Francophone group asks court to overturn firing of health authority board

A francophone health care lobby group is going to court hoping to quash the Higgs government's firing of the Vitalité health authority board last month.

Égalité santé en français is seeking a quick hearing in the Court of Queen's Bench for a judicial review of the decision.

They want to persuade a judge to order the reinstatement of the board, which had eight elected members and seven appointed by the province.

Lawyer Ronald Caza said the July 15 replacement of the board violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the rights of New Brunswick's English and French communities to their own "distinct educational and cultural institutions."

"If the community doesn't take this to court, it's the beginning of the end," Caza said at a news conference.

"It's literally the beginning of the end. The government will take it as a message that they don't have to respect their constitutional obligations. … They are taking away an existing right to management by a linguistic minority. Imagine what they'll do with their other obligations." 

Whether the Charter's guarantee of "distinct educational and cultural institutions" includes health care has never been fully tested in court.

But Caza argues that the creation of two elected health authority boards in 2008 along linguistic lines extended those rights to health care and that can't be taken away now. 

The court filing also invokes Section 23 of the Charter, which guarantees minority-language educational institutions and has been interpreted to require a level of community governance.

The Health Department said it would not comment on a case before the courts, but late Friday, Premier Blaine Higgs released a statement calling the court action "disappointing … at a time when we face genuine healthcare challenges throughout our province and all of Canada."

"Our goal is to ensure our two health networks complement each other in their delivery of the best care possible to our residents while also respecting all official language rights."

Before the court challenge announcement, Health Minister Bruce Fitch defended the firing of the Horizon and Vitalité health authority boards, saying it will allow a more "direct line of contact" between different parts of the health care system.

Higgs replaced both health boards with elected trustees at the same time as he fired Horizon CEO Dr. John Dornan and named Fitch to replace Dorothy Shephard as health minister.

Fitch said the move was intended in part as a signal of the government's seriousness to address worsening emergency department wait times and other chronic problems in the system.