From fracking to blueberries, Higgs government has a week of mixed messages

In a week with multiple developments on a range of provincial issues, maybe it wasn't surprising that the Higgs government struggled at times to articulate one clear message — or two, or three.

Especially when their normally ubiquitous leader and chief spokesperson, Premier Blaine Higgs, was away in Europe, hustling for hydrogen. 

Back at the legislature, ministers found themselves explaining, clarifying and backtracking on issues ranging from shale gas to education to blueberries.

"Maybe sometimes people say things because they're in the heat of the moment or they see this opportunity and it really excites them," Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn said of comments Higgs made about shale gas.

Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fisheries Minister Margaret Johnson — in her first legislature scrum with reporters after more than two years in the job — had to explain that she was not clashing with a cabinet colleague, Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland, over blueberries.

"The media and people are really keen to make it look like Minister Holland and I are at odds with each other," she said. "In fact quite the opposite is true."

Dunn was responding to anger from First Nations chiefs after Higgs suggested he might go ahead with natural gas development without their consent.

"I want First Nations to be part of this, but there comes a time when you've just gotta find a way to move on, if I can't have any meaningful discussions to make it happen," he told the business news website allNewBrunswick.

Higgs sees a provincial gas industry as something that could open up export markets in Europe and has pitched chiefs on a partnership that could be worth $1.6 billion.

The chiefs have spurned the idea, leading Higgs to declare "we've gotta get on with it."

In question period and with journalists, Dunn promised several times that there will be "meaningful discussion" with First Nations and acknowledged it would be "very difficult" for a gas industry to develop without Indigenous consent.

For one thing, private-sector gas companies are reluctant to invest in a jurisdiction with "any sort of turmoil" that might impede development, she said.

"I would not say that we would proceed if they didn't agree. … That could certainly be a potential for sure, but let's hope that that doesn't happen." 

Dunn had to square that reality with Higgs's comments about moving ahead.