Liberals' first session wraps for summer with some work left to do

CBC

a day ago

New Brunswick's Liberal government crossed the finish line of its first legislative session on Friday with some campaign promises kept and others incomplete.
Premier Susan Holt was able to point to a cap on rent and a one-year freeze on assessed property values as examples of steps she took to make life more affordable.
But a third promised affordability measure — the repeal of the cost-of-carbon adjustor that is adding eight cents to the price of a litre of gas this week — was put on hold for months and only passed this week with a last-minute change to delay its implementation.
The Liberals also failed to introduce legislation to ban donations to provincial political parties from outside New Brunswick.
"They make a promise, and then when they realize, 'Oh, maybe this isn't such a good idea,'" Progressive Conservative Opposition Leader Glen Savoie said. "They tend to just let it kind of die its own death."
A spokesperson for Holt said the ban is being worked on in conjunction with Elections New Brunswick, along with other changes to toughen up political financing rules.
"It remains a priority for our government to build trust and transparency," Katie Beers said in an email.
WATCH | The Susan Holt Liberals' legislative record so far:
What the Holt Liberals did, and didn't do, in the legislature
3 hours ago
Duration 4:05
The Liberals made the promise after a controversy over then-PC premier Blaine Higgs's travel to Western Canada to raise money for his re-election campaign.
A review by CBC News shows the PCs collected more than $275,000 in donations above $100 from people living outside New Brunswick — more than 21 per cent of the party's total in 2024.
By comparison, the Liberals raised less than $34,000, about three per cent of their total.
Liberals promised repeal of carbon adjustor
In last year's campaign, the Liberals also promised the immediate repeal of the carbon adjustor, which requires the Energy and Utilities Board to pass the cost of federal clean fuel regulations from producers, through distributors and retailers, to consumers.
That amount fluctuates weekly and was set at eight cents on Friday.
The government put its bill on hold last fall after after fierce lobbying by distributors and retailers.
They argued the carbon cost would land in their laps if it was no longer passed on to consumers.
And because the EUB hasn't considered changes to the allowable profit margins in its gas-price regulation formula for years, the change might drive some them out of business, they said.
This week, Energy Minister René Legacy amended the bill so that it could pass, but with implementation put off until after the EUB holds hearings about the margins and about how the adjustor is calculated.
"Essentially, it allows the EUB to do the work they want with some hearings, to adjust the carbon tax adjustor [formula], and also to look at some of the problems that we're having" on margins, he said.
But PC MLA Kris Austin said he doubted the Liberals will ever proclaim the bill into law.
"I don't think we're going to see any significant changes in gas prices anytime soon," he said.
The session also saw Education Minister Claire Johnson on the defensive for weeks over her department's budget allocations for seven district education councils that forced them to cut $43 million in spending.
Johnson eventually invited the districts to submit new plans to "mitigate" the impact of the funding reduction and held out the possibility of extra money.
"I'm very confident in the collaborative process that's been happening with the districts right now," Johnson said Friday.
"We are analyzing what they're proposing to us now, and we're quite confident we're going to come up with a fair and equitable solution very soon."
The government also repealed legislation adopted by the Higgs government that forced three public-sector bargaining units into the shared-risk pension regime that many other provincial employees have been part of for a decade.
It adopted bills that it said would loosen internal trade barriers with other Canadian provinces, though there's a caveat to how quickly one of them will take effect.
The bill to let New Brunswickers order out-of-province alcohol directly from producers to their homes would only apply to provinces that adopt the same rules.
"We're going to open up with provinces that have reciprocity with us, so basically the same deal both ways," Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin said in May during a debate on the bill.
"It has to be win-win for everybody."
The Liberals also left the door open to adopting legislation that Green Leader David Coon has had on his wish list for years: the creation of a right to a clean environment.
The government sent Coon's bill to the legislature's law amendments committee — because, Liberals said, it would impact a long list of other provincial acts and regulations.
In the past, Coon has described that committee as a "graveyard" for legislation that appears to be popular but that a government wants to stall or kill.
But the Green leader said he's optimistic this time will be different.
"I don't think this government wants to kill the right for people to have a healthy environment," he said.
"I think they're interested in seeing how to make that happen in a way that they're comfortable with. So law amendments is a way forward, both for us and for them, perhaps."
The committee could examine the bill in September and the full legislature could sit for a short time to pass it before proroguing and starting a new session with a new throne speech in October.
Government House leader Marco LeBlanc said that decision would depend on how much work is needed on Coon's bill after the committee looks at it.
Coon told reporters Friday he'd be willing to accept a weakened bill if it meant getting the concept written into law, allowing it to be toughened in the future.