Your experience must be more than 4 years old. :-)

"Immigrants/Out of Country Residents moving back to New Brunswick
As of June 17, 2010, immigrants or Canadian residents moving back to New Brunswick are entitled to Medicare coverage from their first day in the province providing they are deemed by the Director to have established permanent residence in the province of New Brunswick. All proper information/documents will be required from Citizenship and Immigration and decisions will still be made on a case by case basis."
http://www.gnb.ca/0394/eligibility-e.asp

So the waiting period is for moving within Canada (where the province/territory you are leaving should still cover you during the waiting period). However, if you move to Canada from abroad, and you do not have health insurance from another Canadian province, there is no waiting period. Nova Scotia has the same rule, but I haven't checked for any and all provinces and territories.