FREDERICTON -- New Brunswick's Green Party leader says he will ask a judge Thursday to force the provincial government to make public the contracts of consultants hired to examine shale gas royalties.
David Coon says he filed a request for copies of the contracts under the Right to Information Act in February 2013, but Finance Minister Blaine Higgs refused to release them.
He says he then filed a complaint with Access to Information Commissioner Anne Bertrand and after a 10-month investigation she recommended the contracts be released.
Coon says he was told in a Feb. 24 letter that Higgs did not accept Bertrand's recommendation, so he's decided on a court appeal for a final decision.
He says he's simply exercising an option available under the act when information is denied.
Coon says the public has the right to know who and why the government is hiring as well as the cost.
