Paramedics and language requirements front and centre at New Brunswick judicial review

Paramedics and language requirements were front and centre during a judicial hearing in Fredericton Thursday.

The review will determine if an arbitrator’s recommendations comply with the province’s Official Languages Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Lawyers for the province and the language commissioner argued that changes to Ambulance NB’s (AMB) hiring process compromises New Brunswickers’ language and Charter rights.

Lawyer Keith Mullin told the court “the McEvoy decision must be quashed.”

In New Brunswick, the public has the right to communicate and be served by government offices in either French of English. This right was contested after a arbitrator found that AMB wasn’t complying with the paramedic union’s collective agreement, putting language over seniority.

In short, ANB was hiring unilingual paramedics when bilingual ones couldn’t be found. The jobs were re-posted every 24 weeks, which meant that those paramedics weren’t securing full-time employment. So a regional-based hiring system was suggested in areas of the province that had less demand for second language services.

But it was argued an arbitrator has,”no power to modify, add or subtract from the Official Languages Act or the Charter of Rights,” according to Michel Doucet, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of New Brunswick.

“We made our arguments and now it’s in the hands of the judge, we’ll wait for the judges decision,” he said.

But the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) lawyer had a much different argument, stating to the judge that the McEvoy decision has become overly complicated.

“It’s a labour relations case. It’s not a Charter case. It’s not a pure language rights case,” said Glen Gallant.

He honed in on the fact that language requirements have resulted in a permanent workforce turning temporary, which violates the union’s collective agreement and doesn’t allow unillingual employees the chance to obtain permanent work.

“It’s before the courts so we’ll see what they say,” said Gallant, while leaving the courthouse.

The Higgs government has implemented hiring directives that include a requirement that every ambulance provide services in both official languages, walking back on an order last month that was the opposite.

The judge thanked all three parties for their submissions.

“It was not an easy case to argue and I assure you, it wont be an easy case to decide,” said Justice Denise LeBlanc.

There’s no word when LeBlanc will release her decision.