For the last six days of the campaign, Brian Gallant will have company on the campaign trail in the form of protesters.
Members of the union representing paramedics and dispatchers showed up in Miramichi on Tuesday and were in Saint John on Wednesday morning outside a breakfast event where the Liberal leader was giving a speech.
Leaving the breakfast event, Liberal leader Brian Gallant encounters protesters who plan to follow him every day for the rest of the campaign. They represent paramedics and dispatchers. pic.twitter.com/F2SyNmrHP2
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) September 19, 2018
“I met with them last night for about 15 minutes, I’ve had now I think two or three conversations with the group over the last few weeks,” Gallant told reporters outside the Lily Lake Pavilion. “We’ve listened to their concerns. We understand why they are frustrated because there are challenges when it comes to paramedics and ambulance services like every other province across the country.”
“There is a shortage of paramedics and that has put a strain on a lot of the employees within the system. That’s why we’ve hired 42 more paramedics since the start of 2016.”
Gregory McConaughy says they are upset that the Liberal government is not following the results of an arbitration hearing from February which includes filling vacancies.
“We had an arbitration hearing on a grievance which we won. There were orders or recommendations in that hearing that the judge put forward that the government is not following,” McConaughy says. “We have 110 vacancies right now that are posted every eight weeks in the province. We are asking right now to get those vacancies filled.”
