Two PC MLAs vote with Liberals in bid to stall education governance bill

Two Progressive Conservative MLAs broke ranks with their party again Tuesday and voted with the Liberal opposition in a bid to stall progress on an education bill that critics say would centralize decision-making power.

Ross Wetmore and Andrea Anderson-Mason voted with a Liberal amendment that would send the bill to the legislature's law-amendments committee for public hearings — a step that would have prevented the bill passing by the end of this week. 

"I am concerned if this new governance model is enacted, there will be no limitations to where a Premier could have direct interference, including areas like curriculum, policy, finances or even staff hiring and disciplinary practices," Wetmore, the MLA for Gagetown-Petitcodiac, said in an email.

The Liberal amendment was defeated 24-21, allowing the bill to advance past second reading and go to a different committee with no public hearings.

Bill 46 would turn anglophone district education councils into advisory bodies with no direct decision-making power.

Anderson-Mason, the MLA for Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West, said in the legislature the bill will "remove debate and discourse at the local level. It eliminates the checks and balances that are there to protect our citizens, our families, our children."

The two PC MLAs made their move following an email from former anglophone deputy minister of education George Daley to the eight Tories who issued a statement last week, complaining of a lack of transparency and process on the Policy 713 review.

Daley was fired last fall not long after then-education minister Dominic Cardy quit over proposed changes to French immersion.

"What I witnessed while in the deputy role left me feeling that our NB democracy had truly been hijacked over the last three years," Daley wrote to the eight MLAs.

"Your efforts last week have given me some glimmer of hope."

In his email, obtained by CBC News, Daley complained of "the continual chaos" he said Premier Blaine Higgs was inflicting on the anglophone school system.

He said the controversial review of Policy 713, which sets minimum standards for schools to provide safe and inclusive learning spaces for LGBTQ students, is an example of what will happen more often if Bill 46 passes and anglophone district education councils are neutered.

"There is nothing in my educational career that I think will have a worse effect on our system than this currently proposed model," Daley wrote.

"Please continue to be courageous whether it is on this bill or with other significant decisions," he said.