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And on Dec. 2, Ambulance NB administrators across the province received new directions on how to fill vacant shifts. If a person calls in sick, or someone has requested vacation time and they must be replaced, the manager in charge of scheduling that shift would offer the shift to anyone with bilingual qualifications in the person's station, typically first part-time or casual employees. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of bilingual part-time or casual employees in many parts of the province. So the next group to receive offers is bilingual full-time employees, who would be called in for an overtime shift. If nobody is available, the offer is extended to bilingual paramedics from other jurisdictions.

That's not fair to the many dedicated unilingual paramedics across the province, says Trent Piercy, a paramedic with Ambulance NB and the secretary for paramedics' union CUPE Local 4848. "They are going to get offers, but it's going to come after that process has been exhausted," he said. Piercy said he understands that Ambulance NB has a legal obligation to offer service in both official languages.

But he said that if an ambulance arrives at the scene of an accident, makes the offer of service in both languages and learns that it can't provide care in the language requested, he believes Ambulance NB is still meeting its legal requirement if those unilingual paramedics request another crew with bilingual capabilities to respond to the scene. While they wait for them to arrive, he said, they can use existing translation services until that backup arrives.

"If we have another crew coming, is that not offering the service? If we offer translation, or have somebody come from one of our crews to translate on a call, is that not offering the service? Other avenues, I don't think, have been explored enough." Piercy said Ambulance NB has set a goal to have 60 per cent of its paramedics be able to offer service in both official languages. He believes that only about 35 per cent of the province's paramedics are currently bilingual. "It's going to take a very, very long time to get up there and the costs are going to go up," he said. The paramedics' union has filed a grievance about new hiring practices introduced in August 2014, which place new weight behind a candidate's linguistic abilities.

After having already expressed frustration with the challenges posed by those changes, he said, the provincial ambulance service has now made it more difficult for unilingual paramedics to find meaningful employment in the province, rather than trying to work through a long list of suggestions submitted by the union as potential alternatives to the new scheduling protocols. The union suggested finding ways to screen calls by language, making it possible to send ambulances with bilingual staff to scenes where a specific language is requested, and to explore translation equipment for use in provincial ambulances. Other ideas involved lowering the language requirements to a conversational level of French or English, alter the deployment protocols to keep unilingual ambulances away from areas that might require them to provide care in their weaker language, or improve language training resources for existing paramedics. Currently Ambulance NB has offered to cover the costs of distance-education language training from the Université de Moncton or Rosetta Stone, though the employee must complete the work on his or her own time.

But Piercy said so far the provincial service hasn't been willing to commit to exploring any of these ideas. "We will continue to work with stakeholders to find solutions that will best meet the needs of our patients and employees, while respecting our legal obligation," he said. The Daily Gleaner requested an interview with Katherine d'Entremont, the commissioner of official languages for New Brunswick, but was informed she declined to comment on this story.

While speaking with the paper about Ambulance NB's push to improve its language capabilities in August 2014, d'Entremont said the legal obligation to provide service in both official languages has been in place since before Ambulance NB launched in 2007. Back then, she said it wasn't her job to tell the provincial ambulance service or the Department of Health how the organization should reach its language goals, but simply to make recommendations on how to address deficiencies identified by the public. "I'm interested in the results of a plan as opposed to the means to get there," she said at the time. "My mandate is very specific in this regard. So once I've made recommendations, the rest is up to the institutions concerned."

Both Dominic Cardy, leader of the New Democratic Party of New Brunswick, and Kris Austin, leader of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick party, attended a rally co-ordinated by frustrated paramedics in Fredericton this week. Afterwards, Austin said he feels the way Ambulance NB is bolstering its language capabilities is flawed, saying that it unnecessarily punishes many qualified francophone and anglophone paramedics by freezing them out in favour of the smaller complement of bilingual professionals. The newspaper asked the Department of Health if Health Minister Victor Boudreau wanted to comment on the paramedic protests, but was told he was unavailable.

Jean-Claude Basque (NB Common Front for Social Justice), Johanne Perron (NB Coalition for Pay Equity), Pauline Richard (NB Common Front for Social Justice), Geoff Martin (Mount Alison University Faculty Association) and Patrick Colford (NB Federation of Labour) represented their organizations in the announcement of the formation of the coalition in Moncton on June 15, 2015. Photo by Daniel Legere

Ambulance NB has a number of resources already in place to support its paramedics, flight nurses and medical dispatchers. There's a critical incident stress-management program, which is supported by the Department of Health and the College of Psychologists of New Brunswick. It offers peer-to-peer support for paramedics who've responded to difficult calls. The provincial ambulance service also has a free, confidential employee and family assistance program. It's available around the clock and offers employees one-on-one counselling to help them cope with stresses from work or home. Tracy Bell, a spokeswoman for Ambulance NB, told The Daily Gleaner in February that the organization was taking steps to expand its offerings to paramedics.

"We recognize that we need to do more to support our front-line employees and are taking the necessary steps to get there," she said. "In addition to existing resources, Ambulance NB will be introducing an expanded employee support program in the coming weeks. We are also looking seriously at what options are available in terms of facilitating direct access to a mental health professional or network of professionals for our employees. We hope to be able to be able to share news of these new initiatives with staff very soon." When the newspaper asked for an update this week, Bell said Ambulance NB is still working on this project. "Ambulance NB looks forward to being able to share news of new mental health supports with our employees soon," she said. "Our priority is to share information first with our paramedics, dispatchers and flight nurses." Judy Astle, president of paramedics union CUPE Local 4848, said she's still waiting for some more information. "They supposedly have what they're calling an enhanced employee assistance program. But we have not seen the details as a union yet," she said.

"We have a labour management meeting coming up next week. They may present it there. That's what we're hoping." Astle said enhancing the mental health resources for paramedics should help many professionals deal with the difficulties they experience in the line of duty. "Anything that's going to try to prevent high levels of stress in our job is valuable. It's hard to do. But the support is needed out there," she said. "It's a very trying job, to say the least. What affects me may not affect someone else. But what could affect them may not affect someone else. It's often a build up of things." MLA Ross Wetmore, the Progressive Conservative member who represents the Gagetown-Petitcodiac region, recently introduced a private member's bill in the New Brunswick legislature designed to eliminate the need for first responders to prove their post-traumatic stress disorder was caused while on the job. If it passes, that could eliminate the mountains of red tape that many first responders now face as they seek benefits while on leave for treatment.

Specifically, Bill 15 would amend the Workers' Compensation Act to presume post-traumatic stress disorder in first responders has been caused by "a traumatic event or a series of traumatic events to which the worker was exposed" while at work. That would apply to both current and former firefighters, paramedics, police officers and sheriffs who have been diagnosed as having PTSD by a physician or psychologist. A second part of the bill would require workers' compensation to offer, "treatment by culturally competent clinicians who are familiar with the research concerning treatment of first responders for post-traumatic stress disorder." Astle said she supports the bill, and says it could really help first responders as they struggle to get the help they need. "That was fantastic. That's a step in the right direction," she said. "People are talking about it more, are relating to it more. In our job, we're supposed to be the 'tough guy.' We have to share with our co-workers some of the things that are bothering us. Most of us do that. We talk it out." Chris Hood, executive director of the Paramedics Association of New Brunswick, said he's going to be meeting with government soon to ask for their support of this legislation, though he currently doesn't know how they feel about such a program. "We don't know whether or not government is going to support it," he said.

Hood said his organization wants to join the effort to make life easier for paramedics. So it's announced a few goals for the future. "We're working towards increased screening and education prior to entering the profession, improved training during the (early stages of your career), high-quality mental health support through a team of dedicated practitioners during your employment, and then the presumptive diagnosis legislation (introduced by Wetmore)," he said.

The provincial government's statistics also show the length of stay at nursing homes is getting longer and the average age of residents is getting older.

The cash-strapped province is reviewing a five-year, $400-million infrastructure plan that would have replaced and renovated the stock of nursing homes.

Even nursing home projects that were already approved were reviewed to search for any possible cost savings and the remainder of the plan has been subjected to the internal review.

There are 4,140 residents in the province’s 65 nursing homes. But there are more than 700 seniors occupying hospital beds because there are no beds available in nursing homes. There were also 719 seniors on waiting lists for nursing homes on March 31, 2010, and those lists are expected to grow longer every year.

The infrastructure challenges being faced by the province's nursing homes are not new. The Department of Social Development's statistics show there were 73 infractions found during nursing home inspections in 2008. That number fell to 63 in 2010.

But the declining state of New Brunswick’s nursing homes burst into the open earlier this year when two facilities were forced to cope with mould outbreaks.

Mill Cove is like many other nursing homes in New Brunswick. It was constructed in the 1960s and it received a series of additions in the last 50 years to meet growing demands. The patchwork of upgrades has led to some of its current problems.

The costs of those ongoing battles to maintain the aging infrastructure, buy new equipment to improve the quality of life for residents and meet the standards of patient care are all adding up. “We are seeing the costs to maintain the facility go up each year,” Dickson said.

The facility’s chief executive officer said the myriad problems facing the nursing home prove a replacement building is not a luxury in an otherwise austere time. “It is a not a 'nice to have,' it is a 'must have' for us right now,” Dickson said.

With austerity, it's a classic case of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You can't slash your way to prosperity. Your economic plan, Premier Gallant, will have citizens unfairly footing the bill: that is negligent and irresponsible. It certainly does not translate into "doing politics differently". Daniel Légère CUPE NB President Moncton

CUPE NB understands that their fight is our collective struggle: citizens of New Brunswick have recently seen how the Gallant government is ready to push its agenda even when it hurts our most vulnerable, such as seniors and school children. They have already cut in hospital support services and education, even if the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity showed them that it would affect, disproportionately, women.

Province not collecting enough revenue How do you translate "failed economic plan"? The Translation Bureau in Fredericton is the new target of the Gallant government's austerity agenda. This already underfunded service, forced to outsource more than 60 per cent of its workload, could face a new round of cuts. As of now, the current government did not attempt to dispel rumours that the department might even be completely privatized.

As the economist Toby Sanger recently wrote, "New Brunswick isn't spending beyond its means, but is collecting revenues below its means - and should take steps to increase revenues in a fair and progressive manner. Making spending cuts now will slow down recovery and make the return to fiscal balance much more difficult."

With austerity, it's a classic case of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You can't slash your way to prosperity. Your economic plan, Premier Gallant, will have citizens unfairly footing the bill: that is negligent and irresponsible. It certainly does not translate into "doing politics differently".

Daniel Légère CUPE NB President, Moncton

Minister Boudreau's comments after was, there are 22 hospitals in NB for a population of less and 700,000; do we need 22 hospitals?  The need to look at what is the best model; centers of excellence verses community health centers.  Looking at nursing home beds; could hospitals be converted to nursing homes?  He made comments regarding the average wages in NB was $50,000.00 per year and the attendance management; use of sick time and savings.  He made reference to the wage bills varying across department to department; is there savings there?  There is 4-5 million dollars to be cut and it will be challenging to find it.

I fully believe the decisions on health care have been made; made by the previous government and will be carried out by this government.  I believe they know exactly what they will do; which hospitals will close/convert to health centers/convert to nursing homes.When the Minister stated 22 hospitals for the population of NB; do we need that many, tells me they have been comparing our numbers to other provinces of the same size.   It's obvious to me based on what was said, reading between the lines and what was not said, health care and education will be hammered in this strategic review.   To wrap up, we walked away with a lot of questions; concerns as to what was not said. In Solidarity Norma Robinson,President NBCHU CUPE Local 1252

Freedom for our bodies, our land and our territories.”

Approximately, 100,000 people in New Brunswick, almost one in seven, live below the poverty line. Almost one third of single-parent households in New Brunswick are poor, according to 2011 statistics. Following the most recent economic crisis, governments have been implementing austerity budgets and New Brunswick is no exception. New Brunswickers are still struggling for pay equity, access to reproductive health care and child care.

Elsipogtog women made international headlines when they put their bodies on the line to defend their territories against shale gas. Maya women in Guatemala are demanding justice in Canadian courts for rape and murder committed by a Canadian mine’s security guards. Rape is a weapon used in wars around the world.

More of us are demanding action be taken for our missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and making the links to capitalism, colonization and destruction of the land.

This global feminist movement brings together diverse groups, including women’s groups, unions, anti-poverty groups, Indigenous activists, international solidarity groups and many others. Since the first March in 2000, activists have organized local, national and global marches, hundreds of workshops and actions and lobbying of governments and international organizations.

Speakers:

The 4th International World March of Women was launched on March 8, International Women’s Day, and will conclude October 17, 2015, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.