Crown counsel in New Brunswick have ratified a new collective agreement with the province.
The five-year deal delivers pay parity with Crown prosecutors in New Brunswick and is retroactive to 2023.
“This deal validates what we’ve been saying all along,” New Brunswick Crown Counsel Group president Eric Boucher said. “Crown counsel deserve the same compensation as their prosecutor colleagues.
Prior to the agreement, wage gaps between Crown counsel and the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Group ranged from 29 per cent at senior levels to 49 per cent for junior lawyers.
The deal could also save the provincial government money.
According to the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, the union representing the lawyers, the government has doubled its use of private law firms since 2019-20. That year the province spent $4.1 million, increasing that to $8.6 million in 2024-25.
In its own release, the Department of Finance said details of the agreement would be released once it’s signed.
