost of food, housing, fuel, or lack of access to health care. Many people are sick, cold, hungry and isolated,” said Dinn. “Emergency rooms are overwhelmed and surgery wait times continue to lengthen. Many of these problems are a result of chronic underfunding, which has been exposed by COVID-19 and inflation over the past two years,” Dinn said.
The NL NDP outlined solutions and focus areas that can help address long standing inequalities across the province and that will help people trying to make ends meet.
“Government must address the social determinants of health so that people don’t end up in hospitals in the first place. If this does not happen then we are throwing good money after bad,” said Dinn. “The Health Accord also calls for a guaranteed basic income to reduce poverty, increase prosperity for people, and create a healthier society. Implementing a basic income will mean that people will no longer be trapped on income support and live in poverty.”
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A copy of the letter as submitted follows below.
For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca