With long-term policy experiments, Higgs shatters COVID-19 consensus

COVID-19 has turned New Brunswick into a laboratory in more ways than one.

As the province tries relaxing some restrictions after containing the first wave of the disease, Premier Blaine Higgs is experimenting with new approaches to government policy, experiments he might not be able to attempt in a normal, non-pandemic time.

"For me it's about really taking this opportunity, in a crisis, where innovation is often key," he said this week. "Let's make it happen." 

It was an echo of the famous 2004 comment by Nobel Prize-winning U.S. economist Paul Romer: "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

The New Brunswick government has quickly rejigged many of its essential services, finding workarounds to accommodate physical distancing requirements.

But this week it became evident Higgs envisions more than just clever short-term life hacks. His government sees the pandemic as an opening to re-engineer entire economic sectors — and even some aspects of governance itself.

Labour Minister Trevor Holder said Thursday that the crisis represents a chance "to really change our economy here in New Brunswick once and for all. … If there's ever been a time to do it, now is it." 

Political scientist J.P. Lewis of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John said politicians of all stripes are citing the pandemic to argue for policies they've been advocating for years, and Higgs's Progressive Conservatives are no different.

"When everything gets broken down, you pick and choose," he said.

Change at an unprecedented pace

Early in the pandemic, the innovating was relatively prosaic. The New Brunswick Medical Society agreed to allow doctors to "see" patients by phone or video chat. 

Provincial officials had wanted to try it for years but with COVID-19, it won approval in a week. Since the start of March, 84 per cent of all doctor visits have taken place virtually.

But this week, the full scope of the premier's ambition for change was on display as he grappled with the first major controversy of his COVID-19 response: a ban on temporary foreign workers hired each season by farms, seafood processing plants and trucking firms.

Higgs said the ban was necessary to lower the risk of imported cases of the disease and said his government will help employers fill vacancies by hiring unemployed New Brunswickers, summer students and foreign workers already here.

Industry groups acknowledged their dependence on the workers is a long-standing structural challenge worth discussing — but said a last-minute ban was no way to deal with it and could cripple them in the coming weeks.

Revolutionizing the agricultural sector

The premier acknowledged the change will rattle the industries, but he characterized criticism from Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers and Green Leader David Coon as simply political.

"I appreciate it's tough," he said. "It's tough when we start to get different views in the public and it's not all going to be rosy. I know that. That's the nature of the business we're in."

But Higgs talked about a time beyond COVID-19, touting the idea of "a five, or 10, or 15-year plan" to redesign the agricultural sector and make the province less reliant on food imports.

"I'm saying to these farmers, 'Let's look at your business in a way that we've never looked at it before. Let's find a long-term view," he told a CBC Information Morning Fredericton phone-in.

Listen to Premier Blaine Higgs's full phone-in segment on Information Morning Fredericton.

Borders were closed to foreign workers to protect New Brunswickers' health, premier says

5 years ago

Duration 1:12

Premier Blaine Higgs responds to a question on whether he would make any exemptions for farming or fish processing after those sectors criticized his decision to close borders to foreign workers.

Notably, he said Thursday he wants an overhaul of the sector "that we can support from one government to the next, so that it has a long-term future."

That concept has been a constant refrain throughout Higgs's political career: good policies are routinely discarded when a new party forms government, he argues, preventing them from ever bearing fruit.

Holder was even bolder, saying the Tories want to "to revolutionize" seafood processing, going beyond the short-term replacement of foreign workers to look at "how we change these industries once and for all."

He suggested some seafood plants may be able to take on new value-added processing outside the regular seasons, allowing seasonal workers to work year-round.

Is now the time?

Economic development consultant David Campbell said seasonal work and labour shortages have been a chronic problem and if employers can't fill vacancies, foreign workers have to be available as a last resort.

He also said it's a risk to disrupt that supply of workers, and "lots of people would suggest this isn't the time to do it." And it's not clear enough New Brunswickers will be willing to take those labour-intensive jobs.

Watch Premier Blaine Higgs explain the ban his rationale to ban temporary foreign workers.

But "I do appreciate any effort they're making to change the approach in this province, because we could theoretically see thousands more New Brunswickers working than we actually do see." 

Higgs's ban was ostensibly endorsed by an all-party cabinet committee on COVID-19 that includes Vickers, Coon and People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin.

But Coon said the decision was "rushed" and the committee is "no longer sufficient" to debate such issues.

Liberal MLA Roger Melanson agreed that talk of "revolutionizing" the processing sector and developing five-year plans for agriculture goes far beyond the mandate of the committee.

"This all-party committee was the right thing to do when it came to health issues and this pandemic," he said, but "not all government decisions and policy decisions are about this pandemic."

Both parties called for the legislature to sit again soon, and on Friday, Speaker Daniel Guitard gave notice MLAs will convene May 26. It's not clear if it will be another abbreviated one-day sitting, like in April, or the resumption of normal proceedings.

Higgs draws line between low cases, party co-operation

Higgs was clearly unenthused this week about the legislature resuming, saying its noisy, public clashes are an example of old-fashioned partisan politics that complicates the long-term planning he favours.

"It has caused us to be very volatile in our abilities to see something through, because so many of the focuses have been based on a short-term duration." 

Higgs even attributed New Brunswick's ability to contain the virus to the all-party committee, saying the low case numbers were "directly related" to that co-operative approach.

"We haven't been firing political barbs at each other or in the public in any sort of way," he argued, allowing public servants "to do their jobs and do whatever is necessary to protect citizens."

Coon suggested an all-party legislative committee of MLAs be put in place, but Higgs said while he respects the importance of the legislative process, shifting the discussion from closed-door meetings to full public view might not be appropriate for this unique challenge.

"We have very open and frank discussions [in the committee] but those are discussions with cabinet confidentiality," he said. "When you open up the legislative assembly — do you question people back and forth based on what you discussed in cabinet?

"It adds a complexity to it. We need to think about how that best works."

Final say rests with Higgs

Lewis said Higgs's stance is "on-brand" with his non-politician reputation, and, coupled with high public approval ratings for provincial premiers handling the pandemic, he has the leverage to insist on sticking with the committee.

"It would really be for Vickers or Coon to break" from the format, he said.

Of course, Higgs's preference for the all-party committee model may be because he gets the final say. Other party leaders don't have a veto.

"The opposition leaders need to remember they're having the input they are because Higgs invited them to the COVID cabinet committee," former PC minister Troy Lifford tweeted in response to Coon's complaints.

"At the end of the day Higgs and his true cabinet make the decisions."

Even when the legislature resumes, Higgs vowed to resist a return "to the political days of the past. We need to move the province forward in a collective vision, a vision that is built for future generations, not for the current day. I don't want to lose that." 

Whether that's as noble as it sounds depends on whether you agree with the increasingly fraught decisions Higgs and his government are making.

As the temporary foreign workers controversy shows, broad consensus on those decisions won't always be possible.

If you share the premier's worldview, then this pandemic may well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make New Brunswick better.

And if you don't — or even if you just think this isn't the time for policy experiments and revolutions — well, that's politics.