N.B. premier pauses plan to move mental, public health nurses to different roles

The New Brunswick nurses union says members fear layoffs amid planned changes at Horizon Health.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt has paused a plan to change mental and public health staffing within the Horizon Health Network following calls from the nurses’ union for clarity and consultations.

Holt said she “asked that there be a stop to these activities until meaningful consultation” were completed in a social media post Thursday afternoon.

Holt said she was “extremely concerned to hear about the potential changes,” one day after a presentation was made to nurses and other Horizon staff.

A media availability with Horizon about changes to mental health and public health services was cancelled on Thursday about an hour before it was set to start. Horizon president Margaret Melanson and vice-president of community Natasha Lemieux were scheduled to participate.

A statement from Horizon later in the day said it was in the “early stages” of making changes to mental health and public health, but didn’t provide any details. Horizon’s statement said it was committed to “engaging in ongoing, two-way dialogue with our staff and all relevant stakeholders.”

New Brunswick Nurses Union president Paula Doucet said the plan’s rollout has bungled by Horizon for the past few weeks.

“They’ve really created a lot of chaos that was unnecessary, had they done meaningful consultations and thoughtfulness around how they were going to roll out this information,” said Doucet in an interview Thursday, just before Holt’s announcement of the plan’s pause.

Doucet said the union has been trying to learn more about the planned changes ever since they were first brought up by the Official Opposition during question period in May.

Doucet sent an email to nurses on Wednesday, objecting to what she called Horizon’s false suggestion to its membership that the union had given its support for the plan.

“At no point did we endorse a plan, nor see a plan, nor were we consulted,” said Doucet. “There was no plan document shared with us. There was no back and forth. There were no numbers. It was not a true consultation, absolutely not.”

A statement from the Department of Health on Wednesday said Horizon was leading the file, and that the health authority had been directed by the province to be fully transparent with frontline staff.

On May 13, Premier Holt said nobody was going to lose their job under any proposed changes, dismissing claims from interim Progressive Conservative Leader Glen Savoie that some nurses had reported being given ultimatums to either accept new roles or face potential layoffs.

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