The New Brunswick government plans to weaken the bilingual hiring requirements for temporary full-time paramedic positions in areas of the province where there is less demand for second-language service.

In some heavily francophone areas in the north and heavily anglophone areas in the south, Ambulance New Brunswick is being told to no longer require bilingual paramedics when filling full-time positions with temporary hires.

"This isn't a language issue," Health Minister Ted Flemming said at a Tuesday news conference. "This is a safety issue."

While new hirings won't be permanent, the positions will no longer be re-posted every eight weeks as they are now, a system that requires paramedics to constantly reapply.

Chris Hood, executive director of the Paramedics Association of New Brunswick, said that change "adds a huge amount of stability in the system for paramedics."

Chris Hood, the executive director of the Paramedics Association of New Brunswick, said the directive from the PC government affords paramedics more stability in the system. (Jon Collicott/CBC)

The change will apply in areas where anglophones or francophones make up fewer than five per cent of the population or where they number fewer than 500 people.

Health Department spokesperson Bruce MacFarlane said that despite the change in hiring procedures, "all areas of the province will still require bilingual services."

Flemming acknowledged during his news conference, however, that some New Brunswickers — such as francophones travelling through the designated anglophone regions — won't get service in their choice of language.

"If you want perfection, you might as well realize you don't live in a perfect world," he said. "If you want idealism, you don't live in an ideal world. We do the very best we can.

"I'll tell what I do know: whether you're French or English, an ambulance is better than no ambulance if you're bleeding to death on the side of the road."

In a statement, the Acadian Society of New Brunswick said the Higgs government had "crossed a red line" with what it called a cavalier and irresponsible decision.

Gauvin supports change

Deputy premier Robert Gauvin, the PC government's only francophone MLA and minister, said he supported the directive, which the province wants Ambulance New Brunswick to implement immediately.

"It's not ideal, it's not perfect," he said, "but for now we need ambulances on the road."

Deputy premier Robert Gauvin said the directive is 'not perfect' but it's needed to ensure ambulances are on the road. (CBC)

Hood said based on figures he's been given, about 100 positions for which no bilingual paramedic has been found could be filled by unilingual applicants.

Asked if the changes comply with legal and constitutional language rights, Flemming said he was acting out of a moral responsibility to address long ambulance response times.

"I'm more interested in filling that gap than I am in having some academic discussion of the legal nuances," he said.

Changes based on labour ruling

The changes are based on recommendations in an April 2018 labour board decision by arbitrator John McEvoy.

To comply with bilingualism requirements, Ambulance New Brunswick tries to staff each two-paramedic ambulance crew with at least one bilingual paramedic.

A map of where the McEvoy decision could be applied. The black areas are where there's less demand for English services, and the grey areas are where there's less demand for French services. (Province of New Brunswick)

McEvoy said in his labour ruling that the practice led to staffing shortages and the interim fix of temporary hirings was interfering with seniority rights.

McEvoy suggested Ambulance New Brunswick could reduce bilingual service in areas of the province where there were fewer minority-language speakers.

Change based on federal law

Flemming said the regional approach is modelled on the federal government's Official Languages Act, which has less strict requirements for bilingual service in areas of the country where there are few minority-language speakers.

"I don't see rioting in the streets everywhere in Canada by applying this method," he said. "As a matter of fact, I think it's pretty reasonable. I think it's pretty sensible."

But it's the provincial language law, not the federal one, that applies to provincial services such as ambulances, a fact Flemming brushed off.

"We can go back and forth," he said. "I know the legislation is different, but I'm putting health care first. You need a benchmark somewhere."

Flemming brushes off court order

Flemming also dismissed concerns that his directive may violate the terms of a 2017 court order in what's known as the Sonier case.

To settle a lawsuit by Murielle and Danny Sonier, the province agreed to a consent order that held that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires the province to provide ambulance services "of equal quality" in both languages in all areas of the province.

"Sonier's nothing," Flemming said of the order. "I do not consider the Sonier case to be jurisprudence."

Health Minister Ted Flemming said he plans to keep the new measure in place until the courts tell him otherwise. (CBC)

The consent order, signed by Justice Zoel Dionne, cited Section 20 (2) of the Charter, which says any New Brunswicker "has the right to communicate with, and to receive available services from" any provincial institution in English and French.

Judicial review going ahead

Flemming confirmed the province is going ahead with a judicial review of the McEvoy decision, launched by the previous Liberal government to determine if it was consistent with the Sonier order.

But he also distanced himself from the judicial review, saying that was the business of the Attorney General's Office, and his job as health minister was to deal with ambulance problems.

He refused to answer how provincial lawyers would argue against a ruling that he was implementing.

"You're trying to bring this back into a legal argument," he told reporters who pressed him on the legal implications of his decision. "This is a safety argument."

If the McEvoy ruling is quashed, Flemming said, "it simply means it doesn't exist, and if that's what happens, I have every intention of not changing anything here, and I'm sure somebody will get animated about that and proceed in lawsuits as they see fit."

He said he would keep the new measures in place "until the court tells me otherwise."

Liberals, Greens opposed

Moncton Centre Liberal MLA Rob McKee said it was "alarming" that Flemming was implementing the McEvoy recommendations before the court had a chance to rule on whether they were legal.

Green Party MLA Kevin Arseneau said it's unacceptable that the government is limiting language rights contrary to the charter. He called it "very worrisome" that Flemming would keep the changes in place even if McEvoy is quashed.

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin applauded the PC government's decision on Tuesday, but the Liberals and Green Party denounced it. (CBC)

But People's Alliance leader Kris Austin, whose party was consulted on the changes, told reporters he was happy with the move.

Austin said he would have preferred the province drop the judicial review of McEvoy altogether and simply implement the ruling, but "this is the give-and-take that has to happen in a minority [government] situation."