Jake Stewart claims he's being pressured to halt criticism of Liberal bill

A Progressive Conservative MLA says he's been pressured to ease off from his criticism of a Liberal government bill that would exempt NB Power from the usual rules for awarding contracts.

Jake Stewart told a legislative committee he recently got three phone calls from three different people in Kent County, who he believes are involved with construction companies, urging him to stop attacking Bill 12.

"One of them was almost I wouldn't say threatening, but I was led to believe that I should back away from that," he said.

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Finance Minister Roger Melanson, who was defending the government bill during the committee session, appeared surprised at Stewart's comments.

"I have no idea what the member is referring to or who he's referring to," Melanson said.

"I don't know if he's making it up or what."

Stewart told Melanson he wasn't making it up.

"I don't even know these people but I'll tell you what: they don't want me up here asking questions on this bill. That tells me something. What's in it for them?" he said.

Stewart didn't identify the callers. He said two of the calls were in the last week.

Bill 12 would exempt NB Power from the Crown Construction Contracts Act, which requires government-owned corporations such as NB Power and NB Liquor to follow a competitive bidding process in awarding contracts.

The bill would change the act by saying it "does not apply to a non-routine capital project" by NB Power.

Stewart said that will let NB Power "hand pick" and "cherry pick" contractors for major projects.

But Melanson answered that the bill mirrors changes the previous PC government made to the Procurement Act, carving out a similar exemption for NB Power.

"We're taking that model and applying it here," the minister said.

'It's not housekeeping'

Stewart said the two exemptions are different because the Procurement Act governs how public bodies go about buying things once a contractor is chosen, while the Crown Construction Contracts Act governs how they choose the contractor.

"You can't compare what we did to what you're doing," Stewart told Melanson.

"It's not housekeeping. It's not modernization."

Until recently, some PC opposition MLAs were suggesting the Liberals were changing the law to allow a private-sector player to take over the possible refurbishment of the Mactaquac Generating Station.

But with last week's announcement by NB Power that it may not have to refurbish the dam as early as it thought, Stewart suggested on Tuesday there could be other reasons for the change.

"Obviously, there's something going on in Kent County," he said.

Small-scale renewable projects planned

In January, NB Power invited First Nations communities to submit plans for small-scale renewable energy projects that could feed electricity on to the provincial power grid.

The deadline for those proposals was April 29.

Indian Island First Nation, near Richibucto in Kent County, has been leading a consortium of Mi'kmaq bands working on a wind energy proposal since at least 2011.

Chief Ken Barlow couldn't be reached for comment on where things stand with the proposal.

Stewart didn't mention the Indian Island proposal when he described the three callers urging him to drop his opposition to the bill.

"I may not know exactly why they're doing it," he said of the callers, "but the people of New Brunswick are eventually going to learn why they were doing it."

Melanson told the committee the goal of the exemption is to let NB Power "respect its private-business-operation model, a mandate it received from the previous government."

He said the corporation is accountable in other ways, including to its own board directors and because it must appear before a committee of MLAs once a year and get Energy and Utilities Board approval for projects worth more than $50 million.