Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (New Brunswick)

Organizational structure

The Department, led by the Deputy Minister who acts as its chief administrator, is divided into four divisions, each of which is led by an Assistant Deputy Minister:

• Labour and Strategic Services, which includes the Finance, Human Resources, Employment Standards and Policy branches, as well as the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission;
• Post-Secondary Education, which includes the Post-Secondary Relations and Student Financial Assistance branches;
• Adult Learning and Employment, which includes WorkingNB, SkilledTradesNB and the New Brunswick Public Libraries Service; and
• Immigration, which includes the Operations, Compliance and Integrity, Workforce Development and Strategic Partnerships and Integration branches.

In May 2024, the provincial government announced that the Department would be taking on responsibility for administering and enforcing New Brunswick's new Accessibility Act, which will include an Accessibility Office housed within the Department's Labour and Strategic Services Division, as well as an Accessibility Advisory Board providing advice to the Minister.

Controversies and criticism

The Department has come under criticism over the years on a number of fronts.

Ending the Free Tuition Program

In April 2019, the Department announced the end of the Free Tuition Program, a resource that layered federal and provincial funds to entirely offset tuition costs for students attending public universities whose families earned below a certain threshold. The program was replaced with the Renewed Tuition Bursary, under which students would now receive a maximum provincial grant of $3,000 for university students or $1,500 for college students, based upon their family size and income. This was a substantial cut to the previous thresholds, which saw university students being eligible for provincial grants up to $10,000 and up to $5,000 for college students. The government contended that the Renewed Tuition Bursary was fairer because it allowed students of both public and private post-secondary institutions to receive the financial assistance. However, student organizations like the New Brunswick Student Alliance strongly rejected the changes, arguing that they led to less up-front funding for post-secondary students and ultimately more debt.

Cancelling NB-EI Connect

In June 2022, the Department confirmed that it was cancelling the New Brunswick – Employment Insurance (NB-EI) Connect Program, which had allowed thousands of students to receive EI while pursuing post-secondary studies. The initial aim of the Program was to empower individuals experiencing gaps in their employment to improve their career skills through post-secondary education and training. However, in practise, the Program was being used by thousands of full-time university students — an increasing number of whom each year — who had no previous significant labour market attachment, to receive EI while in school, essentially making it a quasi-universal basic income scheme for students. Since EI is a federal domain of responsibility and funding that is designed to help Canadians who are under- or unemployed rejoin the labour market, the federal government felt that the NB-EI Connect Program was contrary to the federal Employment Insurance Act and demanded that New Brunswick cancel it.

News of the program's cancellation was first leaked by Jean-Sebastian Leger, then president of the Fédération étudiante du Centre universitaire de Moncton, after the Department had sent an email to student unions advising of the change, but saying that there would be no public announcement thereof. Students throughout New Brunswick heavily criticized the cancellation, citing increasing costs of living and tuition and little other provincial funding supports. The liberal opposition's reaction was that, while they did not call for the Program to be reinstated, they believed that the Government should be doing more to support post-secondary students and ensure the affordability and accessibility of higher education.

Weakening public sector labour legislation

In November 2022, Trevor Holder, Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, tabled a Bill to amend provincial labour legislation governing public sector bargaining. The amendments in the Bill implemented stricter rules on how public-sector strikes and lockouts can occur — requiring unions give 72 hours' notice before a strike, as well as allowing government to change the work schedules of designated essential workers during a strike and even, in certain cases, replace them with non-unionized replacement workers — changes that were largely viewed as shifting bargaining power away from unions.

Stephen Drost, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in New Brunswick, said, "This is nothing more than stripping away the rights of these workers to have free collective bargaining. This act … is certainly not going to improve labour relations in this province." Jennifer Murray, Atlantic regional director of Unifor, the largest Canadian private sector union, said, “It’s deeply concerning to see the Higgs government attempt to take away workers’ rights ahead of major bargaining with key public sector workers in the province next year."

Holder responded in the Legislature that the Bill was simply an effort to bring "clarity" to rules surrounding essential workers, which he said the Labour and Employment Board has described as ambiguous. "We need to dial down the rhetoric a little bit, work together as New Brunswickers and, at the end of the day, see this for what it is."

History

The department was established as the Department of Post-Secondary Education and Training on February 14, 2006 when Premier Bernard Lord restructured the New Brunswick Cabinet, amalgamating the former Department of Training and Employment Development with the post-secondary education branch of the Department of Education. It was later renamed the '*Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training *and Labour''''' by Premier Shawn Graham when he took office, as organized labour had questioned why there was no "labour" minister.

Between 2017 and 2018, responsibility for the Department was split between two ministerial portfolios: a Minister of Post-Secondary Education and a Minister of Labour, Employment and Population Growth. Following the 2018 election, in which Blaine Higgs took power, the Department returned to being run by a single minister.

Ministers responsible

References

• Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour
• Changes to cabinet and departments aimed at helping province achieve new goals

References

1. (2023-08-18). "Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (Department)".
2. (May 17, 2024). "Accessibility legislation introduced".
3. Bosse, Angela. (April 13, 2019). "University students face 'lose-lose' scenario after free tuition program scuppered".
4. "Students Reject Changes To Student Financial Aid".
5. "N.B. government abruptly cancels employment insurance program for students - New Brunswick {{!}} Globalnews.ca".
6. "Bill 23 – An Act to Amend the Public Service Labour Relations Act".
7. (November 24, 2022). "Legislative changes aim to ensure essential public services during labour disputes".
8. Poitras, Jacques. (November 24, 2022). "N.B. introduces stricter strike rules for public-sector workers".
9. (2022-11-28). "Unifor will fight anti-worker changes to NB labour relations act {{!}} Unifor".
10. Poitras, Jacques. (November 24, 2022). "N.B. introduces stricter strike rules for public-sector workers".
11. (September 5, 2017). "REVISED / Changes to cabinet announced". Government of New Brunswick.
12. (7 October 2014). "Cabinet ministers announced".