Higgs says CUPE health-care workers could continue strike with Public Health go-ahead
CBC
Premier Blaine Higgs says he could end the back-to-work emergency order and let unionized health-care workers return to picket lines when there's enough improvement in the province's hospitals to make it safe.
Higgs made the comments to reporters after the Opposition Liberals questioned whether he plans to keep the emergency order in place in perpetuity, even after COVID-19 hospitalizations fall below the threshold for lifting restrictions.
"If the CEOs [of the two regional health authorities] and Public Health were to say, 'Okay, we're good to go,' then we'd be in a situation where we could say, 'Okay, we don't need to maintain this regulation about back to work," he told reporters.
"Workers could go back on strike if they chose to do so. I would like to think that during this time frame that they will have a chance to vote on the offer that's on the table, and all of this would be unnecessary."
Last Friday the province used the same emergency powers to order striking hospital workers back on the job. Most of them are members of the 9,000-strong Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1252.
The province declared a new COVID-19 state of emergency on Sept. 24 under the provincial Emergency Measures Act and issued a new mandatory order on masks and other measures.
At the time they said that order would be lifted when fewer than 10 New Brunswickers were hospitalized for COVID-19.
Hospitalizations peaked at 68 on Oct. 13 and have been trending downward since then. On Tuesday there were 16.
That trend prompted the Liberal Opposition to ask Tuesday what will happen to the order applying to health workers if that number dips below 10.
"Premier, are you going to have a state of emergency forever, as long as you're premier?" Liberal Leader Roger Melanson asked during question period.
Justice and Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming pointed out that the back-to-work order is separate from the COVID-19 restrictions order.
But Higgs acknowledged to reporters that it is linked to the pandemic.
"It is a separate document, but it is allowable because of the province being under an emergency order, so the two are tied in that sense, because it is health and safety."
At first he refused to answer questions about what will happen when hospitalizations dip below 10, calling them hypothetical.
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