Mr Higgs wins the confidence of the Circus in the House today much to the chagrin of many of his fellow Clowns

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David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos

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Mr Higgs wins the confidence of the Circus in the House today much to the chagrin of many of his fellow Clowns N'esy Pas?

https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/11/mr-higgs-wins-confidence-of-circus-in.html

#nbpoli #cdnpoli

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/throne-speech-new-brunswick-election-progressive-conservatives-1.4926289

PCs expected to win confidence of house today

36 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.

 
David Amos
Methinks a lot of folks must have been listening to CBC report on the voting in the Legislature today. No doubt they were not surprised to hear the PANB dude change his story However the real surprise was the actions of the questionable liberal Frank McKenna talked into running in Saint John Harbour. I bet many will agree that as soon as Gerry Lowe voted for fracking in Sussex they knew the Irving Clan had talked him into doing so N'esy Pas?

Does anyone recall why I ran in Saint John Harbour in 2006?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-harbour-nb-election-2018-1.4808144




 
David Amos

Methinks its kinda interesting that on the very day Mr Higgs and the Irving Clan win their bid to begin fracking again Alaska suffers an earth quake caused by fracking N'esy Pas?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/earthquake-anchorage-1.4927624

 
Paul Bourgoin

Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs and the three MLA's from the People's Alliance appear to be a legislative TAG TEAM which casts a dark shadow as to what politics is, and not what it should be for the voting population! These types of maneuvers are contrary to the principles representing a true democracy not challenging it, say YES and we will reward you!!

David Amos

@Paul Bourgoin Methinks the Liberal and Watermelon Party Tag Team are no better N'esy Pas?

 
Gary Purcell

A great day for our province.

David Amos

@Gary Purcell Welcome to the Circus

 
herbie harris

The PA had a chance to define their party today but Austin wouldn't let his members have a free vote.. This is the beginning of the end for a party that has done nothing but try to divide our province.. The next election cant come soon enough..

David Amos

@herbie harris I agree

 
Fred Brewer

So the official PA stance on fracking is.... it's ok in someone else's backyard but not in mine.

Sticking up for the health and safety of those in your ridings is great, but what about the rest of us?
You were the gatekeepers on this one, and you blew it big time in my opinion.

David Amos

@Fred Brewer Methinks the PANB have no standing whatsoever They are merely lapdogs for Mr Higgs for 18 months N'esy Pas?

Paul Bourgoin

@David Amos
18 months, David Amos, you are an optimist!!

David Amos

@Paul Bourgoin Methinks I have been called much wose by the SANB people However everybody knows that I would be more than happy to be wrong yet it certainly appears to me that the liberals want a new leader before another election N'esy Pas?

 
Mario Doucet

The beginning of the end of the OLA as we know it, couldn't have come soon enough.

Roland Godin

@Mario Doucet
Why do you insist of not having English as a langue officielle...EH!

David Amos

@Roland Godin Methinks thou doth jest too much N'esy Pas?

 
herbie harris

Really shows how weak the peoples alliance really are higgs is pulling them like a puppet which is what the majority of nb knew would happen... They don't really have any strong members which really is gonna hurt them in the future... As for the tories mr stewart is the aboriginal minister and has stated he wants to work with them I don't think this is the right first step he should resign from his cabinet post like the mla in Ontario did yesterday when her leader went against her cabinet position..

Jeff LeBlanc

@herbie harris nope, they don't want to rock the boat now because nobody wants another election and they are smart enough to know it. They will win more seats gradually over time because they have some good ideas other parties shy away from.

Fred Brewer

@Marc Martin
You are right Marc and that combination should bring common sense to our implementation of OB and the OLA very soon!

Roland Godin

@Fred Brewer
Most with common sense respect les langues officielles, there are a few tea pot left over who don't or won't, whatever if it makes them feel good and vent we can respect that...eh!/voilà.

Fred Brewer

@Roland Godin
The problem as I see it, is that a vocal minority of francophones don't have the word compromise in their vocabulary. It is not about respect. It is about a common sense approach to OB and OLA for a province that has been bleeding red ink for decades. If there can be no compromise it might end up that we return to one language and that language would be the language of the majority in NB.

Roland Godin

@Fred Brewer
With respect, maybe you could offer to preside over a face to face with the vocal minority of non compromising on language issues from both langues officielles...et voilà.

David Amos

@Fred Brewer "You are right Marc and that combination should bring common sense to our implementation of OB and the OLA very soon!"

Methinks you must be arguing a mean little SANB ghost N'esy Pas?

 
philippe m martin

WE NEED NEW REVENUES IN NEW BRUNSWICK, LETS START WITH FRACKING IN THE SUSSEX AREA , THE PEOPLE OF THAT REGION WANTS FRACKING AND CREATE WEALTH. I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT .TODAYS TECKNOLOGY EVOLVES SO FAST.,WE ARE ABLE TO CREATE GOOD JOBS AND REVENUES. RISK NOTHING ,GET NOTHING .PHILIPPE FRENCH CANADIAN

Greg Clouston

@philippe m martin BTW, Natural gas prices are at some of the lowest they've been in almost two decades. No company would invest the money to sell their product at a loss.

David Amos

@Greg Clouston Methinks the Irving Clan wants our cheap gas Hence Mr Higgs will make certain they get N'esy Pas?

 
Craig O'Donnell

I doubt any MLA from the PANB at this point wants to stick their neck out and be the member or party that causes another election. Parties usually get punished at the polls for that.

David Amos

@Craig O'Donnell Methinks the PANB love their new pay cheque too much to bite the hand that feeds N'esy Pas?

Higgs wins confidence vote, set sights on speedy resumption of fracking

115 Comments

Commenting is now closed for this story.

Buford Wilson

Blaine is boldly opening a new chapter in the glorious history of New/Nouveau-Brunswick.

The foolish moratorium on resource development will be scrapped.

The pride is back.

David Amos

@Buford Wilson Yea Right

Rosco holt

@Buford Wilson
Higgs is just doing what is former Boss order him to do.
Like the rest of the puppet governments.

Marguerite Deschamps

@Bufoon Wilson, come on; get serious!

 
Marguerite Deschamps

How Lowe can he go? And does he even know that Canaport will have to spend a massive amount of money in order to change Canaport from a seaport of import to one of export given that the gas has to be compressed to a liquid to be loaded into ships? Something MLA Lowe seems to be oblivious to. They spent billions in the US in order to build these export terminals. And we vote in these ignoramuses!

David Amos

@Marguerite Deschamps Methinks you just got the government you deserve and one of your beloved liberals proved it to you Perhaps you won't put down Independents next time N'esy Pas?

Lou Bell

@Marguerite Deschamps JOB CREATION , MAGGIE , JOB CREATION !!! We won't pay a cent to get it compresssed , the corporations will !! Think about it first, then respond !

Dan Lee

@Lou Bell
we wont pay a cent he says....lol.....

Bernard McIntyre

@Lou Bell Your right with the job creation but Irving will get money from tax payer's to refurbish the LNG plant to export from import. that's they way the Irving's do it. They don't use their own money they want the governments to pay a good amout of it. So we will be paying.

Marguerite Deschamps

And Irving already hardly pays any property tax on the Canaport property.

 
Marguerite Deschamps

How can Higgs take the position that he has a clear mandate when he only got about 31% of the popular vote? What a sham he is!

David Amos

@Marguerite Deschamps Cry me a river

 
Matt Steele

Hopefully Higgs can get the Province back on track after 4 years of Brian Gallant screw ups , tax increases , and wild out of control spending . It looks like even the Liberal MLAs are starting to jump from the sinking ship that Brian Gallant created .

David Amos

@Matt Steele Methinks you turned coat just like your old buddy Cardy N'esy Pas?

 
Paul Bolton

We live in a country that can no longer build a simple pipeline...what do most people think we pay for medicare with, if not taxes on fuel consumption.

David Amos

@Paul Bolton Methinks it always comes from taxing the consumers no matter the product It definitely ain't coming from taxing the rich dudes who own the oil refineries etc N'esy Pas?

Higgs wins confidence vote, set sights on speedy resumption of fracking

Higgs intends to lift fracking moratorium in Sussex area

Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Nov 30, 2018 3:57 PM AT 

 

Premier Blaine Higgs says he no longer needs legislation that would allow fracking in some areas. (CBC )


Premier Blaine Higgs won a key confidence vote in the legislature Friday and promptly declared that his cabinet could issue an order before the end of the year to allow shale gas development in the Sussex area.

Higgs said because the Liberal opposition injected a reference to shale gas into the government's throne speech motion, he no longer needs to introduce legislation to create exemptions to the provincial moratorium on fracking.

"My intent was we would come back with legislation," he told reporters. "They brought it forward as an amendment to the throne speech. We amended it to reflect what I would have brought forward through legislation, that it's going to be this area.



"So we've already identified that. We've already voted on that. Right now it's not my intention to bring anything more forward in that regard."

Liberal Leader Brian Gallant quickly accused Higgs of going back on his promise to give the legislature more say on cabinet decisions.

"The premier even stated in his speech from the throne that he would share the executive power," Gallant said.

Then-premier Brian Gallant, left, shook hands with Higgs earlier this month after the minority Liberal government was defeated. (James West/Canadian Press)

 

"So this is his first test, to share executive power on one of the most contentious, hotly debated issues in this province for the last five years, and he failed that test completely."

On Nov. 21, Higgs  said his PC minority government would bring in legislation "in order to move in a regional way, in a very localized way" to create exemptions. 

"It does require coming to the legislature, and it does require a vote," he said.

• PODCAST
  Fracking poised to be key issue in new legislature

Earlier this week, however, he said passage of shale-gas language in the throne speech would be a green light to implement his election promise to allow shale gas development in areas where there is local support.

"We just did that," he said Friday morning. "We just had it."

Jockeying over throne speech

The PC throne speech didn't explicitly mention shale gas fracking, a controversial extraction method that led to polarized debate and protests in the province in 2013. Gallant's Liberals were elected in 2014 on a promise to impose a moratorium on the process.

Last week Gallant introduced an amendment to the PC throne speech motion calling for the moratorium to stay in place. 

The PCs responded with a sub-amendment that would exempt "communities in and around the town of Sussex," where extraction began in 1999 and where people "have demonstrated their desire to proceed with shale gas development."

Lois Corbett of the New Brunswick Conservation Council said reviving shale gas development will spark new protests. (CBC)

 

 

That sub-amendment passed 26-22 Friday morning, with three People's Alliance MLAs and Saint John Harbour Liberal MLA Gerry Lowe voting with the PCs.

The amendment with that new language also passed 26-22, and the main motion, a confidence vote in the Higgs government, passed 25-23. On the final vote, Lowe voted with the Liberals against the PCs.
Higgs said during his final speech before the vote that the government would "limit the lifting of the moratorium to one location."

But he also said the communities around Sussex are "asking to go first," which Gallant called a Freudian slip showing the PCs want to allow fracking in other areas.

Liberal MLA explains vote

Lowe, a first-term Liberal MLA, said he voted in favour of the shale gas sub-amendment because natural gas exports through a converted Canaport LNG terminal in Saint John would boost its property assessment and create more tax revenue for the city. 

"I represent Saint John," he said. "I was sent here by Saint John and that's the feelings of the people I talked to last weekend."

Saint John Harbour Liberal MLA Gerry Lowe voted with the Progressive Conservatives on a fracking sub-amendment to the throne speech motion. (Julia Wright/ CBC)

 

 

He informed his fellow Liberals last week how he would vote "and today nobody gave me the finger," he said. "They're still my friends, I guess."

Gallant has also introduced legislation that would write the moratorium into law. The current statute lets the cabinet create, lift or modify a moratorium with a simple regulatory order.

Gallant's bill would force the government to come back to the legislature to undo or create exemptions to the moratorium. Lowe said he may vote against that as well.

Alliance MLAs vote with PCs

The Liberal leader said he's pessimistic about his bill passing because of the three Alliance MLAs opting to vote with the PCs on shale gas.

Last week, Fredericton-York Alliance MLA Rick DeSaulniers vowed to vote against any lifting of the moratorium, including in Sussex. But Friday he said an exemption there is up to that area's local PC MLA, Bruce Northrup. 

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin (foreground), MLA Rick DeSaulniers (background) and MLA Michelle Conroy all voted in favour of the Progressive Conservative throne speech. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

 

 

"Who am I to tell Sussex what is right for them?" he said. "It's one thing to have beliefs. It's another thing to impose them on someone you really shouldn't impose them on.

"I can't impose my will on the people of Sussex. I don't think that's right. Am I torn? Yeah, I'm torn. I think I've done what is right. I've done what is right for Fredericton-York and I'll let Bruce [Northrup] and them do what is right for Sussex."

Green Party Leader David Coon said Friday that he could have voted for the original PC throne speech motion, but the language allowing exemptions to the fracking moratorium ruled it out.

Cabinet order could come before 2019

Higgs said he would meet with Corridor Resources CEO Steve Moran next week about how to let the company resume fracking its wells. A cabinet order will come "probably in the coming weeks," he said. 

"It could happen before the new year."

• PCs will be making 'wrong move' if fracking is allowed outside Sussex without a vote

Earlier this week, Energy and Resource Development Minister Mike Holland promised PCs would "ensure there's a means and mechanism" to consult people in the Sussex area so they're "confident we're speaking with a licence from that area."

Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance said it's still not clear how the government will delineate where it will seek consent. 

"The idea of defining and then assessing approval is almost an impossible task," he said.

New lawsuit, protests possible

Emberger said his group would revive a lawsuit against the province that it put on hold when the Liberals imposed their moratorium in early 2015.

Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance says his group would revive a lawsuit against the province if Higgs's fracking enthusiasm continues. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

 

Lois Corbett of the New Brunswick Conservation Council said reviving shale gas development will spark new protests and distract from a needed debate on climate change. 

"It will, like it did in the last five years, suck all of the air out of the room," she said. 

"We will have a long … debate led by folks on either edge of the issue, pro-fracking, anti-fracking, and we will not take the time to develop the strong, sensible solutions like more renewable energy."

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PCs expected to win confidence of house today

Premier Blaine Higgs is counting on at least 25 votes, out of 49, for throne speech

Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Nov 30, 2018 5:00 AM AT 

New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs answers questions from the media after defeating the Liberal Government at the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (James West/Canadian Press)

The seemingly eternal 2018 New Brunswick election season will finally come to an official close Friday when the legislature votes on the Progressive Conservative minority government's throne speech.

The PCs have moved swiftly on several issues since they were sworn in Nov. 9, including ambulance staffing and WorkSafeNB premiums.

But they've done so without holding the confidence of the legislature. They're expected to win that legitimacy in a series of votes Friday morning.

Premier Blaine Higgs said he'd like to see more MLAs vote for his throne speech than voted against the Liberals' version earlier this month.

"I'm hopeful that we'll have more than we had against the last one," he told reporters. "I'm hoping that we'll have more for this one.

"I'm hoping people will see a bigger opportunity, a bigger potential, a bigger path forward."

Premier Brian Gallant (left) shakes the hand of Opposition Leader Blaine Higgs (right) after the minority Liberal government was defeated. (James West/Canadian Press)

No party won a majority in the Sept. 24 election, sending the battle for power into weeks of overtime.
But there's little suspense surrounding Friday's outcome, because the three MLAs from the People's Alliance have already said they'll vote with the 22 PC MLAs. That gives Higgs a majority of 25 in the 49-member legislature.

The same combination of 22 Tories and three Alliance members voted against the then-Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal throne speech on Nov. 2, toppling his government. Three Green MLAs voted with 20 Liberals in favour of that speech.

Liberal votes?

Alliance Leader Kris Austin said Thursday that there's been buzz around the legislature that some Liberals or Greens could opt to support the PCs.

"I get a feeling there could be maybe some others that may vote in favour of it, too, but we'll see," he said.

"It's kind of coming through the grapevine. It could be an interesting vote on the throne speech."

• Brian Gallant's minority government defeated after losing confidence vote

• Brian Gallant plans to resign as Liberal leader

Liberal MLA Roger Melanson said his party had yet to make a decision.

"We haven't made a final decision on how the voting will go," he said.

The shale gas issue

Friday's vote will actually be a series of three votes, the last being on a PC motion to reply to the lieutenant-governor by supporting the throne speech she delivered Nov. 20.

That speech didn't explicitly mention Higgs's long-held commitment to revive the shale gas industry. But the Liberals moved an amendment to the PC motion to add a line calling for a moratorium on fracking to continue.

The PCs then moved a sub-amendment to the Liberal amendment, which says the moratorium would stay in place "where support [for development] does not already exist."

• PCs will be making 'wrong move' if fracking is allowed outside Sussex without a vote

The PC amendment supports development in the Sussex area, where communities "have demonstrated their desire to proceed with shale gas development."

Higgs said the Liberal move ended up giving the Tories an opening to clarify their position.

The amendment "gave us an opportunity to say 'Here, in real terms, is everything I've been saying from the very beginning' … so there are no surprises."

• PODCAST
  Fracking poised to be key issue in new legislature

• Opposition parties open to giving a Blaine Higgs government a try

The premier said he expected the Greens to vote against the government because of the shale gas issue, "but wonders never cease."

Green Party Leader David Coon said his caucus will definitely vote against the PC sub-amendment.
He wouldn't say what it will do on the final vote if the PC language on shale gas passes and becomes part of the main motion.

"Well, we'll see whether it does or not," he said. "So you'll have to wait and see."

Lt.-Gov. Jocelyne Roy Vienneau inspects the honour guards at the New Brunswick legislature on Nov. 20, 2018. (James West/Canadian Press)

The three Alliance MLAs have said they have concerns about shale gas development but would vote for the PC sub-amendment on fracking because they promised to support a PC government on confidence votes for 18 months.

But Higgs said Thursday he does not consider the PC sub-amendment a confidence matter on its own.

It will only become a confidence vote if the wording passes and becomes part of the main throne speech motion, he said. 

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices