Hogan defends hiring of outside lawyer in DEC battle

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Education Minister Bill Hogan is defending the use of an undisclosed amount of tax dollars on outside legal counsel to dissolve the Anglophone East district education council (DEC) over his concerns with its spending.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt slammed what she called a “misuse” of public funds Tuesday, describing the “hypocrisy” of a recent online Progressive Conservative Party attack ad criticizing the Anglophone East DEC for spending almost $300,000 on legal action over the province’s revised gender-identity policy. At the same time, she pointed out the Higgs government has hired an external lawyer to dissolve the council.

“(The Anglophone East DEC has) ordered operational money to be spent on something other than district operations, so if we want to talk about who’s misusing money, then she should point the finger where it belongs,” Hogan fired back at Holt during question period Tuesday.

Last week, Hogan announced his plans to start the court process to dissolve the Anglophone East DEC after it ignored his deadline to stop its Policy 713 court challenge. He claims the DEC’s legal spending is a “misappropriation” of public funds because it doesn’t fall within any of the “permissible” categories of the Education Act.

Hogan told reporters Tuesday that the Anglophone East DEC can apply to the Office of the Attorney General for cash to challenge the government policy, but it can’t use operational dollars from the education department.

Neither Attorney General Ted Flemming nor Hogan would say Tuesday how much the government has spent so far on its own Policy 713 legal action. They also wouldn’t say why the province didn’t turn to the Court of Appeal for a reference case on the constitutionality of the changes when, as Holt pointed out, it would have saved money.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is also challenging the constitutionality of the revised policy in its own lawsuit separate from that of the Anglophone East DEC.

On Tuesday, Flemming also defended the use of external lawyers on Policy 713 legal action, noting in-house counsel is there for “regular, repeat business.” Like other governments, Flemming said the province uses outside legal counsel in “exceptional situations.”

“For too long, there’s been a thought in the legal communities, ‘Oh sue the government, they’ll settle,’” Flemming said during question period. “Well I’ll tell you, we don’t fold like a cheap tent like the Liberals used to in a lot of legal stuff.”

Hogan also took a swipe at the Liberals, citing an interview Holt did where she questioned parental rights. A clip of the interview, circulated online by the Tories, shows Holt nodding her head when the interviewer recaps the Liberal leader’s position that parental rights are “bull—” and that parents have responsibilities, while children have rights.

“If we’re going to continue to defend parent rights, I’ll defend it today, I’ll defend it tomorrow and I’ll defend it from this day forward through to the next election and after that because I think parents’ rights are important,” Hogan said during question period.

Holt described the ministers as “playing the tough guy against a democratically elected body of members of the public who are trying to serve the education system.

“We have a government taking a bully attitude saying, ‘First you need to sue us. Now I don’t like the fact you’re going to sue us. Now I’m just going to dissolve you and remove your powers even though the people voted to have you in place and that exists in the Education Act,’” she said.

In a press release Tuesday afternoon, the New Brunswick Federation of Education Councils slammed Hogan’s decision to start the process to dissolve the Anglophone East DEC.

“The efforts and resources used by the government to dissolve a DEC are not in line with the best interests of students given the resources that motivate the minister to do so,” the release states. “This government exercise will create further instability in the school system.”