Ambulance debate: Gallant won't violate language rights 'just to stay in power'

Facing the likely defeat of his minority government on Friday, Premier Brian Gallant has attacked Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs as someone willing to "cherry-pick" which constitutional rights he's willing to respect.

Gallant made the accusation during a heated exchange in the legislature over bilingual ambulance services, just 48 hours before a confidence vote.

He later told reporters he knows his comments on the ambulance debate may cost him any hope of winning the support of the People's Alliance in Friday's vote.

"I'm not going to go against any New Brunswicker's rights, and I'm not going to go against my own principles, or the principles of our party, just to stay in power," Gallant said.

Higgs suggested in the legislature Wednesday that a binding 2017 court order on bilingual ambulance services carries little legal weight and could be put aside to address a shortage of paramedics.

"It's about making decisions to fix a problem, and then deal with the consequences to ensure that our rights are protected in both official languages," the PC leader said in question period. "But first you make decisions to protect people."

Gallant said he wants a quick fix to the ambulance problem and is willing to implement an labour arbitrator's recommendations on relaxing bilingual hiring requirements — but only if a pending court review says that's legal.

For someone who could be premier in a few days to say he is willing to push some rights aside, because he thinks it's important to focus on something else, is a dangerous situation and a slippery slope.- Premier Brian Gallant

The premier said government lawyers have advised him that implementing the arbitrator's report would probably violate the 2017 consent order and put the province in contempt of court.

He said Higgs's willingness to do that without a legal review "is highly irresponsible and frankly very disappointing to hear," Gallant said.

"For someone who could be premier in a few days to say he is willing to push some rights aside, because he thinks it's important to focus on something else, is a dangerous situation and a slippery slope."

He added: "Some people may not agree with those legal obligations, but they are legal obligations nonetheless."

Liberals need 3rd-party votes

Gallant's government was reduced to a minority in the legislature in September's election. The Liberals won 21 seats compared with 22 for the PCs.

Since the vote, Gallant's been trying to win the support of some combination of three Green MLAs and three People's Alliance MLAs so that a motion supporting the government's throne speech can pass on Friday.

He has promised to set up a committee of MLAs to conduct a quick study of the problem with a Dec. 15 deadline. On Tuesday he also promised to implement the arbitration report if it's upheld in a judicial review early next year.

Alliance Leader Kris Austin has made delayed ambulance response times his main issue, blaming the problem on Ambulance New Brunswick's inability to fill one position on each two-person crew with a bilingual paramedic.

Higgs also raised the issue during the election campaign, promising to relax the hiring requirement to fill vacancies and "get ambulances on the road."

Both leaders say their position is backed by an arbitration report earlier this year that proposed relaxing the rules.

Court of Queen's Bench ruling

But that appears to contradict the 2017 consent order by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Zoel Dionne.

The consent order was signed after two Moncton-area residents agreed to settle their lawsuit against the province and Ambulance New Brunswick over a lack of service in French during an ambulance call.

Ambulance New Brunswick and the province admitted to violating their constitutional rights, and Dionne ordered them to put in place a plan to fill bilingual positions and offer francophones and anglophones service "of equal quality in the official language of their choice."

"That is the court saying 'you were in the wrong and therefore you have agreed to do these things to rectify the situation,'" Gallant told reporters.

Higgs and Austin both argued on Wednesday that because Dionne signed a consent order, it carries less weight than if the lawsuit had gone ahead and there had been a judgment.

"There's no legal ruling and there's no judge that is ordering anything in terms of jurisprudence," Austin said.

Saint John lawyer Nathalie Godbout responded in a tweet: "If it's signed by a judge, it's an order."

'Court order's not being followed today'

Chris Hood, executive director of the Paramedics Association of New Brunswick, said Dionne's order is "binding" but that is beside the point.

"The court order's not being followed today," he said. "Let's be clear. Paramedics are working together who do not meet the language profile outlined in the court order. … So if you want to talk about contempt, the contempt of court issue really is in play today."

Austin also said the province should simply "back away" from the agreement and its admission that it violated constitutional rights so it can fill bilingual positions with unilingual paramedics.

"If somebody wants to challenge it down the road, they're free to do so, and we'll fight it out in court at that point."

And Higgs said repeatedly that Dionne's order was "ensuring our constitutional right for health is first and foremost, anywhere in the province. That's what the order is."

In fact, the order doesn't refer to a constitutional right to health care. It cites Section 20.2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which gives New Brunswickers a right to services in both languages, and the Official Languages Act.

Higgs said the PCs had a legal interpretation backing up their view that health care should be "prioritized" and promised to provide it to reporters.

"We can provide that so you can read it," he said.

Gallant requests patience until review

Gallant said the government lawyers were clear that it could not ignore the consent order and said Higgs "will get the same legal advice" if he becomes the premier.

The premier acknowledged that the issue had become divisive in the province and said that he took responsibility for not overcoming that language divide.

And he asked all MLAs to be patient and wait for a judicial review of the arbitrator's decision, to be heard next January, before deciding if it was legal to implement it.

A government discussion paper on the ambulance issue released last week said the majority of vacant positions at Ambulance New Brunswick are bilingual posts, and the inability to fill them was "having an impact" on recruiting and retaining paramedics.

But it also says there's "no direct relationship" between bilingual positions and ambulances that are out of service and unable to respond to a call.

"Though language capacity is always considered first when seeking to find a paramedic to fill a shift as it is an obligation, an ambulance is never left unstaffed for that reason," it said. "A unilingual resource, if available, will staff the ambulance."

The paper said most of the proposals for relaxing the bilingual hiring requirements would risk violating the 2017 court order.