N.B. Greens unveil election platform

New Brunswick's Green Party releasedits election platform on Wednesday, saying it would increase corporate taxes if it were to form the next government.

The party's 32-page platform for the Sept. 27 election focuses on seven areas, including the environment, education and social policies.

"We're going to invest in education, we're going to invest in debt relief for our students, we're going to invest in healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, we're going to invest in community health centres that will solve the problem of people not having doctors," said Janice Harvey, the Green candidate for the riding of Charlotte-Campobello in southwest New Brunswick.

Harvey is the former president of the provincial Greens as well as the chosen candidate of the federal Green Party in New Brunswick Southwest.

The Green Party platform also includes a promise to end media concentration in the province, reduce pollution, improve energy efficiency and charge tolls on the province's highways.

Jack MacDougall, the provincial Green Party leader, said New Brunswickers would receive a bit of a break on the newhighway tolls.

"One permanent free pass of their choice to any toll booth of their choice," he said.

"They can drive through it as many times as they want, and we pick up probably somewhere in the order of $50 to $75 million estimated there."

The Green Party is running 51 candidates more than the NDP fielded in the last provincial election in 2006.

MacDougall said his party is about sustainability.

"It would be nice to believe the Liberal or the Conservative promise of no taxes, more spending and somehow we will magically balance our budget," he said.

Although MacDougall did not provide an estimate of how much it would cost to implement his party's promises, he said a Green government would spend more wisely.