Time has run out for paid-sick-leave legislation, Green MLA complains

The Higgs government is being accused of running out the clock on any discussion of adopting paid-sick-leave legislation for New Brunswick workers.

With the legislature set to adjourn June 7 for the last time before a fall provincial election, Labour Minister Greg Turner has not yet tabled a much-anticipated report on the idea.

The report has been ready for at least three months, and Green MLA Megan Mitton says the delay means it's no longer possible for a bill on paid sick leave to become law before the election.

"Disappointingly, no," she said.

"They've dropped the ball on this and made it clear they don't care to stand up for workers' rights and don't care to bring in paid sick days like we've been urging them to."

Turner struggled to explain to reporters on Friday why he hasn't been able to release his own department's report yet, attributing the delay to "the schedule" but reaffirming his vow to get it out before the legislative session ends.

Labour Minister Greg Turner said the delay was due to planning. (CBC)

"The planners schedule things, but I know it's on the agenda, let's say, for sure, for next week, and hopefully it's before the end of the week so we can scrutinize it," he said.

"That would be the hope."

Green Leader David Coon introduced legislation in December 2022 that would provide sick workers with up to 10 days of paid leave.

The bill also included a provision to help employers with the cost.

The province had a record number of flu hospitalizations at the time and was also grappling at the time with soaring rates of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

Coon argued the paid leave would make it easier for workers to stay home, decreasing their chances of infecting others.

His bill was sent to the legislature's law amendments committee, which decided not to advance it but to instead ask the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour to hold consultations and prepare a report.

The department's deputy minister Dan Mills told Mitton at a public accounts committee meeting on Feb. 22 that that work was finished.

"We're prepared to report back to Law Amendments whenever they're ready to have us," Mills said.

More than three months later, the report still isn't public, with only four sitting days of the legislative session remaining.

"It's just in the timing and in parliamentary procedure. Things are scheduled. It'll come out next week," Turner said.

"I don't always get to make those choices but I look forward to presenting it, that's for sure."

Mitton said it was strange that Turner could not decide for himself when his report would be out.

"Who's in charge, then, if the minister of PETL isn't in charge of his own recommendations, his own report?"

Turner told reporters the government must "balance" the concerns of workers and their employers but refused to elaborate until the report is out.

Dan Mills, deputy minister of labour, told legislators at a committee in February that work was finished on the bill. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Mills told the committee in February the department had received "a variety of feedback" from stakeholders, who advocated a range of options including the status quo and a combination of various paid and unpaid leave options.

Depending on what day the report is released next week, opposition parties may have little or no time left to ask questions about it in the legislature.

"What is in it that they don't want us to see until the very last day that we're sitting here?" Mitton asked.

"I still can't believe that we've gone a pandemic and the government hasn't learned anything about public health measures. This should be a right, that people have paid sick days."