Liberals rewrite message on education cuts after a month of criticism
CBC
At first, the opposition saw the story of district education budget cuts in New Brunswick as the story of a weak cabinet minister.
On May 13, Progressive Conservative MLA Bill Hogan — a former education minister — blamed his Liberal successor, Claire Johnson, for the bad news trickling out of the province's seven school districts.
"At what point will the premier realize that she has a minister struggling?" Hogan asked.
"At what point does the premier look inward and ask herself if she made a mistake or two in the selection of her cabinet?"
Over time, as the Holt government struggled to find a coherent narrative for its decisions on the district budgets, the PC criticism has evolved.
Now it's about the government as a whole.
"The Art of the Deal, Premier Holt-style, goes like this," PC MLA Rob Weir said this week, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's impetuous style of decision-making.
"Step one: cut funding. Step two: wait for funding cuts to cause chaos, upset and job loss. Step three: then, and only then, start talking about negotiations."
The Liberals are now in retreat over their education budget, which they increased by $200 million overall, but which — thanks to the earmarking of most of the money — forced the districts to reduce spending in some areas by a total of $43 million.
One district cut library workers. Another said it would have to eliminate 25 support positions for students with behavioural issues, shifting those teachers into classrooms to comply with the government's directive to concentrate resources in classrooms.
Last week, Johnson said forcing district education councils to rethink their budgets was "a good exercise," but the government had gone "a little bit too fast or too far" because it was so impatient for improvements.
Holt later told Brunswick News the problem stemmed from the districts being so unused to consultation and collaboration that they didn't realize the Liberals wanted to negotiate with them all along.
Johnson adopted that message in the last week, saying the government and the districts "have to relearn how to work together" after six years of Progressive Conservative government.
"We almost have to deal with a trauma response as we fix a relationship that has been broken," the minister said.
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