Former Radio-Canada Acadie executive Louise Imbeault has been named New Brunswick’s next lieutenant governor.

She replaces outgoing lieutenant governor Brenda Murphy who has reached the end of a five-year term.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the appointment on Friday afternoon.

“Louise Imbeault is a respected journalist, a dedicated women’s rights advocate, and a lifelong champion of the Acadian community,” reads a statement from the prime minister’s office.

“Throughout her distinguished career, she has played a crucial role in promoting Acadian culture across the world, notably through her work at Radio-Canada Acadie.

“She has long been an active member of her community and her contributions have earned her numerous recognitions, including the Order of Moncton, the Order of New Brunswick, and the Order of Canada.”

Lieutenant governors serve as the personal representatives of His Majesty The King of Canada in their respective provinces. They fulfill the roles and functions of the Crown, including granting Royal Assent to provincial laws.

They are appointed by the governor general on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Imbeault’s appointment comes after Trudeau faced a wave of controversy with his selection of Murphy five years ago.

Murphy became both New Brunswick’s first openly gay lieutenant governor, while also the first LGBTQ+ person to hold any viceregal office in Canada.

But she didn’t speak French fluently.

New Brunswick’s Acadian society challenged the appointment in court, citing language laws.

A decision earlier this year by New Brunswick’s top court found there’s no constitutional requirement that New Brunswick’s lieutenant governor be able to speak both English and French.

The decision from New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal written by Chief Justice Marc Richard overturned an original ruling made two years ago by then Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare that found the appointment of a unilingual anglophone lieutenant governor in New Brunswick violated language rights.

The Acadian society said it would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“This matter highlights the tension between an ideal and an imperative,” the appeal court’s decision begins. “Everyone agrees that the individual who is appointed lieutenant governor of New Brunswick should ideally be fluent in both official languages of the province.

“This decision does not reject this ideal.

“Rather, it raises the specific question of whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the Constitution Act, 1982 requires the personal bilingualism of the individual who is so appointed.”

It later adds: “Although it is desirable for such individuals to have such skills, our analysis brings us to the conclusion that the Charter does not, in fact, impose such a requirement.”

Despite the decision, the Trudeau government vowed that all future lieutenant-governors in New Brunswick will be bilingual.

Imbeault fits the bill as a lifelong champion of the Acadian community.

She began working in journalism in 1969 as a reporter for former Moncton-based newspaper L’Évangéline. In 1974, she joined Radio-Canada where she eventually became the first woman news editor in the Atlantic region.

In 1996, she became the director of Radio-Canada Atlantique, which was renamed Radio-Canada Acadie under her leadership, reflecting a commitment to promoting Acadian culture through expanded regional programming and original content.

She retired from Radio-Canada in 2011 and has served as chancellor of the Universite de Moncton since 2018.

Since 2012, she has been leading Bouton d’Or Acadie, a publishing house that supports the creation of literary works for Acadian youth, promotes Acadian culture, and has published books in Indigenous languages to shine a light on Indigenous stories.

The province’s Acadian society also awarded her the Prix Albert Sormany to celebrate her contributions to Acadie.

In his first speech since becoming health minister, Dr. John Dornan says the new Liberal government will end the crisis in hospitals by listening to the needs of health professionals, who he says know full well how to fix the system.

Dornan appeared at a Fredericton health summit Tuesday morning at St. Thomas University.

It wasn’t happenstance. The city’s mayor, Kate Rogers, complained to the party leaders in September that it was unacceptable that one out of three people in Fredericton don’t have a family doctor, the worst situation in the province.

Morgan Peters, the CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce and emcee of the event his organization had sponsored, said deteriorating health care was the number one concern of its members, three years running.

Dornan started his talk with an anecdote from 2008, when, as an endocrinologist at the Saint John Regional Hospital, specializing in treating people with diabetes and thyroid problems, he was summoned by his superior.

“My boss called me in one day and he said, ‘We’ve got a problem.’ He threw a letter at me and said, ‘This is what I have to deal with every day.’

“Eight emergency room physicians had said, ‘We aren’t going to look after your weekends anymore. You’re on your own’.”

Dornan’s boss told him he was going to put him in charge of the Emergency Department, and he had to fix it.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’,” said Dornan, eliciting chuckles from the crowd inside the Kinsella Auditorium. “And that’s what the emergency room physicians said. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me: putting an endocrinologist that hasn’t had experience in emergency medicine in charge of us?’”

The doctor said he could understand his colleagues’ sore feelings but made them a pitch: If they were willing to work with him, he would listen carefully to their concerns, and they would all do their best to turn the department around.

“’But if a single one of you does not want to work with me, then, I’m not going to work here.’ So, they thought about it for a day, and they said, ‘You know what? We’re going to trust you and get behind you.’ And after six months, we had changed the Emergency Department at the Saint John Regional into one of the most progressive departments in Atlantic Canada.”

The ER docs, Dornan said, were hungry to educate and do research, so they teamed up with family medicine to create a three-year integrated program.

“At the end of it all, I didn’t come up with any new ideas. I helped translate those physicians’ good ideas into action.”

During the question-and-answer session, Green party Leader David Coon said he liked the anecdote about the Saint John ER because it’s always the emergency departments at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in his Fredericton riding and the Moncton Hospital’s ER that make the news for overcrowding and long wait times.

“A year or two ago, the outer wait times in Fredericton was 12 or 14 hours, and when I was door knocking during the election campaign, people were telling me they were waiting 24 to 27 hours.”

Coon then put it to Dornan: How would he fix the ER at the Chalmers?

I really believe we have an opportunity to lead. To lead by listening to people. Because people tell us what the solutions are.

Dr. John Dornan

Dornan reminded the crowd of his history: When the doctor was CEO of Horizon, former Progressive Conservative premier Blaine Higgs fired him in public at a news conference in 2022, part of the fallout from the death of an elderly patient who had been waiting outside the ER at the Chalmers.

Dornan would sue for wrongful dismissal, winning an arbitration hearing that awarded him $2 million that was subsequently appealed by the province. The two sides settled for an undisclosed amount.

The doctor then ran for office and won his seat as part of the Liberal team that ousted Higgs.

“Some of the solutions that were put forward in Saint John could be applied here,” Dornan said, but he also argued the key was taking better care of elderly patients who shouldn’t be in hospital beds.

“I look at the communities of Moncton, Saint John, Miramichi, Fredericton. Boy, you’re in a crisis here. And we’re all here today because of that crisis. And a big part of that problem is a lack of access.”

The doctor said forcing senior citizens to wait 15 hours in an ER is “not real access. It’s disrespectful access. So, I feel that, and I’m committed to working toward getting really meaningful, respectful access to all New Brunswickers.”

He was short on details, but he mentioned that the provincial government would have to invest more if it wants to serve people better.

And he said it was crucial to listen to the health-care professionals, such as doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and unionized health workers, who have seen the problems up close and have good ideas on how to fix the system.

“There isn’t one single quarterback,” he emphasized.

Dornan has already reported that plans are being drawn up to build 12 to 16 more nursing homes in parts of the province with the greatest need, a move that would open 1,000 spots and ensure elderly patients who are waiting for a spot don’t occupy hospital beds.

On any given day, as many as a quarter to one-third of New Brunswick’s acute-care beds that are meant for emergency and surgical patients are occupied by elderly people who could be discharged but are too frail to go home, the highest rate in Canada.

Dornan, however, has been loathe to provide details as the Department of Social Development, which regulates the nursing homes, isn’t under his purview.

The doctor also told the audience he thought previous administrations had made a mistake by centralizing recruitment efforts.

“How does a recruiter in Moncton get people to come to Woodstock when they might not have been there before? But when you bring it back down to the community, like you folks here today, and help us with recruitment, I mean people here like Fredericton, that’s why they’re here.

“Who better to bring physicians and nurses and other health-care workers in, than people who live in and like the community?”

He’s familiar with the argument that the health-care crisis isn’t unique to New Brunswick.

“I feel that’s an inappropriate excuse, to not act, to say, ‘well, this is throughout the country, this is throughout the world, this is throughout Atlantic Canada.’ If we accept that, we’ll go nowhere. And I really believe we have an opportunity to lead. To lead by listening to people. Because people tell us what the solutions are.”

Health Minister Dr. John Dornan, the former Horizon Health Network president and CEO who won a legal fight with the Higgs government over his 2022 firing, says he wants New Brunswickers to know exactly how much he received in an out-of-court settlement.

Vitalité Health Network is facing legal action over its refusal to hand over internal travel nurse audit reports to a provincial watchdog.

In an application filed in Fredericton’s Court of King’s Bench, the Auditor General of New Brunswick is asking the court to order Vitalité to provide these reports and “any other information” relevant to his audit of travel nurse contracts.

These internal audit reports aren’t explicitly identified in the court application, but Vitalité has been locked in a battle with the auditor general over three such reports the regional health authority refused to hand over ahead of the watchdog’s audit.

The three internal audit reports were prepared by Vitalité in relation to its contract with Ontario-based Canadian Health Labs, the auditor general revealed in his June report into travel nurse contracts.

Vitalité continues to maintain it will only hand over the reports to the auditor general if a non-disclosure agreement is signed as it says the documents are protected by litigation privilege and publicly releasing them could harm its efforts to resolve a dispute.

“We are currently engaged in alternative dispute resolution with the company addressed in the internal audit reports,” Vitalité said in a statement Thursday night.

“However, a resolution has not yet been reached. Given these circumstances, it is essential to protect Vitalité’s position and interests.”

The legal action is the latest chapter in a months-long standoff between Vitalité and auditor general Paul Martin, the latter of whom is tasked to help the legislative assembly hold the government accountable for its use of public funds and resources.

In June, Martin released the findings of his audit of health-care worker contracts signed by the province’s two regional health authorities and the Department of Social Development during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Martin ultimately concluded that these contracts posed an “undue risk” to the province, noting there was no evidence of “proper contract development, management or oversight.”

In his report, the auditor general also flagged that Vitalité had repeatedly refused to hand over three internal audit reports related to a contract with Canadian Health Labs, which had already received $93 million through that deal at the time of the audit.

“To this day, Vitalité has still not provided my office with the internal audit reports conducted on agency nurse contracts,” Martin wrote in an affidavit accompanying the court application, which doesn’t explicitly identify the audits sought through the court.

Brunswick News asked the Office of the Attorney General Thursday for clarity on its application and was told the office doesn’t comment on matters before the court.

According to the court application, the auditor general is requesting “internal audit reports (Vitalité) conducted on agency nurses for the period beginning January 2022.”

In 2022, Vitalité signed six contracts with four agencies who provided health-care workers for its short-staffed facilities. Three of the six contracts were with Canadian Health Labs.

Vitalité maintains that it has shared with the auditor general all “requested documents that are not protected by litigation or solicitor-client privilege.”

“This careful approach is consistent with our legal obligations to safeguard sensitive and privileged information, which is essential in managing active and anticipated legal matters,” Vitalité said in Thursday’s statement.

Through its application, the auditor general is also asking the court to declare he has the authority, under provincial legislation, “to access privileged information and to pierce litigation and solicitor-client privileges” to carry out his duties.

From the start, Martin has pointed to a section of the Auditor General Act to support his access to those three internal audit reports. That section entitles the auditor general to “free access at all convenient times to information, including files, documents, records, agreements and contracts, despite that they may be confidential or private, that relates to the fulfilment of his or her responsibilities.”

But in its statement Thursday, Vitalité cited “Canadian legal principles, including the Auditor General Act,” in its position that the documents are protected by litigation privilege.

Non-disclosure agreement still on the table: Vitalité

At the time of Martin’s audit, Vitalité had spent more than $123 million on contracted workers, with more than $93 million of that provided to Canadian Health Labs (CHL).

In his June report, the auditor general wrote that without the three CHL audit reports, he wasn’t sure what risks Vitalité had identified in its audits and the extent to which those risks were addressed by the regional health authority.

According to his affidavit, Martin said his office was told twice in April and once in May by Vitalité that the audit reports he was looking for wouldn’t be disclosed due to litigation and solicitor-client privileges. He cited a series of letters from Vitalité as evidence, which were not included in the court file when Brunswick News requested it.

At the time his travel nurse audit was released in June, Martin revealed that his office was considering taking the matter involving Vitalité to court.

“The ball’s in my court now,” he told reporters, adding that what his office found was “probably the greatest surprise I’ve seen in a lot of my years, and I’m an accountant with 40 years of audit, and accounting, and consulting experience.”

Shortly thereafter, the Progressive Conservative government sent a letter to Vitalité “encouraging” it to release the audit reports.

Vitalité president and CEO Dr. France Desrosiers speaks to reporters after appearing before a legislative committee in June.Photo by John Chilibeck/Brunswick News

Vitalité continues to maintain it will only do so with a signed non-disclosure agreement.

“Such an agreement would allow the Auditor General’s team to review the reports while ensuring that privileged information remains protected from public disclosure,” Vitalité said in its statement Thursday.

“Although the Auditor General’s office initially declined this offer, Vitalité’s willingness to collaborate under these conditions remains unchanged.”

After three days of hearings on Martin’s audit in June, the legislature’s all-party public accounts committee formally requested a public inquiry, citing a lack of answers on some key questions posed to regional health authority officials who appeared before the committee.

On June 28, Cheryl Hansen, then head of the public service, told the committee the Progressive Conservative government wouldn’t hold a public inquiry because the auditor general had already publicly reported on travel nurse contracts earlier in the month.

In late July, the public accounts committee then passed a motion calling on the auditor general to do a deeper dive into what happened between Canadian Health Labs and the two organizations that hired it in 2022, the Department of Social Development and Vitalité Health Network.

The newly elected Susan Holt Liberal government has yet to say whether it’ll call a public inquiry into travel nurse contracts.

– With files from Andrew Waugh and John Chilibeck

As the Progressive Conservatives head into their annual general meeting this weekend, the conversation will likely turn to the future direction of the party – given its stonking electoral defeat last month.

There are many improvements to be made to PCNB – including a need to be more open to internal debate and to build more policy from the ground up. But we do hope the party does not veer wildly in a progressive direction, gleaning from the election result a need to move to the left.

Doing so would be a mistake for two reasons.

First, let’s remember that before the PCs can think about running a future election campaign, the party needs to do its duty as the official opposition.

The new Holt government is left-leaning, and its excesses will almost certainly be on that side of the spectrum. Naturally, it makes sense for the critics to be firmly on the other side.

It would be awfully difficult for the opposition to oppose from the right while it also tries to play in a liberal sandbox. As such, the PC bench should ask its questions and state its points on the premise there is something inherently suspicious and incorrect about the government’s philosophy.

That’s not mere stubbornness. It’s how our system is supposed to work. And it’s why we have different political parties in the first place: they stand for different things.

The PCs won the second-highest number of seats. That earns them the right to oppose based on their own philosophy. They can and should do so.

Yet a second, more important reason is that principle matters. Under Blaine Higgs, the party did move in a direction of more conviction. And that conviction was rooted in the ideals of limited government, arguably more than any previous PC regime of the past half-century. When Higgs said he wasn’t going to try to buy your vote with frivolous spending promises, he meant it.

The people decided, this time, they didn’t want those principles at the helm. That’s fine, but it doesn’t mean they won’t ever want them again, or should be prevented from choosing them in the future.

Yes, there are adjustments the party will have to make. In particular, the membership has to take a long, hard look at where it stands on the contentious culture war issues that dominated so much of Higgs’s attention. Compromise between the two wings is advisable, and likely within reason.

But on the whole, the elected MLAs and their grassroots supporters need to keep the aspidistra flying on New Brunswick conservatism. They mustn’t throw in the towel because of one bad loss. It’s time to rebuild carefully.

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Glen Savoie speaks to party members in Fredericton on Saturday.Photo by ANDREW WAUGH/BRUNSWICK NEWS

Glen Savoie used his debut as interim Progressive Conservative leader to call for party members to unite, acknowledge mistakes made during Blaine Higgs’s tenure, and vow that everyone’s voice will be heard.

But that message, delivered at the PCs’ Annual General Meeting in Fredericton on Saturday, was tempered by a past president saying the party is “divided” and that its top executives haven’t taken any responsibility for last month’s election loss. And a sitting MLA claimed that the rules for the gathering effectively made it “secret” and excluded many members.

Savoie took the criticism in stride, acknowledging the party must rebuild after the election loss.

“I don’t think anybody believes that this is going to be a one-and-done, you know, a one-day thing,” he told reporters. “This is going to be a process.”

While addressing about 300 members at the Delta Hotel, Savoie warned of the dangers of a divided party.

He invoked the “crushing” 58-0 defeat to the Liberals in 1987, and the subsequent “12 years of excruciating Liberal rule,” which he said happened because the PCs “remained fractured as a party” and “divided into ideological camps.”

“When we finally came together, we put an end to that: the cycles of self-inflicted wounds, election loss, rebirth, it’s all there, replayed over and over again.”

Later, he implored PC members to think carefully before saying or doing anything that could hurt the party.

“We should all be asking ourselves one question: ‘Is what I’m about to say, or what I’m about to do, going to help this party?’ If the answer is no, then maybe you shouldn’t say it, or maybe you shouldn’t do it,” he said.

But hours before Savoie made his plea, one of his MLAs had already publicly broken ranks.

Disgruntled members

Asked about Dawson’s post, Savoie said his “policy is going to be that what we deal with in caucus, we will deal with in caucus, and we’ll deal with it in a respectful way.”

Dawson, the only PC MLA not to attend the AGM, wasn’t the only one making waves.

Brian Harquail – who has held several senior positions in the party, including president, executive director, and campaign manager for Bernard Lord – was at the meeting, and was furious that he’d missed the registration deadline and was therefore barred from attending.

He also took shots at PCNB president Erika Hachey and executive director Doug Williams.

“We’re in a bad situation right now, and the party is divided,” Harquail said. “And that falls, in my opinion, directly on the shoulders of the president and the executive director of the party.”

Harquail, who said the PCs spent $456,000 on the election and now only have about $120,000 in the bank, added that if he was still president, he would have fired Williams.

“He’s got to take some of the responsibility for losing the election … I mean, we know there was a movement out there to get rid of Higgs, but they were at the helm, right?”

Hachey declined to comment, beyond saying that she doesn’t care what Harquail says. Williams didn’t speak to reporters.

‘A lot more warmth’

While Dawson and Harquail were raining on the PCs’ parade, other members, including one who repeatedly clashed with Higgs, told a very different story.

Party stalwart Roger Léger was part of a failed attempt to force Higgs to face a leadership review, and publicly spoke out against the former PC boss several times. But on Saturday, he said he felt like “the air is lighter than I expected, or it’s more positive than I had feared.”

“I feel a lot more warmth than I expected, and I think that’s generally a good sign,” Léger said.

“We have a party that is going through a painful process. For some it’s going to be more painful than others, and I felt, as I say, more warmth and a lot of respect here today, and I’m consoled. I’m starting to feel we’re eventually headed in the right direction.”

Former PC MLA Wes McLean, who was Higgs’s deputy chief of staff and remains the party’s official representative, said he was buoyed by the turnout.

“Everyone’s tired from the election, and especially its result, but they’re still here,” he said.

“And I’ve been a member of this party for a long time, and that’s what heartens me – to see that activism, even when it’s not always easy to do so soon after an election that we did not win. But they showed up.

“I believe in the objective of strengthening this party. I don’t use the word ‘rebuild,’ because the party is still there. We’ll have to strengthen things. And you always have to do that. After an election, there must be a post mortem.”

Addressing Higgs

In his speech, Savoie took time to address Higgs’s leadership.

“Premier Blaine Higgs brought a whirlwind of change to us as a party and as a government,” Savoie said.

“He did not choose the traditional path of leadership and/or govern. He was a change maker. He was someone who was not afraid to dive into something head first to find a solution. He brought us back to a place where we could see that we could be better, to have pride in being a New Brunswick.

“He was human. He made mistakes. He loves his family. He did the best he could. Does that make him any different from any one of us? No.”

That sparked one of two standing ovations.

“In politics, the expectation of leadership is that we accept responsibility for a loss, and he has done that.

“He is not perfect, nor are any of us. We say that we revere and appreciate those who sacrifice of themselves, their families, their private lives to serve our province. Blaine Higgs sacrificed and served. Let us choose to act with class, dignity and appreciation. Thank him for the things he did right, and forgive him for where things went wrong.”

But Savoie also criticized past leaders’ treatment of party members.

“For too long, we have used this party as a vehicle simply to get elected. New leaders come in, make overtures to the membership, and then those things are forgotten once the mantle of governing is on us,” he said.

“It is true that some members are only interested in being active once an election is called, but they need something to come back to when that happens, which means we need to nurture and sustain our party in between electoral cycles. That begins by returning to good governance, active riding associations with regular meetings, regional vice-presidents who are driving that agenda, and a party executive that has a vision and a plan.”

That executive added some new names on Saturday. Diane Carey was elected the new provincial vice-president, and six new regional vice-presidents were voted in: Paul Dempsey, Mary Coxon, Alex Lebrun, Michael Phillips, J.J. Doiron, and Lisa Deveau.

OTTAWA • Dominic Cardy is now the permanent leader of his own upstart federal party.

The former New Brunswick NDP leader turned Higgs government Progressive Conservative cabinet minister will lead the Canadian Future Party into the next federal election.

At a founding convention held in Ottawa on the weekend, about 100 party members voted to remove Cardy’s interim title, affirming him as leader until at least 2026.

“The future starts now, the Canadian Future Party starts now,” Cardy said in a speech before the vote.

“It starts with you. Sign up members, raise money, found your riding associations, but not for the old political reasons of just building a party for the sake of party, but because we have a time-limited challenge to change Canada.

“Let’s change the debate, let’s elect MPs, let’s make Canada the country it can be, not going left, not right, sure as hell not going back, going forward, that’s what the party is about.”

It’s an uphill battle.

The Future Party, which was registered as an official party by Elections Canada in August, arose from the Centre Ice Canadians, a group that emerged mid-pandemic believing the federal Conservatives had drifted too far right, as Pierre Poilievre steamrolled over a more centrist-positioned Jean Charest to grab leadership of the party.

The party currently has 1,401 active members, each who have paid a $20 membership fee, and $24,813 in the bank as of the end of October.

It now has the target of adding 500 members a month with the aim of building a $700,000 war chest by the end of 2025.

It took a next step on the weekend to approve a constitution and bylaws, while debating priority policy resolutions, and affirming key positions within the party.

A call for an increase in defence spending to “a minimum” of two per cent of Canada’s GDP received unanimous support.

Members then backed a move to a mixed member proportional voting system that would increase each province’s representation in the House of Commons up to 25 per cent, with members elected through a closed, ranked, party list and serving as ordinary MP.

It also approved a housing plan, the building of a framework to advance reconciliation with Indigenous people “aiming to resolve all claims within 10 years,” and then a health care strategy that would see the feds provide direct funding to family doctors in the form of annual top-ups to improve compensation.

The party now turns its full focus to appealing to a political middleground of disaffected Liberals and Conservatives.

“Isn’t there something better than a party that on the one hand apologizes for everything and on the other hand a party that says it has nothing to apologize for, ever?” Cardy said in an expansive 45-minute speech.

“Can’t we have something between arrogance and bullying that masquerades as strength on the one hand, and weakness and vacillation masked as conciliation and compromise.

“We can compromise, but never at the cost of our values. We can be strong, but never at the cost of exploiting or pushing down on those weaker than us. To me, that’s what Canada is all about.”

Cardy’s speech labelled Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election a “wake up call to Canada” threatening democracy in favour of an ethnic nationalism.

At another one point, Cardy, a pilot himself who has long flown ultralight planes out of the Woodstock airport, used the example of flying for the party he wants to create, one that’s “rules based, but that delivers freedom.”

At another, he revisited his arrest in August for confronting anti-Israel protesters in Toronto.

Cardy criticized how the right to protest is now “unrestricted.”

“You can protest whoever you want, however you want. Infringing on other people’s rights is no longer a concern. The voice of the loudest prevails, and that’s the exact opposition of what our system is supposed to protect,” he said.

The roughly 100 people in the room at the convention were made up of people who said they no longer feel they fit elsewhere.

“I’m here because the Liberals moved out of my financial responsibility wheelhouse and the Conservatives moved out of my socially Progressive wheelhouse,” Patrick Dickinson, a former VP of marketing for The Bay department stores, told Brunswick News. “They both walked away from being that Canadian, moderate, measured, financially disciplined and socially progressive party.

“So who carries that banner? That’s why I got involved. Maybe these guys. There’s no other organization trying to address the gap in the middle.”

Now retired, he took a flight from Toronto to be a part of the founding convention.

Still, he’s not sold on whether the Canadian Future Party is the answer, if it can’t win now.

Dickinson stood on the convention floor to poll members on who they believe will win the next federal election. Nearly half raised their hand to suggest the federal Conservatives will win, a count he said was concerning.

“It all still sounds like a kind of protest vote to me,” Dickinson said of the party’s supporters.

“And when it’s really really serious I don’t think Canadians are going to put their money into a protest vote. I’m not going to put my money into a protest vote. I’m going to be like everybody else, ‘what’s the lesser of the two evils’ that have a chance to win?

“We’ve got to move,” he added.

“I’m not sure I want to be in a party that’s just content with being a protest vote.”

The Canadian Future Party does have some winning experience behind it.

It has the support of Peter Kent, the environment minister under Stephen Harper, as well as former Progressive Conservative Manitoba MP David Bjornson. Former B.C. premier Christy Clark was also involved briefly with the political movement.

Former NDP MP Denis Blanchette, who was part of the Jack Layton orange wave in 2011, is on the new party’s national council.

“The party changed a lot,” Blanchette told Brunswick News on why he abandoned the NDP. “It’s not what it was when I first joined, so I said ‘where can I find a place that respects my own principles?’”

Asked how the Canadian Future Party can emulate the 2011 59-seat meteoric rise the NDP had in Quebec, Blanchette said that while a charismatic leader helps, rational policies see parties break through.

“There are many things we have to do,” he said. “Sure, names are important, but first of all it’s about membership and convincing people this is the way to go.”

The Canadian Future Party has run candidates in two recent byelections just weeks after it became an officially registered federal party, although with little success.

In September, it finished sixth in the Manitoba riding of Elmwood-Transcona with 132 votes.

It was then eighth in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun with 103 votes, behind the five major parties with seats inside the House of Commons, but also the People’s Party of Canada, and an independent in the race.

Cardy said the weekend was about putting in place the infrastructure to succeed.

“There are things you can control, and things you can’t,” Cardy said.

“The things you can control are how you build the structure of a party. If you build it so that it can’t withstand the first campaign because you rushed it, then you haven’t really done anything useful.

“This convention is about planning for that campaign.”

That will also determine where Cardy will run in the next federal election.

Cardy said he and his wife Julie Smith, who serves as the party’s executive director, now plan to rent an apartment in Ottawa, while continuing to live in Fredericton.

“And then make a decision on where I’m going to run based on evidence,” Cardy said.

“In Fredericton I’m known and have been elected and re-elected and have even better cross-party lines than I did before because now I have a whole bunch of Tory friends and Liberal friends.

“I think trying to build a coalition there would be the easiest as a candidate. As a leader, being in Ottawa is easier, so it’s going to be balancing that in the next few months and then making a decision.”

The Holt government has made its first big changes to the ranks of the senior bureaucracy, installing a new head of the civil service and dumping a controversial deputy minister appointed by Blaine Higgs.

Yennah Hurley, who was appointed deputy minister of tourism, heritage, and culture in 2020 is out, replaced by Shannon Wilson, who has been working as an assistant deputy minister in the department. 

Also, Judy Wagner has been named the interim clerk of the Executive Council Office and head of the public service. Wagner will also be secretary to cabinet and acting deputy minister responsible for women’s equality. Wagner replaces Cheryl Hansen, who retired less than a day after the Liberals won last month’s election. 

Under the Gallant Liberals, Wagner was secretary to cabinet and deputy minister of the Executive Council Office. In 2019, after the Liberals were defeated by the Higgs Tories, Wagner became principal secretary and chief of staff at the lieutenant-governor’s office.

Another change sees Kelly Cain become chief of staff in the premier’s office. Since January, Cain held that role in the Liberal office. Her resume includes stints as deputy minister in several departments, including tourism, heritage and culture, human resources, transportation and infrastructure, and intergovernmental affairs.

Hansen was also deputy finance minister. That position has been filled by Travis Bergin, who was already an associate deputy minister in the department. 

“I am happy to welcome these experienced civil servants to the team,” Holt said in a press release announcing the changes. “They each bring a deep knowledge to their roles and a passion for helping New Brunswickers.”

Former travel blogger Hurley’s tenure as an advisor to Higgs and later as deputy tourism minister came with some controversy, particularly over her travel expenses, which included costly business trips to Europe and the United States with other government staff. Last year, Hurley expensed about $77,000 worth of air and taxi fares, hotel stays, meals, moving bills and other charges to the province.

By comparison, Higgs expensed about $52,000.

The Europe trip, taken in September 2023, included stays at luxury hotels and visits to major tourist attractions, and was slammed by the opposition parties.

Even if such out-of-country trips like that one have taken place in the past, Higgs said in April, “it doesn’t mean that’s right and it doesn’t mean that I condone it.” And in light of the discussion about Hurley’s bills, Higgs said the province would “evaluate what other provinces do and what the right thing to do is” because it wants to be “prudent with taxpayers’ dollars.“

Whether that happened is unclear.

In late September, Hurley went on leave, according to a government memo obtained by Brunswick News. The reason for the leave wasn’t disclosed, the government didn’t comment when asked for more information, and there’s no suggestion the leave was connected to Hurley’s expenses.

At the time, Brunswick News asked Hurley for comment, but didn’t receive a response.

Frank McKenna says Susan Holt’s election-night speech was a “masterpiece,” ushering in a new government that New Brunswickers “can rightfully be very excited about.”

But he’s also warning that Holt’s path ahead isn’t easy.

The problems she faces as premier are many and complex with no simple solutions.

“There will be a different lens and a different energy that she will bring, which is important, but the issues haven’t gone away,” McKenna said in an interview with Brunswick News. “That includes health care at the top of the list and that’s a massive challenge being faced by governments across the country and around the world.

“People shouldn’t expect that some fairy dust is going to fix it. It’s going to require a lot of effort.”

McKenna adds NB Power, its multibillion-dollar debt and failing power stations, a housing shortage, and litigation with Indigenous people to the list of complex problems that aren’t easy to address.

“Those issues haven’t gone away with the election and the public of New Brunswick need to respect the fact that the premier elect, she might bring a lot of energy and creativity, a new team and everything else, but she still needs to deal with very difficult problems,” he said.

‘Excited’ about Holt’s campaign

New Brunswick’s 27th premier who served from 1987 to 1997, winning every seat in the province in his first election, said he was impressed with Holt’s election runoff.

Her 31-seat win is the best provincial Liberal finish since the McKenna landslides of the 1990s.

“I was really excited by her campaign,” McKenna said.

“I thought this was very much a personal victory. She brought high energy, she brought a strong team, she brought a strong focus on what was important to New Brunswick with health care at the top of the list.

“And she committed to an anchor of living within our means which I think is an important value in New Brunswick which has a lot of respect for fiscal probity.”

McKenna added Holt’s style of collaboration and transparency is a winning one.

“That’s been lacking and is respected,” he said.

“New Brunswickers can rightfully be very excited about Susan Holt’s victory. She is the first woman to become the premier of the province and she won against the backdrop of an unpopular federal leader.

“It shows that she was really able to counteract that attack.”

But what impressed him most was election night itself.

“Her election night speech was one of the best I’ve ever heard in that setting,” McKenna said. “It was inclusive, it was respectful, it was inspiring, visionary, sensitive, and she did it fluently in French and English.

“I thought it was a bit of a masterpiece in saying all the right things and touching all the right notes.”

Her first words were “Thank you” in Mi’kmaq, then in Maliseet, and then in French.

Her speech pointed out the women who came before her, mentioning by name Brenda Robertson, who in 1967 became the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Shirley Dysart, the first female Liberal to serve in the legislature, Elizabeth Weir, the first elected female leader of a political party in New Brunswick, and Aldea Landry, the first Acadian woman named to cabinet.

There were touching moments referencing her family and young children.

Holt also addressed the immediacy of her challenges.

“We don’t take it lightly that you have put your trust in myself and my team and that you have hope for a brighter future,” Holt said. “But that hope, I know, is short lived, and it’s going to be on us to deliver authentically on the ground, openly and transparently.

“It’s going to be on us to bring the change that you’ve been asking for everyday in everything we communicate with you.”

Difficulty of the unforeseen

Asked what the biggest challenge a new premier faces, McKenna suggested it’s the unforeseen twists and turns ahead.

“Somebody asked the British prime minister once what kept him awake at night and he said ‘Events, dear boy. Events,’” McKenna said, referencing the famous quote from British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan.

“There’s truth in that.”

The Higgs government was dealt a pandemic and its widespread fallout, followed by a war in Ukraine that upset the international economy.

McKenna, who went on to serve as Canada’s ambassador to the United States after his time as New Brunswick’s premier, referenced the impact of the looming U.S. presidential election as a potential next test.

“I think this election will be the most consequential we’ve seen in our history,” he said.

“One party in the election has openly pledged to essentially create a tariff wall around the United States of America which would negate laboriously negotiated treaties that we have.

“It has the real potential to ignite a trade war that would be damaging to Canada, to the rest of the world, and in fact the United States of America.”

McKenna added that there’s also the potential for “a mass deportation program, which could put pressure on Canada, the borders, and trying to deal with an influx of people across Canada.”

“And then just the assault on multilateral institutions that have been important to Canada and the rest of the democratic world, from the WTO to the WHO to NATO to the Paris Accords,” he said. “Those are all important guardrails for the entire world to try and reduce points of friction.

“There’s a chance that there will be a wholesale assault on a lot of these institutions which would make for a chaotic world.”

That’s as Canadian federal policy could impact a New Brunswick government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week a dramatic cut to immigration levels, with plans to reduce the number of new permanent residents admitted into the country by nearly 100,000 – roughly 20 per cent – in the year ahead.

That’s while also slashing temporary foreign worker and international student levels with an overall impact aimed at flatlining population growth in Canada.

“There’s no doubt that population growth in New Brunswick has led to improved finances, has led to a larger workforce capable of filling the needs of some of our industry,” McKenna said. “It has been a positive.

“If I had a wish, my wish would be for the government of Canada, working with the Atlantic provinces, recognize the original need that led to us having a special immigration program and make sure that our needs are addressed in a very distinct, bespoke way.

He added: “We’re not Toronto, we’re not Vancouver, we’re not Montreal. We don’t get the lion’s share of immigrants and it’s only laterally that we’ve been able to get our fair share.

“I would not want the government of Canada to make the mistake of having one policy to fit all.”

5  Comments 

Scott-Wallace wins 'very awkward' race against former Tory MLA

PC candidate Tammy Scott-Wallace earned 507-vote win against Bruce Northrup, who came out of retirement for the Liberals

Author of the article:

Andrew Bates

Published Oct 22, 2024 

 

Liberal candidate Bruce Northrup and Tory incumbent Tammy Scott-Wallace hug after Northrup congratulated her on her win Monday. Scott-Wallace won by 507 votes over Northrup, a former Tory cabinet minister who came out of retirement for the Liberals. Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS

It was a “very awkward” campaign in Sussex-Three Rivers, and the area’s closest result dating back to 2003.

But at the end, it was incumbent Tammy Scott-Wallace re-elected with a 507-vote lead over her predecessor, Bruce Northrup, even as her Progressive Conservative party lost the 2024 New Brunswick provincial election.

Scott-Wallace, who served as tourism minister in Premier Blaine Higgs’s cabinet, claimed 3,789 votes Monday to 3,282 for Northrup, who had represented the riding as a PC MLA from 2006 to 2020 before coming out of retirement to run for the Liberals in June.

“It was a tight race tonight and I feel incredible tonight. It was tighter than I anticipated, because I was one of the last MLAs declared. Which was very, very different than my experience four years ago,” said Scott-Wallace, who led by 3,045 votes in 2020.

Tammy Scott-Wallace won by 507 votes over Bruce Northrup, a former Tory cabinet minister who came out of retirement for the Liberals.Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS

Neither candidate had previously experienced a margin of victory less than 1,200 votes, and it’s the tightest in the area since two-time Liberal MLA LeRoy Armstrong won Kings East with a 456-vote lead in 2003.

“We had a great campaign, we had a lot of good volunteers that stepped up,” Northrup said. “I’ve been retired three years, enjoyed retirement, I’ll go back into retirement tomorrow with no ill effects or no negative things towards this campaign.”

Northrup, a former cabinet minister under David Alward, retired in 2020, saying he moved to Nova Scotia to be closer to his family after living in Sussex for 65 years. Earlier that year, he had opposed the Higgs government’s plan to close overnight ER service at hospitals in six communities, including Sussex. That plan was withdrawn, but two years later Horizon announced a “temporary” shortening of hours at the Sussex Health Centre, now 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., citing staffing issues.

Scott-Wallace, a former journalist, faced a wave of criticism over a trip to Europe last year she took with departmental staff, which cost taxpayers about $42,000.

She was joined by Deputy Tourism Minister Yennah Hurley and two other staff members on the trip to the United Kingdom and France. The group met with several tour operators and publicity firms who do business with the province, but they also visited the British Museum, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Versailles to gather “best practices” for the province’s own heritage sites.

“My conscience is clear when it comes to my expenses around these trips, and I hope that no tourism minister going forward is ever discouraged from doing their job and inviting visitors and attracting visitors to this incredible province,” Scott-Wallace said in April.

In June, Northrup announced that he would be returning as a Liberal, saying he was “not satisfied with the leadership” of Scott-Wallace and Higgs, including centralization of power in the premier’s office, as well as raising concerns over the Sussex Health Centre emergency department and flood mitigation.

In response, Scott-Wallace said at the time that Northrup’s return amounted to “changing all of his views for the chance of another government paycheque.”

But on Monday, she said that “we had a Liberal candidate that really resonated” in Northrup and the race was expected to be tight.

“People have clearly made health care an important topic here in Sussex, especially,” said Scott-Wallace, who faced criticism at a town hall in September, days after a man said he was turned away from the ER while having a heart attack. “I think the result went the way it did tonight because we’ve been very transparent about the plan for our ER. I think people very much understand that this is a national issue.”

    In 2022, Horizon announced a temporary cut to 24/7 service at the emergency department of the Sussex Health Centre, currently open from 8 a.m to 8:30 p.m.Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS ARCHIVE

Scott-Wallace said the government had a “solid plan” to restore service in the ER, which she said should bear fruit with “re-opening in the coming months.” Horizon has announced a “blended” pilot project allowing nurses and paramedics to staff the ER with virtual assistance from a doctor.

“Clearly they have faith that I’m going to keep my foot on the pedal when it comes to that fight,” she said. She also pointed to the June announcement of a new clinic in the Petitcodiac-Three Rivers region, now part of the riding, as evidence that things there have “turned the corner.”

When asked Monday about how he felt about the result, Northrup said he “knocked on a lot of doors and talked to a lot of people” since June.

“I just hope that the present MLA will take care of the Sussex Health Centre situation,” he said.

He also said he had brought the community’s flood mitigation proposal “to a forefront.”

The flood mitigation plan, which involves digging a diversionary channel from Trout Creek to the Kennebecasis River, had been awaiting federal approval since the town’s application was re-submitted in spring of last year. Scott-Wallace was on hand at the project announcement in June as the federal government committed $15.3 million, with the province announcing more than $1 million for a berm project in Sussex Corner and design work on the project’s environmental impact assessment, and promising $12 million in future budgets.

That announcement came six days after Northrup announced his candidacy. Scott-Wallace said at the time that flooding in February was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” and that the premier had visited the town to discuss its needs in the spring a month before the announcement.

Northrup said Monday that “the money’s in place,” saying that and the ER situation are “the two main reasons I came out of retirement.”

“I’m happy I’ve come back, I really am, I just thought there was a need for me to come back, I didn’t have to be here,’ he said.

Liberal candidate Bruce Northrup gives his concession speech to a roomful of supporters at the Smitty’s Restaurant in Sussex.Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS

Northrup was emotional as he thanked volunteers at his election night party at Smitty’s Restaurant, telling Brunswick News “we left a foundation, we left the riding in a good situation,” adding that he hopes another candidate steps up soon to start work on the next election.

Then, he drove across town to the Sussex Golf and Curling Club, where he offered his congratulations to Scott-Wallace in person.

“Bruce said that he hopes that we can continue to be friends after this. I said, of course, I accept his friendship,” said Scott-Wallace, who said she had known him “for a very very long time.”

But in her victory speech, she thanked those who “stood by me despite a very awkward circumstance” and told Brunswick News that his switching parties caused “friction within the community, and we were divided” because of the respect people held for Northrup.

Campaign manager Alicia Landry takes a photo of Tammy Scott-Wallace with her son Kegan, daughter Jaime and husband Troy Wallace.Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS /pmc

She also said that the provincial results have “been upsetting in a lot of ways,” citing colleagues who lost their seats “that I was hoping to return to Fredericton with.”

“But we also have an opportunity as a party and those that have been elected tonight to come together and rebuild our party,” Scott-Wallace said. When asked what the party could have done differently, she said there were “issues that were outstanding that were divisive for sure,” but that after two terms, “people were clearly looking for a change.”

“We have done an incredible amount of work, and not everybody agreed with the path we were taking,” she said.

Also running in the riding were Green candidate Teri McMackin, a former Petitcodiac councillor, who received 1,235 votes, and Libertarian candidate Wayne Wheeler, who received 159 votes.

Voters make their way out of a polling place at the Sussex Legion Branch 20 on Magnolia Avenue. Sussex-Three Rivers voters cast 7,840 ballots with 67 per cent turnout, up from 64 per cent in the former riding of Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins in 2020.Photo by ANDREW BATES/BRUNSWICK NEWS

“Over 1,200 people put their vote with me and I take that very seriously,” McMackin said in a statement. “At the doors, I heard a lot of people who supported me but worried about splitting the vote. They wanted to hold the Higgs government accountable and we see that with more than half the vote not going with the incumbent.”

Outside a polling place at the Sussex Legion hall, voter Kim Forgrave said health care and pensions were her main issues. Bridget Ryan said “health care is very important to me, also the fiscal report card for the province,” saying the government needed to put its surplus towards education and health care. Andrea and Sage Creelman said that health care and keeping the hospital open were their main issues.

In the neighboring riding of Arcadia-Butternut Valley-Maple Hills, Progressive Conservative candidate Don Monahan, co-owner of the Sussex KOA campground, won with 4,284 votes over Liberal candidate Connie Larson with 2,289 votes.

– With files from Barbara Simpson

 

9 Comments

 

Dianne MacPherson

I was not sorry to see the defeat

of Bruce Northrup........

it's scandalous the things that

Politicians believe that they

can get away with.

 

Joel Lemon

Glad to see that the Deputy Tourism Minister will be gone, no more fancy trips on the government dime. 

 

Edward Armstrong

Reply to Joel Lemon

She's been gone since September. 

 

Joel Lemon 

Reply to Joel Lemon

Wasn't she just on leave? Now she is on permanent leave.

 

Edward Armstrong 

Reply to Joel Lemon

Reassigned is my understanding. 

 

Joel Lemon 

Reply to Edward Armstrong

This article from October 8 quotes Bruce MacFarlane as saying she is still employed."Macfarlane said Hurley still holds that job, although Mills is now performing its functions."Yennah Hurley is the deputy minister of tourism, heritage and culture. Dan Mills is interim deputy minister of tourism heritage and culture," he wrote."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-officials-yennah-hurley-arizona-baskteball-tournament-1.7345199

Edward Armstrong

Reply to Joel Lemon

Wherever she is, she's not working at TH&C 

 

Mke Connors 

We see that Sussex supports hate. Sad. Not surpised but sad. When hate is in your heart, one can not expect another outcome. The results in Sussex speaks volumes. Glad that the hate will end soon. The promoters of hate can look across the aisle and be reminded hate never wins. 

 

Edward Armstrong 

Reply to Mke Connors

There was more than one issue in our riding that secured the PC win, if you weren't a single issue commenter, you might realize that.

If I was Trudeau, I would resign: Frank McKenna

Former N.B. premier says he’s unsure if Justin Trudeau’s resignation is now best for federal Liberal party’s fortunes

Author of the article:

Adam Huras

Published Oct 29, 2024

 

Former premier Frank McKennaSUBMITTED

OTTAWA • Frank McKenna says he would resign.

But the former New Brunswick premier says he’s unsure if Justin Trudeau’s resignation is now best for the federal Liberal party’s fortunes.

This late in the game ahead of the next federal election, McKenna says it can be argued that Trudeau may be most equipped to fight the looming battle.

“You can argue that from either side,” McKenna said in an interview with Brunswick News. “You can argue that if in fact the government is going to be defeated, better that it be with Trudeau rather than a new leader.

“You could also argue that there’s nobody better to defend his track record and no better campaigner than Trudeau.”

McKenna said it’s a question those lining up to replace the prime minister are actively asking.

“I hear both sides argued every single day, including from some leadership aspirants who wonder whether they would want to enter into it now,” he said.

McKenna later continued: “I would have preferred more time.

“I would have preferred if a new leader were to enter the fray that the new leader would have many months, even a year or so, to establish a new direction, new policy initiatives, a personality.

“As it stands now, under any and all circumstances, if a new leader is chosen for the Liberal party the government will be defeated immediately on a confidence motion and the new leader really won’t have the time to be prime ministerial for any period of time.”

In his ninth year as prime minister, Trudeau’s approval rate has plummeted from 63 per cent when he was first elected to consistently being in the low 30s this year.

Last week, he was confronted by more than 20 disgruntled caucus members at a three-hour party meeting over his political future.

McKenna was premier of New Brunswick from 1987 to 1997.

He resigned 10 years to the day after first winning power, believing 10 years was long enough for a premier to hold office and having pledged to serve only that long when first elected.

That’s despite delivering the largest electoral victory in New Brunswick history, winning every seat in the legislature in 1987, and then following it up in 1991 and 1995 with two more strong majority wins.

“Richard Hatfield, who came before me, stayed for 17 years,” McKenna said. “The consensus is Richard Hatfield was a good premier for a lot of that time, but he stayed too long, his party thought he stayed too long, and the province thought he stayed too long.

“So it was really against a backdrop of Richard Hatfield overstaying his welcome that I made a pledge not to do that.”

But McKenna said that 10-year pledge proved right for several reasons.

“Having made the comment and having felt some regret when my 10 years was up, I also knew it felt right,” he said. “I knew that increasingly I was becoming less collaborative, that all of the forces coming at you tend to make you retrench and rely on a very small circle of advisors.

“I knew that was happening to me. I didn’t feel unloved, I just felt personally that I was not quite the same person that started the journey.”

He would have the same advice for any politician.

“If I were talking to anybody, at a certain stage in their career, I would talk to them about the force of gravity,” McKenna said. “It’s no dishonour, you can be an extremely successful leader and still have a gravitational pull against you.

“After 10 years, there’s a strong sense that products and politicians become stale dated.”

Added to that is post-pandemic anger over high inflation and a higher cost of living.

“And we’re seeing incumbent governments pay the price for that, and that could be in British Columbia, to some extent Saskatchewan, and certainly in New Brunswick,” McKenna said in referencing a trio of provincial elections.

“We’ve seen it in Germany, the U.K., and France, and now in Japan. Incumbency is very difficult and longevity is very difficult, and that weighs on any leader no matter how skillful that leader is.”

McKenna said what’s happening now between Trudeau and his own caucus is a reasonable debate now well into a third mandate.

“It’s very natural,” McKenna said. “Obviously, MPs are feeling the heat in their ridings and they know the shelf life of this government is reaching its logical conclusion, so they feel a strong sense of concern and even survival.

“And they manage that against a really strong sense of loyalty.”

 

40 Comments

 

In my opinion, the only way the Liberals have a chance of forming the next government, is to support a well known and proven candidate to take on the Tories. I believe that if Frank McKenna were to consider the opportunity for at least one term, the Liberals would prevail.

N.B.'s top civil servant quits a day after the election

Cheryl Hansen was a key ally of Blaine Higgs

Author of the article:

Andrew Waugh

Published Oct 23, 2024 

Cheryl Hansen is pictured in this file photo.BRUNSWICK NEWS ARCHIVES

Cheryl Hansen, New Brunswick’s top civil servant and a close ally of Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs, quit her post less than 24 hours after the party was swept out of office.

Hansen was the government’s chief operating officer, the clerk of the Executive Council, the head of the public service, deputy minister of Finance and Treasury Board, deputy minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, secretary to Treasury Board, and secretary to cabinet.

In a memo sent Tuesday obtained by Brunswick News, Hansen wrote that “after 40 years of public service, I am retiring from the Government of New Brunswick.”

“Over the past years, I have watched you all pull together to tackle a global pandemic, a major flood, forest fires and other major events all while continuing to deliver services,” Hansen wrote.

“We have accomplished great things working together and you have proven your abilities time and time again. Until the incoming government makes staffing decisions, Joel Dickinson will be be acting as clerk and Travis Bergin will be acting as deputy minister for Finance and Treasury Board.

“I am proud to call myself a member of the GNB team and I am proud of the work you as a team have accomplished delivering for New Brunswickers. I look forward to continuing to see all the great things you will do.”

The most recent government data, from 2022, showed that Hansen earned between $275,000 and $299,999 that year, making her the highest paid deputy minister. But she was appointed to several other roles in the two years that followed.

Higgs frequently singled Hansen out for praise, particularly in big speeches, like the State of the Province address.

But she also sometimes irked MLAs.

For example, during the pandemic, Hansen led COVID Core, a group of senior bureaucrats who met informally most days to help guide what the decision-makers would hear. But in the wake of an auditor general’s report, Hansen was summoned to appear before a legislative committee, and during questioning admitted that Core kept no records of its gatherings beyond a few notes intermittently scribbled on paper.

The committee, made up of MLAs from the three main parties, was so unimpressed by Hansen’s answers that it summoned then chief medical health officer Dr. Jennifer Russell to face the spotlight.