Liberals trying to shift focus from harsh audit to old election texts, Higgs says
69 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
David Amos Methinks folks should consider voting for an Independent if they are fortunate enough have one running in their riding in the next election N'esy Pas?
David Amos "A day after a scathing audit of their Saint John budget bailout, New Brunswick Liberals tried to change the subject in the legislature"
Surprise Surprise Surprise
Jake Devries
Reply to @David Amos: Libs: Corrupt everywhere
Al Clark
Reply to @David Amos: That the cons said they will abide by, unlike their "slowing down for bridges on the 4 lane" speech.
Matt Steele There should be an investigation into Gallant's 130 MILLION dollar Francophonie games that he was all set to approve ; and the couple of MILLION that was already spent by Gallant's personal friends on the Games before Higgs pulled the plug . Exactly who was on the organizing group for those games , and where did the money go that they was already spent ? No doubt Dominic LeBlanc and Trudeau had their fingers in the 130 MILLION dollar boondoggle as well . Maybe Kevin Vickers can enlighten us some ?
David Amos
Reply to @Matt Steele: Dream on
Marc Martin
Reply to @Matt Steele: I am pretty sure the deals the Cons did with the Fracking and Wood industry is costing a lot more to NBers, why don't you ask for an investigation on that ?
Lou Bell
Reply to @Matt Steele: Won't hear from Vickers . The SANB fab five haven't finished restringing their puppet yet .
Axel Roosevelt
Reply to @Matt Steele:
I don't think Vickers can enlighten anyone on much of anything.
Al Clark
Reply to @Axel Roosevelt: He can enlighten on "what to do when your 'leader' is wetting himself in a closet"
Harold Benson Come on Blaine, get some gonads and do something about the atcon affair.
David Amos
Reply to @Harold Benson: Methinks he sold his gonads to the Irving Clan long ago N'esy Pas?
Lou Bell Appears the Liberals are following the Trump template . DEFLECT ! DEFLECT DEFLECT !! And with the help of Jacques as usual. 200 million in untendered contracts ! Methinks patronage was alive and well in the Liberal/ SANB domain ! Then another 40 or 50 million for infrastructure to their Moncton/ Dieppe/ U de M cohorts in their failed attempt to stick us for their phonie games ! Talk about back door politics ! Shameful !!!
Marc Martin
Reply to @Lou Bell: Just to educate you on the subject Trump is a Conservative.
David Amos
Reply to @Marc Martin: Excellent research I thought you French bureaucrats didn't work
Marc Martin
Reply to @David Amos: I am not French I am Canadian, there is a difference....
Lou Bell
Reply to @Marc Martin: I don't care what affiliation Trump had , he was there for himself and his enablers, just like the Liberals . Get in , get elected , represent their minority , and fill all their pockets .
Lou Bell
Reply to @Marc Martin: I suppose " Marc uerite is the same then . Don't think so !!
Greg Smith
Reply to @Lou Bell: Are you seriously attempting at making a relationship between the alt-right leaning 1%er American president and the Liberal party in NB? The two couldn't be more dissimilar, but it wouldn't be a regular day here if you didn't show up making preposterous unsubstantiated statements in your relentless quest to set an all-time record for downvotes.
Marc Martin
Reply to @Lou Bell: You actually didn't know he was a conservative awwwwww
Jake Devries
Reply to @Marc Martin: then ACT LIKE IT...
Eric Plexe “The Graham government gave the Atcon group of companies a total of $63.4 million in loan guarantees in 2008 and 2009. Those decisions cost taxpayers more than $70 million following Atcon’s bankruptcy in 2010.”
“A $22.8-million bailout package by the Brian Gallant government for the City of Saint John represented "excessive risk" to provincial taxpayers and did not go through the normal approval process, according to New Brunswick's auditor general.” in 2018.
David Amos
Reply to @Eric Plexe: Methinks the Conservatives ignored the same issues N'esy Pas?
Roy Kirk Just once it'd be nice to get the sense that these partisans were somewhat contrite about their past acts and omissions.
David Amos
Reply to @Roy Kirk: Methinks you know as well as I that is never gonna happen N'esy Pas?
David Peters Follow the money, bc it's the big money that wins elections/sets policy.
David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @David Peters: Nope
Methinks everybody knows how broke the PCs were and how fat the liberal bank account was when the writ was dropped for the last election N'esy Pas?
David Amos
Reply to @David Amos: Oh my seems the truth hurts
David Amos
Reply to @David Peters: Methinks everybody knows how broke the PCs were when the writ was dropped last year yet they won N'esy Pas?
David Amos YEA RIGHT One would be rather foolish to believe the words of a politician or a lawyer and very dumb indeed to believe a political lawyer
"The Modern Miracle Network's New Brunswick address is listed as in care of Nic Ouellette, a Saint John lawyer and former executive assistant to Higgs.
The Manning Foundation's address is listed as the law offices of Lawson Creamer, a Saint John firm where former PC leadership candidate Mel Norton works.
Higgs said no one from New Brunswick Proud was involved in his campaign, "certainly not directly with me in any way, shape or form." He also said he was not aware of any co-ordination between his campaign and Norton and Ouellette."
Methinks Mr Mckee should agree after all he is a political lawyer N'esy Pas?
But McKee said their involvement with New Brunswick Proud "raises a suspicion."
Marc Martin
Reply to @David Amos: This is impressive researche work, you did good.
Al Clark
Reply to @Marc Martin: 1111
Al Clark
Reply to @Al Clark: Tell Mel LOL!
JJ Carrier They were robocalling in N.B. on Monday and Tuesday, trying to hide behind whatever funding stream that brought them back after last year's smoke and mirrors...They had no real impact on the last election, because if they did CoR Lite would have gotten more seats in a campaign where they should have won more, but dropped the ball in the former key CoR regions by not campaigning fully until the last two weeks...The big losers were the PC's neo-CoR, as their followers may have caused Higgs to not win a majority by these old schoolers voting for the failed minister's candidates rather than established PCs.
David Amos
Reply to @JJ Carrier: Methinks you forgot that your SANB buddies lost the last election N'esy Pas?
JJ Carrier
Reply to @David Amos: To think I'm a PANB supporter is laughable...I have won more than 250 awards as the province's most decorated community reporter of the last four decades, which makes me famous in my circle - and I'm not that good...To quote my friend The Unknown Comic, you're not famous, are you Amos, for your cliche posts? And that's how the cookie crumbles...
JJ Carrier
Reply to @David Amos: And to quote The Bard, get thee to a nunnery...
David Amos
Reply to @JJ Carrier: "To think I'm a PANB supporter is laughable"
Methinks its strange that who claim to be a great writer in light of the obvious fact that you can't read N'esy Pas?
Marc Martin
Reply to @JJ Carrier: Well said sir.
David Amos
Reply to @JJ Carrier: You have mail
John Smith
Reply to @JJ Carrier: that is one of the worst interpretations of teh last election results i have ever seen even subtracting the lowbrow analogies its not even close to what happened
Al Clark
Reply to @john smith: ewe r such an awesome riter i cant understand why you aint got no award urself the speling an punktuatshun is awesome all day everyday have you ever written a novel i wood so reed it
Bob Smith Nice picture of McKee. Looks like he's trying to create a diversion with the political equivalent of "Squirrel!!". Fact is, the Liberals threw millions of taxpayer money into SJ coffers with no conditions on the money and when the deal expires next year, this shady deal will come up again...
Rosco Holt
Reply to @Bob Smith: What would conservatives have done in the liberals place? ……… The same bloody thing, they would have given money to SJ and you know it.
Bob Smith
Reply to @Rosco holt: Probably. Fact is, SJ finances are well and truly messed up and hard decisions are going to have to be made at some point, not "Kick the can down the road.." choices.
David Amos
Reply to @Bob Smith: Methinks he always looks like a deer caught in the headlights N'esy Pas?
David Amos
Reply to @Rosco holt: "The same bloody thing, they would have given money to SJ and you know it.'
I concur
David Peters
Reply to @Bob Smith: ...but why are they messed up? Was it a sound decision to go ahead with mega projects like a new bus garage, court house and parking garage, when the cities financial situation was unhealthy to begin with?
On the federal level, we have the snc lavalin fiascos....might be time to start moveing away from these gov't backed mega projects.
Bob Smith
Reply to @David Peters: Why are they messed up? Start back in the eighties...when the Elsie Wayne councils chose to give pensions rather than raises when contract time came.."kick the can down the road" economics. Couple that with general incompetence and resistance to bringing in new businesses (the recent Reversing Falls restaurant fiasco typified council) and you have a council still not wanting to make tough budget choices.
Paul Bourgoin
Reply to @Bob Smith: Would Higgs be strongly connected in St. John, NB.?
Bob Smith
Reply to @Paul Bourgoin: Higgs has connections, yes, but given he's not throwing money around like Gallant did, doubt he'll extend the deal. At the most, Higgs might offer a loan but heavily contingent on Darling outlining a plan to fix things beyond shrugging his shoulders.
Liberals trying to shift focus from harsh audit to old election texts, Higgs says
MLA Rob McKee calls for investigation into anti-Liberal text machine New Brunswick Proud
Rob McKee said New Brunswick Proud appears to have spent money on the campaign before it officially registered last September, a potential violation of the law. (CBC)
A day after a scathing audit of their Saint John budget bailout, New Brunswick Liberals tried to change the subject in the legislature by suggesting a Conservative-friendly online group may have violated election laws.
Liberal MLA Rob McKee called for an investigation into New Brunswick Proud, also known as Proudly New Brunswick, including whether it co-operated with the Progressive Conservative Party during last year's provincial election.
But Premier Blaine Higgs said the Liberals were trying to distract voters from Tuesday's report by Auditor General Kim MacPherson. It said a $22.8 million bailout by the Brian Gallant government circumvented provincial law.
"This was seven months or eight months ago, sort of an old item," Higgs said of the Liberal allegations, "but obviously the auditor-general's report is very current."
Even so, Higgs said he's willing to revive a proposal his party made when it was in opposition to ban or restrict campaign spending by outside groups.
"I do think we need to bring it back," he told reporters. "The idea is you can't have an open season. … That is not democracy."
Anti-Liberal texts during campaign
New Brunswick Proud sent out automated anti-Liberal text messages during and after last fall's provincial election campaign.
Outside-group or "third-party" advertising is allowed during provincial election campaigns, but the groups must register with Elections New Brunswick if they spend more than $500. They must also file returns listing their donors and expenses.
"I do think we need to bring it back," he told reporters. "The idea is you can't have an open season. … That is not democracy."
Many New Brunswickers received this text during last fall's election campaign. (CBC)
According to its return, New Brunswick Proud had only two donations above $100: $5,000 from the pro-oil group Modern Miracle Network, and $7,000 from the Manning Foundation, a conservative-leaning think-tank.
The Modern Miracle Network's New Brunswick address is listed as in care of Nic Ouellette, a Saint John lawyer and former executive assistant to Higgs.
The Manning Foundation's address is listed as the law offices of Lawson Creamer, a Saint John firm where former PC leadership candidate Mel Norton works.
Higgs said no one from New Brunswick Proud was involved in his campaign, "certainly not directly with me in any way, shape or form." He also said he was not aware of any co-ordination between his campaign and Norton and Ouellette.
But McKee said their involvement with New Brunswick Proud "raises a suspicion."
The law on political donations says third-party group and political parties cannot "collude" with each other "to circumvent or attempt to circumvent" the law.
McKee also said the group appears to have spent money on the campaign before it officially registered last September, a potential violation of the law.
"When you look at the big picture, it just makes it seem a little cozy in terms of the sophisticated planning that went behind it," he said.
Heidi McKillop, listed on the return as the chief financial officer for New Brunswick Proud, said via a text message Wednesday that she would not comment because she is no longer with New Brunswick Proud.
Ouellette did not respond either, and Norton's office said he was away until next week.
Higgs sees hypocrisy
Higgs said Wednesday if the Liberals want to push for transparency, they should give the auditor general access to documents from their government that would shed more light on the Saint John budget bailout.
MacPherson's audit flagged several problems with the bailout, including that then-premier Gallant guaranteed the city the money before cabinet had approved it, and that some money was handed over before Gallant signed the agreement.
Auditor General Kim MacPherson flagged several problems with the Saint John bailout, including that then-premier Brian Gallant guaranteed the city the money before cabinet approved it. (CBC)
The $22.8 million was meant to close Saint John's deficit gap over three years, giving municipal and provincial officials time to work out longer-term solutions to the city's fiscal problems. But Higgs said the money was intended to buy votes in the city.
MacPherson said in her audit that she "found evidence departments involved did not provide all documentation and communications requested," a potentially illegal obstruction of access under the Auditor General Act.
Higgs's comment suggests the Liberals still control access to documents from their time in power. But MacPherson's office refused Wednesday to clarify precisely which documents she was referring to in the audit, and which government — the Liberals or the PCs — refused to turn them over.
Her spokesperson Kevin Maillet acknowledged the wording of the passage is "ambiguous" and said it was written that way deliberately.
Premier Blaine Higgs said MacPherson can have access to any information on the bailout that he controls. (CBC)
Asked Wednesday whether his government had given MacPherson everything she asked for on the bailout, Higgs said he didn't know, but "if there's information that I can control that she wants to look at, she's got it."
The Liberals denied they timed their questions about New Brunswick Proud to shift the focus from the audit. McKee said they'd been researching the issue for months and wanted to raise it before the legislature adjourned for the summer.
Jacques Poitras has been CBC's provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. Raised in Moncton, he also produces the CBC political podcast Spin Reduxit.
