Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is fuming over recent changes by the Liberal majority government to how the New Brunswick legislature operates, which she calls “anti-democratic” and squarely aimed at the Green Party.
A change in funding formulas made by a confidential Legislative Administration Committee earlier this month will result in the layoff of two Green Party caucus staffers starting next week. And this week, Mitton learned that further changes would cut in half the number of member statements that she and Green leader David Coon can make in the legislature.
“This is a concerted effort to silence the Greens,” says Mitton. “They they don’t want people to hear what we have to say in the legislature, and so they’ve done that through budgetary means and they’re doing it with our speaking time now as well.”
43% budget cut for Greens, 23% increase for Liberals
The Liberal majority committee has cut $154,000 from the Green budget, added $152,000 to the budget for government MLAs, and bumped the PC budget by $40,000.
“I don’t know if I have strong enough words to say how strongly I disagree with what they’ve done,” Mitton told CHMA last week.
Liberal government house leader Marco Leblanc told reporters that the decision to cut Greens caucus funding was based on the party losing one of its three seats in the last election. But Green researcher Josh O’Donnell confirms that the Green’s budget was already cut after the election, by about $11,000, to reflect the loss of MLA Kevin Arsenault in October.
The new budget increased the official opposition PC leader’s allotment from $500,000 to $640,000, and reduced the third party Green leader’s from $250,000 to $154,000. The government allotment does not include an amount for the leader, because the Premier’s office is budgeted separately.
In her weekly press conference, Premier Susan Holt said the Liberal majority committee responsible for the changes “looked at proportionality and what was most equitable and fair across all 49 representatives in the House.”
Currently the Liberals hold 31 seats in the legislature, the PCs 15, and the Greens two. One seat was vacated recently when Miramichi PC MLA Mike Dawson decided to run for federal office.
Proportionality and ‘recognized parties’
Proportionality also played a factor in the rule change that has impacted the number of member statement Greens will be allowed to make. Before the change, the Greens were allotted two statements each daily sitting, with the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives allotted 4 each. After the rule change the Greens will get one opportunity each sitting, the Liberals 4, and the PCs 5.
“I’ve had a member statement every day I’ve been in the legislature since 2018,” said Mitton on Thursday. “Today was the first day I did not have one.”
The Liberal rule change came as part of a package that also officially redefined “recognized parties” in the legislature. Previously the rules required five elected members, but according to CBC’s legislative reporter Jacques Poitras, smaller parties have been recognized with a vote since the days of NDP leader Elizabeth Weir sitting as a lone NDP MLA.
The definition revised this week now requires two elected members for a party to be recognized.
The new rule allocating member statements adds that parties will take turns making their one minute statements, “ensuring that the frequency of recognition is proportional to each recognized party’s total number of Private Members.”
Mitton says she’s interested in proportionality in the legislature, but would rather see the Liberals focus on proportional representation, something that would involve electoral reform.
“If they really want to push proportionality, we should have at least six seats in the House, and they would have about 23-24 seats,” says Mitton. “But they’re not really interested in proportionality. They’re specifically going after the Greens. They see us as a threat, and they want to minimize our impact.”
About 14% of votes cast in the October 2024 election went to the Green Party, but Green voters were the majority in only two ridings, which means the Green Party has just 4% of the seats in the legislature. The Liberals got about 48% of votes cast, but won 63% of the seats in the province’s ‘first past the post’ electoral system. The PC results in October were the closest to proportional, with the party gaining 35% of votes across the province, and winning 33% of the seats.
Tantramar constituency office business as usual
Mitton says she will respond to the reduction in her member statement time by taking advantage of whatever time she has, and ramping up her communication efforts outside of the legislature.
“I know that in politics, the only place to speak is not the legislature,” says Mitton. “It’s an important place. But [there’s also] speaking to the media, speaking on social media… I might even need to start a podcast.”
While the 43% caucus office budget cut will shrink Green Party staff resources in Fredericton, Mitton’s constituency office in Sackville is not affected by the change.
“It does not affect the work that we do to to help navigate systems for people,” says Mitton. Community meetings will also go on as normal, says the MLA.
“This isn’t going to slow me down,” says Mitton. “If anything, it lights a fire even more under me to make sure that I’m doing everything I need to in the legislature to hold this government accountable.”
“What it means is we will have fewer resources. But you know what? We’re frankly the most prepared at committee. We ask good questions, we bring amendments, and we’re still going to keep doing that, even if they’re trying to make it harder for us to do it.”
