[NB Writer Pens Worries About the ...] TJ JAN 6 MLAs should walk away for fracking bill The New Brunswick legislature is made up of 26 Liberals, 22 Progressive Conservatives and one Green party member. The Speaker is Chris Collins, a Liberal MLA. He is only permitted to vote in the case of a tie. That make-up provides Premier Gallant with a slim majority, key word slim. If two Liberal MLA’s were to cross the floor, PC’s would outnumber voting Liberals 24 to 23. If only three Liberal MLA’s crossed the floor, the Conservatives would form the legislative majority. Gallant’s government introduced“An Act to Amend the Oil and Natural Gas Act”on Dec. 18. This bill prohibits fracking in New Brunswick. It essentially pulls the rug from under gas exploration/extraction companies who have invested heavily in New Brunswick in good faith. Bill 9 effectively slams the door on the development of a resource that could lift New Brunswick out of poverty. It should be lost on no one that New Brunswick depends heavily on equalization grants to survive. Is it not ironic that this charity flows from rich western provinces where shale gas has been fracked safely without significant environmental impact for decades? Surely there are more than a couple of Liberal MLA’s who recognize the harm Bill 9 will do to the economic future of our province. I call on Liberal MLA’s to rise above petty politics and do what is right for New Brunswick by walking away from Bill 9, an act that will surely become known as “Gallant’s Folly.” Bill Rankin Saint John AND
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 21:43:41 +0000
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