Of course that stubborn old goat won't resign. Here's the text of an article published in the Telegraph-Journal this morning:
Higgs will shuffle cabinet Tuesday, add ‘new, loyal’ blood
Premier Blaine Higgs will shuffle his cabinet on Tuesday, bringing in what he says will be “new, loyal” blood following the rebellion of part of his caucus and the resignations of two cabinet ministers.
Premier Blaine Higgs will shuffle his cabinet on Tuesday, bringing in what he says will be “new, loyal” blood following the rebellion of part of his caucus and the resignations of two cabinet ministers.
“There’s going to be a cabinet shuffle and I’m going to announce the details of that Tuesday,” Higgs said in an interview with Brunswick News on Sunday.
“There will be some new faces.”
Higgs said he has already started to call MLAs who will remain in cabinet.
The new additions were to get calls either Sunday night or earlier in the day on Monday.
Those being dropped will receive a call Monday later in the day.
“The majority of the caucus is behind me,” Higgs said. “We have some issues that have been well identified and I think we have to find out who are supporters and who are not.
“Loyalty is a very important quality in these roles, it’s paramount really, and so that has to be maintained.
He added: “And if it’s not there, you have to recognize it and react accordingly.
“That applies to any role within our government, because you have to be able to have full trust and confidence in the people that are working to support the government and it’s especially true with cabinet decisions.”
Higgs must fill cabinet roles in Social Development and Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, posts now vacant after the resignations of Dorothy Shephard and Trevor Holder earlier this month.
But there’s the potential that other sitting cabinet members will be removed.
Higgs declined to say when asked.
Six ministers and two backbench MLAs refused to attend a morning sitting of the legislature now two weeks ago "as a way to express our extreme disappointment in a lack of process and transparency" within the premier’s decision making, they said in a statement.
Shephard and Holder were among them.
Ministers Daniel Allain, Arlene Dunn, Jeff Carr, and Jill Green were also part of the eight and remain within cabinet.
Roughly a week later, six caucus members voted with the opposition on a motion calling on the province's youth and child advocate to review the Higgs government’s changes to the province's policy on sexual orientation in schools.
That six included four cabinet ministers: Shephard and Holder, but also Allain and Carr.
Both Dunn and Green were absent.
It raises the question whether Allain and Carr are now about to be turfed, or even if all four ministers still in the cabinet, but who publicly registered their disapproval of their own government, will be axed.
Higgs then has a relatively small back bench to select from, but it includes a few former cabinet ministers as possibilities.
Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton MLA Mary Wilson was added as minister responsible for Service New Bunswick in a 2020 cabinet shuffle, but then dropped in a subsequent 2022 shuffle, replaced by Green.
Moncton Southwest MLA Sherry Wilson was dropped in the 2020 shuffle from that same Service New Brunswick portfolio.
Both could make a return from the backbench.
There’s also Kings Centre MLA Bill Oliver, the current Speaker of the legislature.
It’s rare that a speaker would be taken out of the chair to serve in cabinet, but Oliver was immediately named Infrastructure minister when Higgs won the premier’s office in 2018. Oliver was also Higgs’s executive assistant way back in the Alward government when Higgs was Finance minister.
Saint Croix MLA Kathy Bockus, Fredericton-York MLA Ryan Cullins, Moncton South MLA Greg Turner, Carleton-York MLA Ricard Ames, Miramichi MLA Michelle Conroy, and Southwest Miramichi-Bay du Vin MLA Mike Dawson are the remaining options.
There’s also Fundy-The-Isles-Saint John West MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason and Gagetown-Petitcodiac MLA Ross Wetmore, both former cabinet ministers as well, but they were part of the six to vote against their own government.