People Alliance gains wouldn't put francophones at risk, says party leader

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin insists that if his party wins more seats in the New Brunswick legislature on election night, it won't be a threat tofrancophones or theservices they enjoy.

The party has long wanted to limit New Brunswick's language requirements, a controversial position in a province where roughly one-third of the population identifies as francophone.

"This isn't a French-English thing," he said in a one-on-one interview with CBC News.

"This is an issue of how bilingualism is implemented and how it can be done in a way that ensures everybody has equal access despite language. But it can be done in a way that we're not eliminating opportunities for uni-linguists."

Seeks lower language bar

Austin, who is running for re-election inFredericton-Grand Lake on Sept. 14,calls the province's French immersion program a failure.

He pointed to a 2019 report from Auditor General Kim MacPhersonthat said of the 1,624 students who began French immersion in 2004, only 10 per cent finished Grade 12 with an "advanced" or better level of French.

He said it's unrealistic to expect someone who only speaks one language to meet the necessary requirements by attending night classes.

Austin, who does not speak French, said his party would like to lower requirements he believes act as an employment barrier to English-speaking Brunswickers.

Kris Austin says People's Alliance no threat to francophones

4 years ago

Duration 6:29

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin says if his party wins more seats in the New Brunswick legislature on Monday, it won't be a threat to francophones or the services they enjoy.

The province assesses French-language skills based on nine levels of proficiency, from zero, of unratable, to four, or superior.Austin said he'd like to see the proficiency requirements for some jobs lowered to Level 2, or intermediate,from Level 2+ plus, or intermediate plus.

"Right now we have, you know, jobs in the civil service that have a mandated requirement of two-plus bilingual requirements," he said. "What we have said is, 'Let's bring it down to a two to make it more practical to what we're seeing on the ground.'"

He said adequate services can still be offered with these lower requirements for bilingualism.

'A more rational approach'

Austin said francophones don't generally enrol their children in French immersion programs.

"Nobody's out of anything," he said. "And it brings a more rational approach to bilingualism in New Brunswick."

Opposition to language requirements and bilingualism have always been a core message of Austin's party, which won three seats inthe 2018 election.

The People's Alliance and thethree-member Green Party's caucus were enough to prevent either the Liberals or the Progressive Conservatives from holding a majority of seats.

Following that election, while the Greens talked about a new vision of a more consensus-seeking legislature, the Alliance leader quickly offered to prop up the PCs for 18 months in return for policy input.

But according to the CBC Poll Tracker, the Progressive Conservatives have managed to gain support at the expense of the People's Alliance with Austin's own seat within the grasp of Blaine Higgs's party if the sharp decrease in Alliance support throughout the province is replicated in Fredericton-Grand Lake.

And while the party enjoyed greater influence under Higgs, the People's Alliance failed to get amendments tothe Official Languages Act, despite hints from Austin that it could happen.

• New Brunswick Poll Tracker

This election, the People's Alliance has maintained that New Brunswickerswill benefit if voters elect another minority government, forcing the larger parties to negotiate.

"What I can say is, during our time in a minority government, we've had [a] significant impact on things like the budget, bills that were brought forward, bills that were not brought forward."

Supports Higgs dropping candidate

Recently both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals took heat after two candidates shared offensive comments about the LGBTQ community on social media.

Both candidates, Saint Croix Liberal John Gardner and Victoria-La Valle PC Roland Michaud, were told they could no longer run under their respective parties' banners.

• Liberal and PC leaders each drop candidates over derogatory posts about LGBTQ community

While Austin said politicians need to be careful of "cancel culture," he ultimately called the post Michaud shared "egregious" and said the premier made the right move by dropping him.

Austin said he hadn't seen the comments posted by Gardner.

Unconvinced systemic racism exists in province

On the other hand, Austin said, while he agrees racism is present within the province, he isn't convinced systemic racism exists.

"Nobody's ever defined to me what systemic racism means," he said. "You can ask different people and they'll interpret it different ways. Does it mean that our laws are racist? Does it mean that our policies are racist? That our legislation is racist?"

There have been increased calls for an independent provincial inquiry into systemic racism since police officers shot and killed Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi in separate incidents earlier this summer and the person charged after the hit-and run death of Brady Francis was found not guilty in April.

First Nations chiefs have expressed frustration with Higgs's determination to do things his way on a serious issue in New Brunswick that he doesn't fully understand.

• An Alliance candidate's French connection

Echoing Higgs, Austin said he does not outright oppose a public inquiry but wants to ensure if one is launched, it isresults-oriented.

"We go through a lot of reports, commissions, inquiries, and at the end of the day, it fills up a nice textbook, and it collects dust and a great warehouse of government inquiries," he said.

"That's not productive. So what I would say is, if an inquiry can get us to a legitimate outcome, where action can be taken to help, again, put the flames out of racism as they [exist] in the province, I'm more than willing to to move on that."

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