New Brunswick's auditor general has settled a lawsuit filed by his former deputy after he fired her in 2023.

Janice Leahy, one of at least a dozen employees who left the office of Auditor General Paul Martin last year, claimed in her lawsuit that her firing was retaliatory and was done in bad faith.

Court records showed the case was discontinued earlier this month.

 "All employment-related matters with the Office of the Auditor General of New Brunswick have been resolved to our mutual satisfaction," a spokesperson for Martin said in an email, turning down a request for details of the settlement.

Leahy did not respond to an interview request from CBC News.

Martin wouldn't discuss the wave of departures or Leahy's lawsuit when reporters asked him about them last year, saying only that the market for qualified auditors was "hot" in 2023 and that contributed to some staff taking positions elsewhere.

Janice Leahy left the office of Auditor General Paul Martin last year. She claimed in her lawsuit that her firing was 'retaliatory.' (Pascal Raiche-Nogue/Radio-Canada)

He also rejected suggestions by Green Leader David Coon that the departures were connected to his audit of the province's COVID-19 response, an audit Coon criticized.

In her statement of claim last year, Leahy said that her firing "was retaliatory in nature given the positions taken by the plaintiff [Leahy] and was in bad faith."

Her lawsuit focused on her loss of income.

She said in her statement of claim she'd been earning $166,166 a year as deputy auditor general, far more than the $107,249 annual salary in the new job she found at the Canada Revenue Agency in September.

She also said she was entitled to more severance as well as other compensation, for a total claim of $163,497.37.

Martin said in a subsequent statement of defence that he offered to continue paying Leahy's salary and benefits for 11 months and only stopped paying her after he learned she had found another job. 

He said he treated her fairly and in good faith. 

Willy Scholten, a board member with the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association, said that won't be enough for landlords like him.

"We need cost control if we're going to have rent control," he said, pointing to increases in property assessments of 10 per cent or more for some owners now faced with a three-per-cent cap on what they can take in.

"There should be balance in the whole equation," he said. "Otherwise we're going to be sending a pretty negative message to rental housing providers." 

Hickey told reporters he agrees on the need for balance and that's provided by measures like the planned removal of the provincial sales tax on construction costs for new apartment buildings.

Willy Scholten, a board member with the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association, said developers will be reluctant to build new properties if they know their rental income won’t be allowed keep up with property tax increases. (Shane Fowler/CBC)

But Scholten said developers will still be reluctant to build new properties if they know their rental income won't be allowed keep up with property tax increases.

The cap will be reviewed every year and adjusted based on the inflation rate and vacancy statistics.

A landlord will be able to increase rent at a higher rate only when a new tenant moves in — something LeBlanc Haley said will still deliver shocks to rental prices.

"What that means is there will be an incentive to turn over those units in order to increase rents over and above the rent cap," she said.

Under existing legislation, landlords can increase rents only once a year and must give tenants six months' notice.

Any increase that exceeds a threshold linked to inflation — a threshold currently set at 3.8 per cent — can be phased in over two or three years.

Landlords must also apply if they want to terminate a lease and remove tenants for renovations — so-called "renovictions." 

Officials say there have been 123 such applications from landlords so far this year and only nine have been approved.

The second affordability bill introduced Wednesday repeals legislation introduced by the Higgs government in 2022 in response to federal clean fuel regulations.

It added an "adjustor" clause to the Energy and Utility Board's price-setting formula so that the cost of the regulations – 4.5 cents per litre of gas this week – could be passed on to consumers.

The Progressive Conservative government said at the time that without the clause, small, locally owned gas stations would bear the brunt of the costs.

Energy Minister René Legacy says there are EUB mechanisms to protect small retailers and the new government’s priority was to help New Brunswickers. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

The Green Party said at the time the provision was designed to cater to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John.

Energy Minister René Legacy said there are EUB mechanisms to protect small retailers, and the new government's priority was to help New Brunswickers.

"We had an opportunity to reduce the cost for consumers by four cents and we took it. That's what was available to us and we took it," he said.

Legacy said the bill will remove the adjustor from the EUB formula as soon as it becomes law, which is expected to happen before the legislature breaks for Christmas on Dec. 13.

That means gas prices could drop before Christmas.