FREDERICTON -- New Brunswickers won't be getting an election for Christmas.
The legislature passed an amendment Wednesday night to the controversial law on the right to strike for nursing-home workers, including rules on binding arbitration settlements.
The New Brunswick government was two weeks away from a court-ordered deadline to get its essential services legislation in line, or all nursing-home workers could go on strike.
The changes would allow for a process to determine how many nursing-home workers could legally strike.
The Blaine Higgs government has also added a condition in this legislation that during binding arbitration, the province's ability to pay be considered.
To top it all off, the premier made the vote on this one of confidence.
So, in order to get the votes they needed, the Progressive Conservatives needed to get the support of the People's Alliance.
Wednesday, Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard put forward an amendment to the bill.
"An arbitrator can consider any other factors he or she feels are relevant," Shephard said.
That earned Kris Austin's support for the bill.
"We're not going to bring the house down on a labour dispute," Austin said before the vote on the amendment. "Because it is a confidence vote, I will expect the caucus to toe the party line."
The Liberals and Green Party said they wouldn't vote for the bill with the binding arbitration condition.
"How many nursing homes could be affected with this bill?" asked Liberal MLA Gilles Lepage.
Shephard says the legislation covers all nursing homes in New Brunswick, so that would be a total of 67.
And that includes over 4,100 workers.
The union representing those workers was at the legislature all afternoon as the debate on the bill lasted well into the evening.
