The seemingly eternal 2018 New Brunswick election season will finally come to an official close Friday when the legislature votes on the Progressive Conservative minority government's throne speech.

The PCs have moved swiftly on several issues since they were sworn in Nov. 9, including ambulance staffing and WorkSafeNB premiums.

But they've done so without holding the confidence of the legislature. They're expected to win that legitimacy in a series of votes Friday morning.

Premier Blaine Higgs said he'd like to see more MLAs vote for his throne speech than voted against the Liberals' version earlier this month.

"I'm hopeful that we'll have more than we had against the last one," he told reporters. "I'm hoping that we'll have more for this one.

"I'm hoping people will see a bigger opportunity, a bigger potential, a bigger path forward."


No party won a majority in the Sept. 24 election, sending the battle for power into weeks of overtime.
But there's little suspense surrounding Friday's outcome, because the three MLAs from the People's Alliance have already said they'll vote with the 22 PC MLAs. That gives Higgs a majority of 25 in the 49-member legislature.

The same combination of 22 Tories and three Alliance members voted against the then-Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal throne speech on Nov. 2, toppling his government. Three Green MLAs voted with 20 Liberals in favour of that speech.

Liberal votes?

Alliance Leader Kris Austin said Thursday that there's been buzz around the legislature that some Liberals or Greens could opt to support the PCs.

"I get a feeling there could be maybe some others that may vote in favour of it, too, but we'll see," he said.

"It's kind of coming through the grapevine. It could be an interesting vote on the throne speech."
Liberal MLA Roger Melanson said his party had yet to make a decision.

"We haven't made a final decision on how the voting will go," he said.

The shale gas issue

Friday's vote will actually be a series of three votes, the last being on a PC motion to reply to the lieutenant-governor by supporting the throne speech she delivered Nov. 20.

That speech didn't explicitly mention Higgs's long-held commitment to revive the shale gas industry. But the Liberals moved an amendment to the PC motion to add a line calling for a moratorium on fracking to continue.

The PCs then moved a sub-amendment to the Liberal amendment, which says the moratorium would stay in place "where support [for development] does not already exist."
The PC amendment supports development in the Sussex area, where communities "have demonstrated their desire to proceed with shale gas development."

Higgs said the Liberal move ended up giving the Tories an opening to clarify their position.

The amendment "gave us an opportunity to say 'Here, in real terms, is everything I've been saying from the very beginning'… so there are no surprises."
The premier said he expected the Greens to vote against the government because of the shale gas issue, "but wonders never cease."

Green Party Leader David Coon said his caucus will definitely vote against the PC sub-amendment.
He wouldn't say what it will do on the final vote if the PC language on shale gas passes and becomes part of the main motion.

"Well, we'll see whether it does or not," he said. "So you'll have to wait and see."

The three Alliance MLAs have said they have concerns about shale gas development but would vote for the PC sub-amendment on fracking because they promised to support a PC government on confidence votes for 18 months.

But Higgs said Thursday he does not consider the PC sub-amendment a confidence matter on its own.

It will only become a confidence vote if the wording passes and becomes part of the main throne speech motion, he said.