N.B. Greens shut out from electoral boundaries commission

The riding boundaries used in the next New Brunswick election will be decided by a group of six people appointed by the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals, with no input from the Green Party.

Green MLA Kevin Arseneau is accusing the two traditional parties of “collusion” after his party’s suggestions for members to sit on the electoral boundaries commission were not selected.

“It undermines the whole process,” he said.

“It undermines public confidence in the credibility as our role of parliamentarians and the institutions that we have in place.”

According to the law governing the drawing of electoral boundaries, commission members are to be selected by the Legislative Administration Committee (LAC) before being appointed by cabinet. Arseneau says his party was asked for a list of suggested members by the premier’s chief of staff, Louis Leger, a few weeks ago so they could be reviewed. But they refused, citing that there was no mention of the executive council reviewing potential commissioners, which is laid out in the law.

When LAC met on Thursday, Arseneau says the committee approved a list of six members that are “very tied to political parties,” including a former premier. His attempts to get either one of the two people the Greens had proposed added to the commission were voted down.

“It was very clear that it was the premier’s office and Louis Leger who chose the people that are going to be on this commission by back-door deals with the official opposition,” he said.

“We refused to play the back-door deal, we said we were going to follow the process in the law and we were punished.”

Arseneau tried to raise the issue on the floor of the legislature but was cut off by speaker Bill Oliver for divulging the discussions of LAC, which meets behind closed doors and whose deliberations are kept secret.

Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson would not discuss what happened at the meeting, but denied any collusion or wrong-doing on the part of his party. He confirmed that they submitted the names when asked by Leger, saying the two traditional parties have always cooperated when it came to the process. The electoral boundaries law mandates the ridings be redrawn every ten years. This is the first time more than one party has been represented in the Legislature when the lines need to be redrawn.

“LAC made a decision,” Melanson said. “I’m confident that … the commission will do a good job. They’re highly qualified and credible.”

Arseneau said the way the process unfolded means the PCs and the Liberals on the committee could collude to draw the ridings in a way that disadvantages the Greens.

While Premier Blaine Higgs admitted that he can see how not having a single member proposed by the Greens on the commission could undermine public confidence, he says this is the way the process has traditionally unfolded and that the PCs would gain no advantage by hurting the electoral impact of the Green Party.

“I don’t see any reason for us to be doing that,” Higgs said.

But the way the process has unfolded means it will be all too easy to question the end result, Arseneau says.

“There will always be a doubt now,” he said. ” And that’s just unacceptable.”