Kris Austin (Photo Submitted)

The Acadian Society of New Brunswick (SANB) is strongly denouncing the premier’s appointment of Kris Austin to a committee reviewing the province’s Official Languages Act.

The former People’s Alliance leader has been outspoken about merging the Anglo (Horizon) and Franco (Vitalité) regional health authorities, loosening language requirements for paramedics and eliminating the Official Languages Commissioner.

SANB president Alexandre Cédric Doucet feels the Higgs government leaves no ambiguity about its intentions on the subject of official languages.

“We have tried very hard to work in recent years, in the worst possible context, with a premier who does not understand the Official Languages ​​Act,” explains Doucet.

“We have tried to build bridges and above all to avoid a crisis that would have served no purpose. By letting the wolf into the fold and giving it all the necessary nuisance power on a silver platter, Blaine Higgs’ Progressive Conservative Party is deliberately burning bridges with the Acadian community and with its own past.”

Kris Austin’s appointment to the Official Languages Act Review Committee is an affront to Francophones and Acadians in New Brunswick.

We have been waiting for this review for a year now. This appointment sends a clear message — bilingualism is not a priority for Premier Higgs.

— Ginette Petitpas Taylor (@GinettePT) November 4, 2022

Doucet noted even the late Leonard Jones – the former anti-Francophone mayor of Moncton – would not have gone that far.

“There was a time when the province’s Progressive Conservatives represented a legitimate option for the political aspirations of Francophones. But history will remember the name of Blaine Higgs as the one who buried this once fruitful relationship,” added Doucet.

Higgs told the media at the provincial legislature on Friday that ten MLA’s are sitting on the committee including two Francophones, Réjean Savoie and Daniel Allain, which he said will create balance.