The decision to close a park in New Brunswick has nothing to do with shutting down a pet project of former Progressive Conservative premier Blaine Higgs, insists the province’s tourism minister.
The Liberal government announced during the budget last month it would close picturesque North Lake Provincial Park, less than four years after it had opened in July 2022 and taxpayers had shelled out $900,000 for improvements.
The park was inaugurated during the last two years of Higgs’s reign as premier without a great deal of fanfare. It was built on an old public property the provincial government had left to the wayside for decades, at one time farming it out to a local youth organization.
On the American border 115 kilometres west of Fredericton, the 77-acre park on a peninsula features a wide, sandy gravel beach with turtle nests and a clearwater lake with landlocked salmon at its deepest point. The surrounding Acadian forest is studded with boulders.
Higgs, who grew up in the area of Forest City and North Lake but spent much of his adult life living near Saint John, where he was an oil executive, bought some extra cottage property across the serene lake when he was finance minister in 2011 and was known to host family and friends there during his tenure as premier.
Shortly after he lost the election in October 2024, he moved to the lake full time with his wife Marcia.
When asked, Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault told Brunswick News the decision to close it had nothing to do with reversing a Tory government decision or getting revenge on the former premier.
She said to help find savings and trim the province’s all-time high $1.4-billion deficit, her department decided to pull funding from 10 places that have 3,000 or fewer visitors a year.
North Lake happened to be one of them.
“We looked at all the things we owned, our assets, and we decid- ed to analyze them, and to put the efforts and our investments in the places that work better,” Thériault said at the legislature. “The goal is to have discussions with the local authorities, the leaders, the local leaders, to see if there are possible solutions.”
Higgs did not reply for comment.
Thériault’s explanation didn’t stop the Tory opposition for assailing the government over its decision to close North Lake and yank funding from nine other sites, including Anchorage Provincial Park on Grand Manan, the Antique Automobile Museum in Edmundston and Fundy’s Cape Enrage.
During her department’s main estimates earlier this month, the Tories lambasted Thériault for cutting the funding on short notice to the communities that host the sites. She replied that as soon as the main estimates for her department were accepted in a vote at the committee, the Liberal government could begin discussions with local groups to take over the properties.
That vote went ahead during the Standing Committee on Estimates and Fiscal Policy, which the Liberal majority passed easily.
But last week, Richard Ames, the Tory MLA for Carleton-York and whose constituents live near North Lake, renewed his criticism during main estimates for the Executive Council Office.
This time, Premier Susan Holt was on the floor to answer questions about the office, also known as the cabinet office.
Ames said the 3,000 figure for visitors to North Lake was low- ball because park workers did not count all the vehicles that park at the beach in any given season.
He argued that the $69,000 operating budget at the park was miniscule – “only the price of a half-ton truck” – and that there would be no security this season to prevent vandalism other than a waist-high fence.
His pitch? Cut the cabinet office’s budget of $11 million to help fund the park.
“I know the community would like to see her re-open North Lake park. If she could find it in her heart and the budget, re-open the park,” Ames said.
The premier said she appreciated that people wanted to use the park for recreation, but there was no reason another organization couldn’t run it.
As for the Executive Council Office budget, she said it was mostly locked up with salaries of the people who do work for the provincial cabinet that makes all the important decisions.
Holt said the Tories “have flagged on numerous occasions that they feel the deficit is too large, that we’ve spent too much money. But as well on numerous occasions, ask us to reverse this decision, that decision, spend more money here, spend more money there. And, so, I would encourage them, if they are looking at wanting to reduce the deficit and wanting to redirect spending, they identify where they would come up with that money.”
Such an answer is unlikely to quell the slagging.
Tory MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, the former tourism minister, questioned the wisdom of calling off the re-opening of the Antique Automobile Museum in République Provincial Park in Edmundston.
She said the Tory government had considered closing the museum permanently after shutting its doors for repairs in 2019 but was convinced by experts at the New Brunswick Museum that the collection had great value and should be showcased.
Although small, the museum features some of New Brunswick’s earliest automobiles, including a 1928 Ford Model A, 1933 RollsRoyce Phantom, and a 1910 Detroit Electric coupe.
The provincial government spent $1.4 million getting ready to reopen it.
“You can feel the tension and frustration over these cuts,” Scott-Wallace said, looking directly at Thériault across the floor of the House, during estimates. “I’m seeing the blood pressure get high on this side.”
But the tourism minister said she was confident once the main estimates passed, the City of Edmundston would work with the provincial government to ensure the antique automobile museum reopens this summer.
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Apr 21, 2026 at 07:56
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