https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/liberals-avoid-vet-service-cuts-protest-9.7225108
In wake of protest, Liberals may avoid political price for vet cuts
PCs see ‘political calculation’ in premier’s refusal to budge, but northern farmer says it could cost her
As more than 300 farmers and supporters gathered on the lawn of the New Brunswick legislature last week, two boys from the Blackville area cavorted around the lawn in large, inflatable cow costumes.
Joseph Chambers and Kayden Stewart were having a good time, but the lively protest appeared to have little effect on the resolve of Premier Susan Holt’s Liberal government.
Comments by the premier and the agriculture minister suggested they will not reverse the decision to privatize the provincial veterinary service, which cares for large animals such as horses and cows.
And with the legislature adjourning this Friday, the political pressure from opposition parties will soon ease.
In the immortal words of Joey Tribbiani from Friends, was the protest like a cow’s opinion?
Was the point moo?
“I’m fairly pessimistic that they haven’t listened to a single thing we’ve said so far,” said Mike Bouda, a dairy farmer who is part of a committee that is meeting with provincial officials on the transition to a new vet service.
“They’ve got their minds made that they think they can make this work.”
Holt greeted the protest organizers early in the day, when only a handful of people had arrived.
Premier
Susan Holt spoke to some protesters and later told reporters she felt
the participants were celebrating New Brunswick agriculture and its
importance. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)In question period, Agriculture Minister Pat Finnigan said that “change is never easy. It is never one hundred per cent predictable.”
But he vowed that “strong veterinary services” will remain in place in a new form.
The parade of tractors and trucks that circled the legislature during the protest was a visual echo of a similar protest in April 2000.
The first budget under Bernard Lord, the Progressive Conservative premier at the time, included a similar cut to vet services.
Farmers and supporters descended on Sussex when Lord was there to speak at a local business event.
His government soon reversed the cut.
Holt Liberals aren’t budging on vet cuts. Will it cost them?Glen Savoie, the current PC Opposition leader, said Holt’s refusal to do the same reflected a “political calculation.”
Savoie alleged that a largely urban-based Liberal caucus doesn’t see an electoral downside to cuts that mainly affect rural areas they didn’t need to get elected in 2024.
Take, for example Ruth McMurtrie, a farmer on the outskirts of Holt’s Fredericton South-Silverwood riding.
“We are not getting a response from the Holt government or the minister of agriculture, so we have to be loud,” she said at last Wednesday’s protest.
McMurtrie said she didn’t vote for Holt last time and won’t be voting for her next time.
Ruth
McMurtrie's family runs Springhill Farms which is on the outskirts of
Fredericton. McMurtrie, left, is also within Susan Holt’s Fredericton
South-Silverwood riding. (Shane Fowler/CBC)But some Liberal voters may be up for grabs over this issue.
Jessica Bustin, a Fredericton resident and horse owner, is a former Green Party supporter who voted for Holt in 2024 as the best way to get rid of the PC government.
“She seemed optimistic, energetic, smart, and I thought, ‘She’s going to be good for the province.’ And I’m disappointed and discouraged.”
She will “probably not” vote Liberal again, Bustin said.
Bouda, whose farm is outside Bathurst, said there may be a business case for private-sector vets to set up operations in areas like Sussex and Moncton, but that’s less likely to happen in northern New Brunswick.
So the Liberals are mistaken if they think the cut won’t affect their re-election chances, he said.
“Their support is really the northern part of the province,” he said. “That’s what gets them in.
“To basically turn their back on the north, the northwest, the northeast … I don’t understand the logic here.”
Holt, however, didn’t seem to view the protest as an electoral threat.
“I like that they’ve come out with the approach of celebrating agriculture in New Brunswick and how important it is,” she told reporters.
In question period, PC MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace told Holt that “people can perceive things differently, but I can’t imagine that what we are seeing today on the lawn of the legislature can be up for interpretation.”
Over
300 people gathered on the lawn of the legislature to protest the Holt
government’s decision to phase out the provincial veterinarian service
which cares for large animals like horses and cows. Over 30 trucks and
tractors circled the legislature on Wednesday afternoon as well. (Oliver Pearson/CBC)Farmers would be forgiven for thinking that they may be able to push the Liberals to back down.
Last year, the government reversed some budget cuts to district education councils.
This year, officials floated the possibility of major cuts to universities and colleges, only to drop the idea amid criticism.
The Liberals also put off decisions on some of the toughest and most complicated recommendations from an independent review panel on N.B. Power.
The vet decision is one controversial move they seem likely to stick with, however.
Holt and Finnigan said discussions are continuing with farm groups and vets to sort out what the new services will look like, including a privatized vet service by April 2027 and private lab services by April 2028.
“We’re excited to be talking to the Agricultural Alliance about the things we need to do to make sure the emergency services are there, what the provincial vet lab is going to look like,” Holt said.
“Can we get it done in the next nine months? That’s something that we’re very conscious of. … We’re going to guarantee to folks that they’re going to get the vet services they need in April.”
As pessimistic as Bouma is, he said there’s one set of votes that could still have leverage over the government: the veterinarians themselves, who may vote with their feet.
“Really, the power is with the vets,” he said, pointing to a North America-wide shortage in the profession. “The veterinarians hold all the cards.
“If they don’t agree to any one of these plans, they can’t move forward. Otherwise the vets all walk. They’re trying to negotiate, to force people who have options.”
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The Green Party speaks to the Farmers in front of the New Brunswick Legislature.....
Charles Leblanc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbORv86g5eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCHoMQ8kDk
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/david-coon-green-leader-resignation-9.7223103
David Coon stepping down as leader of N.B. Green Party
Coon says he’ll stay on until party chooses new leader later this year
David Coon will resign as leader of the New Brunswick Green Party eight years after he led the party to a historic electoral breakthrough.
Coon announced Thursday morning that he’ll step down when the party chooses a new leader, which he said he expects will happen by the end of this year.
“I want to make sure that the new leader has a runway of two years to introduce themselves to New Brunswickers and to prepare for the election in 2028," Coon said. "It’s going to be an important one."
He plans to stay on as MLA for Fredericton Lincoln.
MLAs from all parties applauded Coon heartily in the legislature Thursday afternoon, when he rose to make a statement unrelated to his leadership.
“He has certainly served his constituents and the people of New Brunswick well for a long time, and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours,” Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy told reporters.
David Coon has led the New Brunswick Green Party for 14 years. (Sarah Morin/CBC)Glen Savoie, the Progressive Conservative Opposition leader, said he and Coon had disagreed often, but the Green leader “has always had the best interest of New Brunswickers at heart … and the end of the day that’s all you can ask for.”
The well-known, longtime environmentalist became leader of the Greens in 2012 and won the party’s first seat in the legislature two years later.
N.B. Green leader plans to step downIn 2018 and 2020, the party won three seats under his leadership. That number shrank to two in the last election.
“People respond to parties that give a damn,” Coon said Thursday during his announcement.
He described his 14-year tenure as party leader as merely the “launch” of the New Brunswick Greens and predicted the party will eventually form a government in the province.
“I have no doubt that someday in the future that will happen.”
Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton, the party’s only other elected member, attended Coon’s announcement and paid tribute to his achievements.
As
leader, David Coon was once joined by two other Green MLAs in the
legislature, Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau. Mitton, who represents
Tantramar, is now the party's only other elected member. (Jacques Poitras/CBC) Mitton said it was too early to comment on whether she would run for the leadership but acknowledged she was thinking about it.
“You know, today is about David,” she said.
“I’m not going to make any announcements or anything today, but what I do want to talk about is the contributions that David has made.”
Former Kent North Green MLA Kevin Arseneau, who was elected in 2018 and 2020 but lost in 2024, also paid tribute to Coon, saying “he brought the party to a great place.”
Arseneau said he started getting calls Thursday morning after Coon’s announcement from people urging him to run for leader.
“I did promise some very important people in my life that I would think of it with openness and [seriousness] and maybe take a decision at a later date,” he said.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/legislature-veterinary-service-cuts-protest-9.7222444
Farmers, supporters continue push for rollback of N.B. vet service cuts
Premier Susan Holt liked seeing protesters 'celebrating agriculture'
On a warm, June afternoon, New Brunswick’s farmers would like to be planting seeds in their fields or tending to their herd.
Instead, they were on the lawn of the provincial legislature with noisemakers and signs begging the government to “save our vets.”
Over 300 people were protesting the Holt government’s decision to phase out the provincial veterinarian service which cares for large animals, such as horses and cows.
“We should be planting seed, we should be cutting silage and our cows are calving and we're not at home to help them," Danielle Connell, Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick president, said. "So this is really the worst time of year we could ever possibly try to do this."
This was the second protest since the veterinarian cuts were announced alongside the provincial budget on March 17. This time, there were over 30 trucks and tractors that circled the legislature honking.
Farmers are still confused by the cuts and are hoping that the government will reverse the decision.
Danielle
Connell, president of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick, has
been leading the charge in the fight to keep the province's veterinary
service. (Shane Fowler/CBC)“This is about food security, food sovereignty, rural economy," John Riordon said. "This government has told us ... how they want to increase the GDP by increasing agriculture and then their first big move is to cut one of the key pillars of this industry. It's ridiculous."
Riordon, a dairy farmer just outside of Bathurst, was behind the push to reverse the province’s decision to change veterinary services in the early 2000s.
He travelled to Fredericton with fellow supporters on Wednesday. His biggest concern is whether a private veterinary service would be able to cover rural farms.
Linda Northey has two horses in Charlotte County and doesn't think a private vet service would be able to cover that area.
She’s from Ontario and doesn't think that the private veterinary system that she became used to there would work in New Brunswick.
“I can see how the vets are desperately needed here and they can't be running their own businesses because it's too expensive,” Northey said.
She also thinks private services in the province would be too costly for horse owners and farmers.
More than 300 farmers protested the ending of New Brunswick's provincial veterinary serviceRuth McMurtrey's family has a few dozen beef cows on their farm that has been operating just outside of Fredericton for 103 years.
The cows at Springhill Farm see a veterinarian for monthly or quarterly check-ups and for emergencies.
McMurtrey said she would gladly pay a higher rate for the province’s services to keep the public veterinarians around.
“Some people believe that this is a free service," she said. "It's not.
“We pay our vet bills to the province every month. And for every call that's made to the farm, every herd health day, all the vaccinations, all the medications — we pay for that.”
The province has said that its veterinary service runs an estimated $4-million deficit each year.
Connell said she has told the province that farmers would pay more but it didn’t change anything.
Where do negotiations stand?
The province’s plan is to phase out all veterinary field services by March 31, 2027.
The original plan was also to make changes to the provincial veterinary laboratory by March 31, 2028.
Premier Susan Holt has walked that decision back some and said in April that a feasibility study will be done on the laboratory.
“We’re not experts at running labs and so we think we can get better service,” Holt told reporters in April.
Holt and Agriculture Minister Pat Finnigan spoke with a few protesters before the tractors and trucks arrived on Wednesday.
She was glad to see people “celebrating agriculture” since it’s a “huge sector in New Brunswick and it's actually one of our economic drivers.”
Premier Susan Holt spoke to some of the protesters on Wednesday at the legislature. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)Holt said she’s excited to continue working on veterinary service changes.
“We're going to guarantee to folks that they'll get the vet services they need in April and we have to do the work to make sure that's the case.”
Connell said she’ll be meeting with the province next week to introduce them to a lobbyist firm that her team hired.
She said the lobbyist firm will advocate on behalf of farmers.
“We're farmers — we've got day jobs to do, so we really needed to bring in the troops,” Connell said.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, the union for the veterinarian service employees, says the province hasn't appeared to budge on its decision.
Michael Pauley, the union’s vice-chair of the Atlantic Region, said he’s not sure why the province is making the change in the first place.
“I'm thinking they're looking at other jurisdictions and what they do," Pauley said from the lawn of the legislature. "But I can tell you right now, those other jurisdictions would really love to have what New Brunswick has."
He’s hearing that some provincial veterinarians are looking for jobs elsewhere and most aren’t interested in privatizing their services because of costs.
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With files from Jacques Poitras
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