Government could extend legislature sitting to pass union pension bill

The Higgs government says it's willing to extend the legislature's sitting days closer to Christmas if that's what it takes to pass a bill on five union pension plans.

House leader Glen Savoie says he wants an agreement with opposition parties to sit past the scheduled Dec. 8 adjournment to debate the legislation, which would force the unions to shift their pensions to a shared-risk system.

"We're open to discussions and seeing if the opposition needs more time on this bill," he said. "We're happy to talk about it."

But Green MLA Kevin Arseneau warned in the legislature that his party plans to do everything it can to block the legislation.

"I can guarantee you that our team will use every tool that we can to send this bill where it belongs — the garbage," he said.

The bill would force two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and three groups under the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions into a negotiating process on their pensions.

But that process would allow only one outcome: a shift starting Feb. 1, 2024 into a shared-risk system like most other provincial employees.

The unions involved say it amounts to Premier Blaine Higgs breaking the contracts they negotiated at the end of a 16-day strike in 2021.

"I would like the opposition parties to support the unions all across this province and truly, all across this country, and say no to this legislation going through," said CUPE 1253 president Iris Lloyd.

The legislation is one of only three government bills introduced this fall that hasn't received third reading — the final step before becoming law with royal assent.

Even so, time is short.

The opposition could drag out the debate all next week, because each MLA has the right to speak for 40 minutes on the bill and another 40 minutes on each proposed amendment.

Arseneau predicted Friday morning that Savoie would introduce a motion to put a time limit on the debate, but he didn't do that. 

"That's definitely a tool that government has, but that's not what we're talking about right now," Savoie said.

"I think you would be foolish or foolhardy to say 'I have a tool and I'm not going to use it.' It's whether or not we can come to any sort of negotiated agreement that makes sense, that we wouldn't need it." 

Arseneau said the offer to sit beyond Dec. 8 amounts to "theatrics" by a government "so that the population has a sense that it's been debated." 

Savoie said he plans to meet with the opposition parties next Tuesday to try to sort out a timeline.

Liberal house leader Guy Arseneault said the government should have done more to reach a deal with the unions without resorting to legislation. 

"To bring it to the legislature is not the right move. It should have been negotiated." 

But since that's the route the Higgs government chose, he said, the Liberals won't feel bound by any timeline. 

"We're not playing hostage to a date. … If they want to bring to the house and debate it, well, we're going to debate it."

Arseneault would not go as far as the Green commitment to throw up procedural obstacles to the bill. 

But he said Liberal MLAs are hearing from union members in their ridings "asking us to speak on it," so they will. 

"We're going to debate it to the extent that we have to. Full debate."

The two CUPE locals represent about 7,200 school custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers and administrative staff.

Three groups of nursing home employees coming under the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions are also covered by the legislation.

During a major CUPE strike in 2021, Higgs wanted the two school unions to agree to a shared-risk pension plan like the one most other public sector employees are in.

Instead they struck a side deal to end the strike but keep talking about the pensions, and to turn to third-party actuaries to settle the pension issue if they couldn't reach a deal.

Higgs said time has run out on that process, but the union says there's nothing in their existing collective agreement that lets the province impose a resolution like the one in the bill.