In light of Premier Higgs recently expressing his willingness to send some of New Brunswick’s Covid-19 vaccine supply to Ontario and Quebec, the Liberal Opposition is urging government to keep vaccines in the province.

“Every vaccine arriving in New Brunswick should be used in New Brunswick.” says Roger Melanson, interim Leader of the Official Opposition. “The vaccines are being distributed on a per capita basis, and the New Brunswick Medical Society is saying the two percent of the total vaccination supply we receive would not have an impact on the outbreaks in these larger provinces, so why would we sacrifice our supply and immunization?”

Outbreaks like the one in Zone 4 can happen in any other region of the province. Melanson believes the provincial government needs to focus on rolling out the vaccines and getting all New Brunswickers immunized.

“Premier Higgs needs to realize that New Brunswickers have worked hard over the last year with the strictest public health guidelines in the country and have done everything in their power to fight Covid-19 by respecting public health guidelines. Now is not the time to put the province’s recovery at risk” says Melanson. “People want to get vaccinated, people are registering for their vaccines as soon as they are eligible and many are looking forward their second does. Overall, the province’s vaccination efforts are working. We need to keep this going and potentially even ramp it up if we want to prevent more outbreaks and lockdowns.”

As interim Leader of the Official Opposition, Roger Melanson sits on the all-party Covid-19 committee with the Premier and both third-party leaders. He says he was surprised to read the Premier’s comments because this was not discussed at the committee meetings earlier this week. “I have always known that this was not a decision-making body, but I am really starting to question the purpose and validity of the all-party Covid-19 committee. The Premier should have brought this to the committee before taking such a position.”