Auditor general settles lawsuit over his firing of deputy
Janice Leahy claimed her termination was retaliatory, terms of settlement are confidential
New Brunswick's auditor general has settled a lawsuit filed by his former deputy after he fired her in 2023.
Janice Leahy, one of at least a dozen employees who left the office of Auditor General Paul Martin last year, claimed in her lawsuit that her firing was retaliatory and was done in bad faith.
Court records showed the case was discontinued earlier this month.
"All employment-related matters with the Office of the Auditor General of New Brunswick have been resolved to our mutual satisfaction," a spokesperson for Martin said in an email, turning down a request for details of the settlement.
Leahy did not respond to an interview request from CBC News.
Martin wouldn't discuss the wave of departures or Leahy's lawsuit when reporters asked him about them last year, saying only that the market for qualified auditors was "hot" in 2023 and that contributed to some staff taking positions elsewhere.
Janice
Leahy left the office of Auditor General Paul Martin last year. She
claimed in her lawsuit that her firing was 'retaliatory.' (Pascal Raiche-Nogue/Radio-Canada)
He also rejected suggestions by Green Leader David Coon that the departures were connected to his audit of the province's COVID-19 response, an audit Coon criticized.
In her statement of claim last year, Leahy said that her firing "was retaliatory in nature given the positions taken by the plaintiff [Leahy] and was in bad faith."
Her lawsuit focused on her loss of income.
She said in her statement of claim she'd been earning $166,166 a year as deputy auditor general, far more than the $107,249 annual salary in the new job she found at the Canada Revenue Agency in September.
She also said she was entitled to more severance as well as other compensation, for a total claim of $163,497.37.
Martin said in a subsequent statement of defence that he offered to continue paying Leahy's salary and benefits for 11 months and only stopped paying her after he learned she had found another job.
He said he treated her fairly and in good faith.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Amos
Oh My My
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Surprise Surprise Surprise
Give me back My Canada
Don Corey
Reply to Eugene Peabody
Yeah but the last auditor general was kim mcpherson and she seemed to do pretty well at the job with no public firings. I am thinking this new guy is not so great.
Reply to Geordan Mann
That's probably the reality of the situation.
Gilles Vienneau
Bob Smith
Reply to Gilles Vienneau
You'd rather be no Auditor General at all? Both Liberal and Conservative parties have pushed at times for its abolition. Imagine governing without anyone checking the numbers...a dream for politicians.
Reply to Gilles Vienneau
Gille, I have found the answer to your question in the AUDITOR GENERAL ACT, Chapter 118, Section 19(1):
"19(1) A qualified auditor appointed by the Speaker of
the Legislative Assembly shall audit the accounts of the
Office of the Auditor General annually.
19(2) The auditor appointed under subsection (1) shall
examine the accounts of the Office of the Auditor Gen‐
eral and, not later than December 31, shall report the re‐
sults of his or her audit to the Speaker of the Legislative
Assembly, who shall table the report without delay be‐
fore the Legislative Assembly or, if the Legislative As‐
sembly is not then in session, within ten days following
the commencement of the next session of the Legislative
Assembly.
1981, c.A-17.1, s.16; 1984, c.44, s.12; 2007, c.30, s.18;
2014, c.13, s.28"
Source: https://laws.gnb.ca/en/pdf/cs/2011-c.118.pdfReply to Gilles Vienneau
Holt government introduces 2 major affordability bills
Rent cap will take effect Feb. 1, while carbon cost adjustor will come off gas prices by Christmas
The Holt government has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at keeping its promises to make life more affordable in New Brunswick.
The rent cap bill will limit residential rent increases to three per cent a year starting on Feb. 1, 2025.
And the repeal of the so-called "carbon cost adjustor" will shave around four cents off the per-litre price of gasoline before the end of the year.
Housing Minister David Hickey introduced the rent cap legislation Wednesday. It's expected to be debated and passed before the legislature adjourns for Christmas.
Any increases greater than three per cent that take effect before Feb. 1 will not change, including those covered by current rules that allow the spreading out of large increases over two to three years.
But the portion of any phased-in increase taking effect on Feb. 1 or later will also be capped at three per cent.
Tobin
LeBlanc Haley of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants' Rights said a
landlord's ability to increase rent at a higher rate when a new tenant
moves in will still deliver shocks to rental prices. (Toronto Metropolitan University)
It's already too late for landlords to jack up rents ahead of the cap because of the existing requirement of six months' notice for increases.
"They've thought about a way to do it so we don't have landlords rushing to get in one last rent increase before the rent cap is put in place," said Tobin LeBlanc Haley of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants' Rights.
"That is great."
Landlords will be able to apply for increases above the three-per-cent cap, but only to a maximum of nine per cent, and only if they can show that the increases are needed because of renovations to their units.
Willy Scholten, a board member with the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association, said that won't be enough for landlords like him.
"We need cost control if we're going to have rent control," he said, pointing to increases in property assessments of 10 per cent or more for some owners now faced with a three-per-cent cap on what they can take in.
"There should be balance in the whole equation," he said. "Otherwise we're going to be sending a pretty negative message to rental housing providers."
Hickey told reporters he agrees on the need for balance and that's provided by measures like the planned removal of the provincial sales tax on construction costs for new apartment buildings.
Willy
Scholten, a board member with the New Brunswick Apartment Owners
Association, said developers will be reluctant to build new properties
if they know their rental income won’t be allowed keep up with property
tax increases. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
But Scholten said developers will still be reluctant to build new properties if they know their rental income won't be allowed keep up with property tax increases.
The cap will be reviewed every year and adjusted based on the inflation rate and vacancy statistics.
A landlord will be able to increase rent at a higher rate only when a new tenant moves in — something LeBlanc Haley said will still deliver shocks to rental prices.
"What that means is there will be an incentive to turn over those units in order to increase rents over and above the rent cap," she said.
Under existing legislation, landlords can increase rents only once a year and must give tenants six months' notice.
Any increase that exceeds a threshold linked to inflation — a threshold currently set at 3.8 per cent — can be phased in over two or three years.
Landlords must also apply if they want to terminate a lease and remove tenants for renovations — so-called "renovictions."
Officials say there have been 123 such applications from landlords so far this year and only nine have been approved.
The second affordability bill introduced Wednesday repeals legislation introduced by the Higgs government in 2022 in response to federal clean fuel regulations.
It added an "adjustor" clause to the Energy and Utility Board's price-setting formula so that the cost of the regulations – 4.5 cents per litre of gas this week – could be passed on to consumers.
The Progressive Conservative government said at the time that without the clause, small, locally owned gas stations would bear the brunt of the costs.
Energy
Minister René Legacy says there are EUB mechanisms to protect small
retailers and the new government’s priority was to help New
Brunswickers. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
The Green Party said at the time the provision was designed to cater to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John.
Energy Minister René Legacy said there are EUB mechanisms to protect small retailers, and the new government's priority was to help New Brunswickers.
"We had an opportunity to reduce the cost for consumers by four cents and we took it. That's what was available to us and we took it," he said.
Legacy said the bill will remove the adjustor from the EUB formula as soon as it becomes law, which is expected to happen before the legislature breaks for Christmas on Dec. 13.
That means gas prices could drop before Christmas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was never in agreement with the Irving adjustor clause re the federal clean fuel regulations (tried to tell Higgs and Outhouse but of course they didn't listen). Let the free market determine what the impact, if any, is on fuel costs.
The rent caps also come as no surprise, but with lots of both loopholes and restrictions. They'll do nothing to help address the federal created housing crisis. More likely they'll have a negative impact. Here again, we never seem to learn that government should let the free market prevail.
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