New Brunswick

Former PC cabinet minister in N.B. wins case over firing by Liberals

Former PC MLA Margaret-Ann Blaney won more than $700,000 and an apology after her 2014 firing by a Liberal government was deemed discriminatory and based on her political activity.

Province ordered to apologize to Margaret-Ann Blaney, pay more than $700,000

Woman with shoulder-length blond hair and black-rimmed glasses smiles at the camera.
Former PC cabinet minister Margaret-Ann Blaney arrives at the labour board hearing in Fredericton in 2024. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Margaret-Ann Blaney has won a resounding and financially lucrative legal victory over her 2014 firing by a Liberal government.

The New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board says the firing discriminated against Blaney because of her past political activity, and the government must apologize and pay more than $700,000 in compensation.

Liberal legislation drafted to prevent her from suing over her firing "was motivated by contempt for Ms. Blaney as a person and employee and demonstrates bad faith and an abuse of power," the board said in its July 21 ruling.

"Ms. Blaney was not treated with dignity, was not afforded the protection of the rule of law, and she was subjected to public miseries because of her political belief and activity."

The Holt government did not immediately comment on whether it would apply for judicial review of the decision.Blaney declined to comment but her lawyer Kelly VanBuskirk said the ruling makes two important points: that people active in politics should not be "victimized" after they're hired for a job, and that a government can't take away their right to contest a firing.

"That's not the kind of thing we should be supporting in a democratic society," he said. 

"That is stuff of countries and societies other than ours." 

Appointed to Efficiency N.B. in 2012

Blaney, first elected in 1999, held several cabinet positions in the Bernard Lord and David Alward PC governments before being appointed as the CEO of Efficiency New Brunswick in 2012.

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Former PC minister fired by Liberals wins legal challenge

18 hours ago
Duration 1:53
The New Brunswick government has been ordered to apologize to Margaret-Ann Blaney and pay her more than $700,000.

The appointment was widely seen as a patronage appointment, and even some PC cabinet ministers at the time — including future premier Blaine Higgs — refused to endorse it.

After taking power in 2014, the new Liberal government of Brian Gallant told Blaney the agency was being dissolved and her position terminated without any severance.

It adopted legislation in March 2015 that retroactively fired Blaney, effective Oct. 16, 2014, and prevented her from suing.

Blaney told a labour board hearing last year that the firing was "catastrophic" for her and made it impossible for her to find a new job.

She was forced to draw on savings and investments and to collect her pension early at a reduced amount.

Two men in dark suits stand in front of a microphone.
This 2012 file photo shows premier David Alward and finance minister Blaine Higgs at a news conference held to discuss the appointment of Margaret-Ann Blaney to Efficiency New Brunswick. (CBC)

"I was completely vilified in a very public way," she said.

"At every turn, with every conversation, it became increasingly apparent that I was like a pariah."

Blaney filed a complaint under the Human Rights Act, a move the Gallant and Higgs governments tried repeatedly to block in court.

But in 2023, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal cleared the way for her case to go ahead.

The labour board ruling says the 2015 legislation to block Blaney from suing wasn't specific enough to override the protections of the Human Rights Act.

It also pointed out the Gallant Liberals made its first moves to fire her before the 2015 act came into effect and that she filed her complaint before the act was adopted by the legislature.

The board also said that the Higgs government "did nothing to rectify the violation of Ms. Blaney's rights" while it was in power from 2018 to 2024, adding to the callous way she was treated.

The board ordered the province to pay Blaney:

  • $358,071 for lost salary for the equivalent of the balance of her five-year appointment, plus interest.
  • $42,968.32 for lost vacation for the same period, plus interest.
  • $230,000 in general damages.
  • The difference between the sale price of her Rothesay home and its appraised value at the time, which the ruling says was $20,000.

The province must also make up for the $88,075 that would have been added to her pension between 2015 and 2017 had she not been fired.

The board also said the province's apology should be in writing, "acknowledging that it discriminated against her" because of her political activity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacques Poitras

Provincial Affairs reporter

Jacques Poitras has been CBC's provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history.