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CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Liberals' first session wraps for summer with some work left to do
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.
CBC
27-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
With rules in place, N.B. PC leadership race kicks off — unofficially
The leadership race for New Brunswick's Progressive Conservative party is unofficially underway — with one potential candidate being forced to make a decision before Canada Day. Rules for the race adopted last week include a proviso that anyone holding the position of interim leader on July 1 of this year is ineligible to run for the permanent position. That means Saint John East MLA Glen Savoie would have to relinquish the interim job soon if he wants to have the option of running. Savoie says he's been too focused on scrutinizing the Holt Liberal government in the legislature to give it much thought, and he won't make up his mind until after MLAs adjourn the session for the summer on June 6. "I'll look at that at that time, but it takes discipline to say, 'I'm not dealing with this right now because I have an important task in front of me,'" he said. "And I have been disciplined. I've put 100 per cent of my energy into holding this government to account." Traditionally, MLAs who become interim leaders of their parties don't become candidates for the leadership, though there's often no rule prohibiting them from running. PCs will choose their new leader Oct. 17, 2026, with the official kickoff for the campaign set for October of this year. Several party members are already thinking about it. Fredericton-Grand Lake MLA Kris Austin, a former leader of the People's Alliance who moved to the PCs and became a cabinet minister in 2022, is one of them. "I am still considering the possibility of a run for leader," Austin said in an email. "I will take the summer to gauge support and have discussions with my wife, family and supporters before making a final decision." Former cabinet minister Daniel Allain, who was shuffled out of cabinet in June 2023 after being part of a caucus revolt against then-premier Blaine Higgs, has been open about his interest in the job. "I'm seriously thinking about it," he said. "It's a family decision. It's a decision based on what the members think. … There's lots of time to decide." WATCH | 'I have been disciplined': interim PC leader faces deadline: New rules mark unofficial start of N.B. PC party leadership race 42 minutes ago Duration 1:53 To quality as a candidate, a party member has to amass $35,000 in donations to the party earmarked as support for their bid. He or she also has to collect 500 endorsements from party members, with at least 20 each from seven out of nine regions of the province as defined by the party's constitution. A ranked-ballot system will allow party members to vote in advance by mail rather than at the main convention venue or a satellite polling location, the system the party used in its last leadership content in 2016. That led to a long day marred by delays in the three rounds of voting, with large numbers of party members giving up and drifting away as the process stretched from the noon hour into the late evening.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Liberals criticized PCs for not finding financing fix for environmental fund, but where's theirs?
In 2024, New Brunswick Liberals expressed disappointment the former Higgs government had no plan to finance the Environmental Trust Fund after terminating the fund's access to bottle-deposit money. Now, the Liberals are in power but have no plan to announce themselves.
CBC
14-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
8.8-cent surcharge on N.B. gas not going away yet
New Brunswickers appear destined to keep paying a provincial surcharge on gasoline for a while longer, despite a seven-month-old Liberal election promise to quickly eliminate it. The cost-of-carbon adjustor is adding 8.8 cents to a litre of regular gasoline this week. The Holt government committed to repealing the adjustor during last fall's provincial election campaign, but they hit the brakes after gas distributors and retailers warned it could put some of them out of business. A committee of MLAs that held a day of hearings into the repeal legislation in February issued a report last week that didn't take a position on whether the adjustor should stay in place or be removed. Instead, it tells the government to talk to the Energy Utilities Board about whether the current adjustor formula reflects the true cost of federal climate regulations. Progressive Conservative Opposition Leader Glen Savoie said that virtually guarantees that the repeal bill won't pass before the legislature adjourns for the summer on June 6. Minister wants to know impact of eliminating adjustor Energy Minister René Legacy said the committee report was "smart and well-thought-out" and his office would contact the EUB this week to discuss the issue. "We just want to make sure that before we make any changes, we know the impacts." The Higgs PC government introduced the adjustor legislation in 2022 so that the cost of federal Clean Fuel Regulations could be passed from producers through New Brunswick's regulated gas pricing system to consumers. Critics denounced it as a way to protect Irving Oil from the regulations. The cost per litre is set by the EUB every week. It is 8.8 cents per litre this week. Legacy called that "quite high." "There's something to be looked at," he said. "I think it came out in the committee that there is something to be fixed there." The Holt Liberals promised in the 2024 election to repeal the surcharge "immediately" but after they introduced a bill to do that last fall, gas distributors and retailers fought back. They told MLAs on the law amendments committee in February that without a law in place forcing the EUB to pass the cost to consumers, it would hit their bottom line instead. Legacy said upcoming EUB hearings on what profit margins gas wholesales and retailers are allowed to make could also affect the decision. He said the adjustor may have been helping retailers stay afloat at a time when the limits on their profit margins haven't kept up with costs. The minister wouldn't say whether the bill will advance and be adopted this spring. "I'm not sure if it will go as-is, or if it will go with an amendment," he said. Opposition leader worried about retailers Savoie said the government should abandon the repeal or risk seeing some gas retailers go out of business. "Anything that causes gas operators to close in rural New Brunswick is a bad thing," he said. "This government has obviously broken many of its promises. … I would hope that they do break this one, because this one, if they keep it, will cause gas stations in rural New Brunswick to close." When the bill was being debated last fall, Premier Susan Holt said another option would be to eliminate the provincial regulation of gas prices altogether.
