Higgs could reverse Tuesday changes to MLA committee roles

A day after booting a former cabinet minister off five legislative committees amid a broader shakeup, the Higgs government is suggesting it could reverse itself and change committee memberships again.

With a motion Tuesday, the government overhauled the lineup on 11 committees, a move made necessary by the promotion of several Progressive Conservative MLAs to cabinet in June and the firing or resignation of four ministers.

As a general rule, ministers don't sit on legislative committees, which scrutinize government policies, bills and operations.

Tuesday's changes included removing Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason from five of the seven committees she was sitting on.

The government also opted to not put former health minister Dorothy Shephard on the public accounts committee, which is scheduled to question Dr. Jennifer Russell, the chief medical officer of health, on Thursday about COVID-19.

Asked Wednesday about the rationale for those changes, government House leader Glen Savoie suggested they may be reversed or changed again soon.

"Committees are almost like a living document," he told reporters. "They can change at any time, so all I can tell you is stay tuned, because changes are coming.

On Tuesday, Opposition Liberal Leader Susan Holt suggested Premier Blaine Higgs was punishing MLAs who have been outspoken or asked tough questions during committee sessions.

Now that Savoie is signalling a possible reversal, Holt said it's a sign of "further instability and indecision from this government. Like: Who's on first? Who's on committee?"

Holt said the government is "all over the place, and I think New Brunswickers are frustrated that they're not working on priorities like access to health care and instead playing around with committee membership." 

Committee work carries a $125 pay upgrade for each day MLAs take part. But it also requires extra work and travel to Fredericton.

Four ministers who quit cabinet or were shuffled out after rebelling in June against Higgs's changes to Policy 713, the gender-identity policy for schools, found themselves available for committee duty this fall.

At the same time, five MLAs promoted to cabinet no longer had the time to participate.

Two other former ministers who rebelled in June but who were shuffled out of cabinet in 2020, Anderson-Mason and Gagetown-Petitcodiac MLA Ross Wetmore, have been serving on committees for three years.

The changes unveiled Tuesday handed different levels of committee workload to the six MLAs who rebelled. 

Shephard was put on four committees, Jeff Carr was put on three, Trevor Holder was put on seven and Daniel Allain was put on seven.

Anderson-Mason was left on only two committees, one of which meets rarely and one which she sits on automatically because of her position as deputy speaker. 

"We serve at the pleasure of the premier," Anderson-Mason said of her removal from five committees. 

In September, the lawyer and two-term MLA got officials to admit during a committee session that they don't know where the money is going from an extra "carbon adjustor charge" that the government imposed earlier this year. 

Holder, Carr and Shephard all filled in on the public accounts committee in September as temporary members, pending Tuesday's motion.

Holt said not putting Shephard on that committee permanently will mean she won't be able to apply her "intimate knowledge" of the Health Department to Russell's appearance Thursday. 

"It seems like [Higgs] doesn't want that perspective being brought to bear on questions for the chief medical health officer." 

Green Leader David Coon said it was "tremendous" that Holder, Carr and Shephard used their experience to ask effective questions on public accounts in September.

"The premier clearly doesn't like the fact that he's got members on the committee who are functioning as parliamentarians, doing their job as committee members. He wants them as marionettes." 

Wetmore keeps five of his previous committee assignments under Tuesday's changes. He was taken off two committees but added to another one, for a total of six.

Savoie pointed out that the rules allow any MLA, including Shephard, to pose questions at a committee session even if they aren't able to vote as committee members. 

"If they have salient questions and points to make, they're welcome to make them," he said.