Power and Powerlessness
A language-rights horror story jolts MLAs reviewing the Official Languages Act
Gisèle Caissie may have felt powerless, but her words were powerful indeed in front of a committee of MLAs last week.
On Tuesday she reminded them that some unilingual francophones still have trouble getting basic services in their language, despite the Official Languages Act.
The committee of MLAs wrapped up two weeks of hearings around the province Friday, part of the Holt government’s review of the act.
Here’s the Radio-Canada story on Caissie’s appearance in Moncton, and here is a story filed by colleague Katelin Belliveau about another appearance before the committee.
The story Caissie told about the Miramichi hospital was timely because the province’s official languages commissioner had just issued two reports on other cases at the same facility.
As a postscript, here’s a photo I snapped when the committee broke on Thursday: one Liberal MLA and two PCs huddling with a committee resource person, quietly sorting out an issue.
Polarization? Maybe not.
‘I Don’t Have a Good Answer’
The languages committee wasn’t the only process revealing things last week. The legislature’s social policy committee was also at work, featuring a difficult admission from a deputy minister.
Here’s Savannah Awde’s story from the second day of hearings.
And here is something else Kelly Lamrock wants you to know.
Minister Aglow
There’s New Brunswick’s energy minister, René Legacy, at a federal announcement in — Newmarket, Ontario?
Yes, that’s where Legacy’s federal counterpart, Tim Hodgson, unveiled the Carney government’s nuclear strategy, which calls for 10 new generating stations over the coming decades, including one outside Ontario underway by 2035.
Well, guess what: there’s only one other province with a nuclear power plant operating at the moment.
The Holt government said in May it planned to study the recommendation of new nuclear until next March, but last week Legacy was all but declaring it a go.
The problem: N.B. Power is not nearly as gung-ho. That’s in my story too.
It all made for plentiful cups of analysis on Friday’s Café Politique:
In Other News
We got new, more detailed data on access to primary care, expanding on the numbers Premier Susan Holt talked about in her State of the Province speech.
The province is moving the goalposts on literacy.
The new school lunch program has a downside in one school.
The Emergency Measures Organization was called in to support the response to a surge in overdoses in Moncton.
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery brought in a work that provoked a lot of people, once upon a time; a Conservative MP sighed.
The Mark Carney-Danielle Smith carbon tax deal — the one Susan Holt recently embraced — means a planned carbon capture project in Alberta may not be viable.
Carney bit the bullet and tackled a long-delayed renovation project — and I’m not talking about CUSMA.
Polling Corner
After a drought of public opinion research on New Brunswick politics for several months, we now have not one but three recent polls with results in the same ballpark.
All indicate potential trouble for the Holt Liberals.
First was the Angus Reid Institute poll a couple of weeks back showing 49-per-cent disapproval for the Holt government compared to 41-per-cent approval.
Then Porter O’Brien, a communications and lobbying firm in Fredericton, released a voter intention poll with the following numbers among decided voters: Liberals 43, PCs 39, Greens 13, others 5. The margin of error was four points, and 21 per cent of respondents were undecided. (Porter O’Brien has links to the current government, but Éric Grenier looked at their methodology and deemed it credible.) Regionally, the Liberals led strongly in Moncton and rural francophone areas, and narrowly in Fredericton and Saint John; they were far behind in rural anglophone areas.
Lastly, Narrative Research, which stopped releasing voter intention polls publicly a couple of years back, did release satisfaction numbers for the four Atlantic provincial governments. Their numbers for the Holt government: 35 per cent satisfied, 37 per cent dissatisfied, 27 per cent neutral.
Taken together, these numbers are not disastrous for the Liberals but they indicate at best a lack of enthusiasm for how the government is doing — even before the PCs have a new leader to put in front of voters as an alternative.
Poetry Corner
This poem by a Canadian, about the United States, seemed appropriate to share this week with both Canada Day and the Fourth of July coming up.
Kitts the Light Fantastic
CBC New Brunswick said goodbye last week to Colleen Kitts-Goguen, a long-time journalist with the corporation who wrapped up her decades of service as the interim host of Information Morning Fredericton. I’ll miss Colleen’s bookish wisdom and her care with words.
A Lighter Calendar
The provincial political calendar is delightfully free of entries for the immediate future. Canada Day, July 1, is one deadline in our CUSMA drama, the date by which the three countries must decide whether to extend the deal for another 16 years or subject it to annual reviews.
On the more distant horizon, we’ve got a Québec election Oct. 5, the New Brunswick PC leadership vote Oct. 17 and Alberta’s sort-of separation referendum Oct. 19.
A Week Off
I’m on vacation this week and I won’t be in a position to put together much of a newsletter for next Monday; I'll have a regular newsletter for you again on July 13.
I usually read the newsletter, it's informative and to the point. I also appreciate you mentioning Colleen's retirement! Thanks for the newsletter Jacques and enjoy your vacation. All the best to Colleen!