https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tone-shift-leg-omicron-1.6285715
Omicron's arrival brings calm, co-operative tone to New Brunswick Legislature
Government and Opposition avoid partisanship in exchanges on COVID-19 variant
After increasingly strained exchanges last week, Tuesday's sitting saw Opposition Liberal leader Roger Melanson put straightforward questions to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard, who answered matter-of-factly, with no political flourishes.
"The leader of the Opposition is correct," Shephard responded to one of Melanson's questions. "Boosters are our best defence against omicron and what's coming."
It was a complete shift from last week, when the Liberals alleged the government's handling of the pandemic was "out of control" and lost in confusing, shifting messages.
At the time Melanson urged Premier Blaine Higgs to step out of the way and let health experts speak directly to the public.
"Who do you listen to? No one!" Melanson thundered in Question Period.
Last Thursday, Higgs responded to one attack with a poke at Melanson switching from English to French as a tactical move, a remark that the premier insists was misconstrued and was not a comment on the Liberal leader's bilingualism.
Those kinds of sharp questions and tart retorts all but vanished Tuesday.
Attitude adjustment
Melanson declared at the outset of Question Period that "in the spirit of using the Legislative Assembly to communicate government decisions," he'd be looking for more information and clarifications on Monday's announcement of new COVID-19 restrictions.
The Liberal leader was still flagging inconsistencies, noting the Monday announcement deviated from the government's "winter plan" for COVID-19 announced Dec. 3.
But he made the point without the heated accusations he deployed last week.
"I'm very pleased that the leader of the Opposition asked his question in the manner in which he did," Shephard said in response.
Shephard said the challenge with getting booster shots rolled out is a lack of people to work in clinics administering shots "to get this done as quickly as we'd like to."
After
increasingly strained exchanges last week, Tuesday’s sitting saw
Opposition Liberal Leader Roger Melanson put straightforward questions
to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard, who answered matter-of-factly, with
no political flourishes. (Government of New Brunswick)
Early data on the omicron variant suggests that it can evade some two-dose vaccination protection to infect people more easily than earlier versions of the virus, but that a third dose can restore a lot of protection.
Later in Question Period, Melanson struck a more conventional Opposition posture by grilling the premier on the government's decision to build a new provincial jail in the Fredericton area.
But on COVID, the Liberal leader and Shephard found themselves in an almost collaborative back-and-forth, with Melanson's questions teeing up the minister to fill in the blanks.
"We should be fully transparent, putting that out there, when and where [people] can get their third shots," Melanson said.
"The leader of the Opposition is making a fair point," Shephard answered. "We want to get these clinics up, running and out as soon as possible."
By mid-afternoon the government had published an updated list of walk-in clinics province-wide, including several for those already eligible for boosters.
COVID committee
Melanson quit the government's all-party COVID committee in November after the government used the pandemic emergency order to force striking hospital workers back to their jobs.
He said using the order that way was "an abuse of power."
Last week, Premier Blaine Higgs criticized Melanson for leaving an all-party COVID committee. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Last week Higgs and Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming needled him about the decision, saying sticking with the committee would have given him access to information he was seeking. Melanson said he would not rejoin the committee even though the strike is over.
On Tuesday there were no such jabs, and Melanson said he would stick with Question Period as a more public way to get answers.
"This virus actually kills people and I want to ask questions to the government to bring more clarification, to provide more information," he told reporters.
"It's a public forum where the government can give additional pertinent information to be communicated to people. I'm going to keep doing that."
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