User:Pictureprovince/Shawn Graham

Premier of New Brunswick

Graham was elected premier under a platform called the Charter for Change, he pledged to focus on "the three Es": energy, education and the economy. He also pledged to make the province self-sufficient, that is to no longer depend on federal equalization payments, by 2026.

Though they won the election with a slight deficit in the popular vote, upon taking office, the Liberals surged in popularity. In December 2006, a poll showed the Liberals had surged to a lead of 65-27 in opinion polls, thereafter polls have showed the Liberals ahead by a minimum of 17%.

Graham's Liberals have maintained the lead in a number of polls despite having to "spend some political capital" on a number of controversial issues such as post-secondary education reform, French second-language education, a bailout of a credit union and the restructuring of the province's public health care administration.

Graham has said that this has been done because to achieve self-sufficiency, the province must undergo transformational change. Outstanding initiatives in this vein include a proposal for a massive overhaul of the province's taxation and a study of its local governance structures.

Transition and day-one actions

On September 20 2006, Graham appointed a transition team to begin to transfer power headed by Doug Tyler. Graham, as New Brunswick's 31st Premier, and the rest of the cabinet were sworn-in by Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson on October 3, 2006.

On his first day in office, Graham, as promised, acted on five campaign promises. His government cut the excise tax on gasoline by 3.8 cents per litre, moved nursing home payments from an assets-based test to an income-based test, provided students with a reduced tuition of $2000 for their first year in university, provided the City of Saint John with a memorandum of understanding to provide a third of required monies for the clean up of Saint John harbour and established separate ministers for Agriculture & Aquaculture, Fisheries, Housing and Seniors. Additionally, on its first day in office, it pledged $2 million to assist in maintaining ferry service from Saint John to Digby, Nova Scotia.

In addition to being Premier and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (a post often held by premiers in Canada), Graham took on the role of Minister of Wellness, Culture and Sport. Graham, who has a background in athletics competing in the 1985 Canada Games for New Brunswick in track and field, wanted to take the portfolio to ensure it was a priority in large part to fight childhood obesity in the province, which is the highest in the country.

First year (2006-07)

On October 12 2006, Graham announced several senior appointments. He appointed a president of NB Liquor and deputy ministers for the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice and Consumer Affairs to replace Conservative political appointees who had resigned when Graham took office. He also appointed former cabinet minister Bernard Thériault as his chief of staff and his former Opposition chief of staff Chris Baker to be secretary of the Policy and Priorities Committee of Cabinet.

Early in its mandate, the government implemented increases to the amount of care received by nursing home and homecare clients. It also appointed Bernard Richard as Child and Youth Advocate, a position which had been vacant since its creation in 2005 as a result of a then-opposition Liberal-sponsored bill. In December 2006, the province announced an agreement with private auto insurance companies that would see some restructuring of regulations and an average decrease of 13.5% in insurance rates by March 1 2007. The province also appointed several commissions to investigate larger issues: a Community Non-Profit Task Force, a Self-Sufficiency Task Force and a Commission on Post-Secondary Education. The Liberals however cancelled a tax rebate on energy costs brought forward by the previous government which they had said they would maintain. The Liberals defended the move saying that the Conservatives had left the province's finances "in a downward spiral" and that the program was bad policy because it didn't encourage energy conservation.

On March 13 2007, Graham's Finance Minister Victor Boudreau introduced the government's first budget. While the budget was balanced, despite warnings months earlier from an independent auditor that the province was facing a massive deficit, and increased spending in priority areas, it was criticized for having raised taxes. The opposition noted that this was the first increase to personal income taxes in the province since 1994 and contrasted it with the previous Conservative government which had lowered income taxes every year for their seven years in office. Boudreau defended the increases saying "we all enjoy lower taxes, but when the level of taxation is insufficient to ensure the continued provision of essential public services, it needs to be addressed."

The spring of 2007 saw the Liberal majority grow by three; they added a seat when Chris Collins won a by-election in Moncton East, the seat vacated when Bernard Lord stepped down from provincial politics. A short time later, Tory MLAs and spouses Wally Stiles and Joan MacAlpine-Stiles crossed the floor to give the Liberals 32 seats to 23 for the opposition.

The report of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force was released in May will 91 recommendations covering 11 themes, 80 of which were to be acted upon within one year.

The spring sitting of the legislature did not conclude until July, sitting a record 79 days and passing 74 pieces of legislation. During that time, Graham's government unveiled an education plan called When Kids Come First which seeks to build the best education system in Canada. The government began a refurbishment of its Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, launched a feasibility study into building a second reactor there, and began projects to add 300 megawatts of wind power to the province's electric grid. It also invested $40 million into affordable housing and opened 125 new nursing home beds. Additionally, Graham and his Environment Minister Roland Haché launched a Climate Change Action Plan, a five-year strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province.

Over the summer, a number of major economic projects were announced by Graham including a $1.7 billion potash mine near Sussex and a $21.5 million steel fabrication plan and centre of excellence in Miramichi.

In September, the report of the Commission on Post-Secondary Education was released. It contained a wide-number of recommendations meant to be considered together as a comprehensive reform package. The authors indicated in their submission to government that:

Due to the complexities and interrelationships involved, this is a document that cannot be easily scanned. Readers will need to spend time understanding the dynamics and relevance of the issues raised. At the risk of stating the obvious, the recommendations are also highly interrelated and should not be considered discrete advice. Such an approach could result in the essence of the report being misinterpreted.

The day the report was presented to government, Post-Secondary Education Minister Ed Doherty was quoted at the top of a news release saying, "these are only recommendations from an independent commission and final decisions haven't been made yet by our government" and that government would take time to evaluate them before making any decisions. Despite this, public controversy ensued confusing the recommendations with government policy. The most controversial proposal was converting the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick into a polytechnic. A month later the government said it would set aside the possibility of UNB Saint John losing its status as a 'university' and would refer the report to a working group for further study.

Second year (2007-08)

Shortly after the first anniversary of his election, Graham shuffled his cabinet. He added two new ministers: outgoing speaker Eugene McGinley and Wally Stiles, who had crossed the floor to the Liberals several months prior. Five other ministers were affected by the shuffle. Two ministers who had multiple portfolios ceded some of their responsibilities: the premier ceded his responsibility for the Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport; and Finance Minister Victor Boudreau gave up responsibility for the Department of Local Government. Three other ministers, namely Hédard Albert, Carmel Robichaud and Mary Schryer changed portfolios, including a promotion for Schryer who moved from minister of state to full minister. There was another minor adjustment to cabinet in January 2008 when Roly MacIntyre resigned from cabinet, his portfolios were taken on by other ministers in the cabinet.

In January, Graham unveiled a new brand called Be... in this place to give a common look and feel to provincial activities. A new brand was the first recommendation of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force. In February, the province unveiled its population growth strategy called Be Our Future setting out the plan to attract 100,000 new people to the province by 2026 as part of achieving self-sufficiency.

In March, the government tabled its second balanced budget which included record increases to the health and education budgets and a tuition freeze for students at the province's four public universities.

In March and April, the province unveiled its plans for "transformational change" in healthcare. A dramatic change to the administration of the province's public healthcare moved the province from eight regional health authorities to two with a new crown corporation which will handle non-clinical functions on behalf of both authorities. A new provincial health plan, was also launched with plans to invest over $154 million in addition to regular inflationary increases over four years. The plan included plans for new community health centres, broader addiction treatment services, HPV vacinations for school children, the introduction of midwifery to the public health system, enabling pharmacists to write some prescriptions and the hiring of 100 new doctors and 40 nurse practitioners.

Much of the spring and summer of Graham's second year in office was dominated by the debate of French second-language programs. In February, a commission recommended that government should scrap early immersion in favour of a universal curriculum in elementary school which would see anglophone students learn in their mother tongue from kindergarten through Grade 4 and then all study French through an intensive program in Grade 5 before choosing between an immersion or non-immersion program. The commission said that this was the best route because under the existing model, over 93% of those students with special learning needs were being streamed into non-immersion classrooms. In March, the government announced that they would move forward with the recommendations for the reasons stated by the commissioners and because they felt the changes would further promote bilingualism by giving all students access to a quality second-language program arguing that the early immersion model had been implemented in a time when there was resistance to bilingualism and that it only worked well for small groups of students, not the large groups that were now interested in becoming bilingual. There was considerable opposition to this move, including from the province's official languages commissioner and ombudsman. The ombudsman was criticized for overstepping his bounds. In June, the Court of Queen's Bench ruled on a case brought forward by opponents to the changes, though the court rejected two of their three claims, it did rule that the government had implied that there would be two months of consultation on the commission report, when there had only been two weeks. The court said that the government could go forward with the changes as is but first must consult the public. Following an additional six weeks of consultation, government announced a revised model on August 5 which would provide a universal learning environment including exposure to French culture from kindergarten through Grade 2, an optional entry to immersion in Grade 3, further French instruction for non-immersion students in grades 3 through 5 with another optional entry to immersion in Grade 6. The program has been generally well received.

In June, the working group that had been appointed to review the Commission on Post-Secondary Education reported back to government. Graham announced that the government would forgo the recommendations about creating polytechnics, but would follow through on recommendations to greater integrate the universities and colleges in the province. In July, Graham committed $20 million to the restoration of the Petitcodiac River. The river system had been changed by the construction of a causeway in the 1960s.

Third year (2008-09)

Graham began the third year of his mandate in October 2008.

Graham participated in a Council of the Federation trade mission to China from November 2 to 7. The mission yielded $75.5 million in new business for New Brunswick companies on its first full day in China. A by-election was held in the conservative riding of New Maryland-Sunbury West on November 3 2008. Although the Liberals increased their share of the vote by nearly 3%, they were unable to capture the riding.

On November 12, Graham announced a second major cabinet shuffle. Two ministers - Eugene McGinley and Carmel Robichaud - were dropped from cabinet, while three new individuals joined the cabinet - Rick Brewer, Brian Kenny and Bernard LeBlanc. Three other ministers changed portfolios, including: Donald Arseneault, Ed Doherty and Wally Stiles.

A throne speech is scheduled for November 25 2008 to outline the government's priorities for the year.