N.B.’s integrity commissioner says the tickets don\u2019t count as gifts and the lobbyist registry isn\u2019t sophisticated enough to disclose it<\/p>\n
Published Apr 06, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 8\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 6 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n Susan Holt has attended two NHL games and an NBA game all paid for by private interests since becoming premier.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the e-Edition, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalism and the next generation of journalists.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the e-Edition, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalism and the next generation of journalists.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to keep reading.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite journalists.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not something that\u2019s publicly disclosed anywhere.<\/p>\n New Brunswick\u2019s integrity commissioner says the tickets don\u2019t count as gifts and the province\u2019s lobbyist registry isn\u2019t sophisticated enough to disclose individual meetings, ultimately leaving New Brunswickers blind to when companies use private boxes to bend an elected official\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n Charles Murray says that even he doesn\u2019t know when the province\u2019s politicians are getting free tickets to games, unless they voluntarily tell him.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no record of whether former Premier Blaine Higgs was brought to a game during his six years in office, Murray said.<\/p>\n His office wasn\u2019t told about it, if he did.<\/p>\n Holt\u2019s office disclosed to Brunswick News, when asked, that the premier was invited to attend three games in her first year on the job.<\/p>\n \u201cThese include a Raptors game, a Boston Bruins and a Maple Leafs game,\u201d said premier\u2019s office spokesperson Katie Beers.<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n She then suggested they don\u2019t count as gifts, stating \u201cthese items have no clear commercial value, but out of an abundance of caution and transparency, the premier is claiming those items,\u201d deciding to proactively tell the integrity commissioner about them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain committed to transparency and actively work with the integrity office to ensure we uphold those standards,\u201d Beers said.<\/p>\n Asked to disclose who paid for the tickets, Beers said that information was provided to the integrity commissioner, and it was up to him to release it.<\/p>\n Who paid for the tickets<\/p>\n Murray has since released that information to Brunswick News.<\/p>\n In Toronto for the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, Holt was invited to a Leafs versus Philadelphia Flyers game on March 2 at Scotiabank Arena.<\/p>\n Box seats were paid for by Sunny Brook, a northern New Brunswick mining company.<\/p>\n Morning Email Telegraph-Journal<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cThey held a reception in a box at the game,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWhen she (Holt) left the PDAC convention it was to go to see a company that was at the event that had its own reception at the Maple Leafs game.\u201d<\/p>\n That comes as the Holt government has unveiled a new mining strategy that it hopes will help revive the sector, while promising incentives to industry to get to work.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, box tickets to a Bruins game versus the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 15, 2025, at TD Garden were paid for by International Seafood & Bait, a Shippigan-based company.<\/p>\n That came the night before Seafood Expo North America in Boston began, which the premier attended to promote New Brunswick\u2019s fish and seafood industry.<\/p>\n Then on April 3, 2025, Holt attended a Portland Trail Blazers versus Toronto Raptors game at Scotiabank Arena.<\/p>\n Those tickets came from Tom Liston, a prominent technology investor, who is on the board of directors at Opportunities NB and the fundraising chair for the World\u2019s Oldest Basketball Court Group in St. Stephen.<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Earlier that day, Holt delivered a keynote speech at the Canadian Club in Toronto.<\/p>\n The World\u2019s Oldest Basketball Court Group also held a reception as it attempts to fundraise $18 million to become the Canadian National Basketball Experience Museum.<\/p>\n It\u2019s lobbying the Holt government for $6 million.<\/p>\n Nothing against the rules<\/p>\n Murray said none of the tickets need to be disclosed publicly.<\/p>\n New Brunswick\u2019s conflict of interest act makes it clear that \u201ca member or a member\u2019s immediate family member shall not accept a fee, gift or personal benefit\u2026that is connected directly or indirectly with the performance of the member\u2019s duties of office.\u201d<\/p>\n But the law does provide limits to what needs to be reported.<\/p>\n The statute sets a limit at $250, meaning any gift below that threshold doesn\u2019t require a politician to file with the integrity commissioner a gift disclosure statement.<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The premier\u2019s office suggests the true value of the tickets Holt received can\u2019t be established.<\/p>\n Another section of the act creates a seemingly large grey zone that is open to the interpretation of the integrity commissioner, as well as being subject to the judgment of MLAs.<\/p>\n Disclosure \u201cdoes not apply to a gift or personal benefit that is received as an incident of the protocol or social obligations that normally accompany the responsibilities of office,\u201d reads the legislation.<\/p>\n Murray states it\u2019s that line preventing the need for public disclosure, specifically that attending the game is part of government meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my perspective, all three of these things look like attachments to other events which are part of the premier\u2019s duties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Murray said all three do amount to lobbying the Holt government.<\/p>\n But, he added, the New Brunswick\u2019s lobbyist registry doesn\u2019t log individual incidents of lobbying, only providing a list of names who intend to talk to government officials, meaning there\u2019s nowhere to publicly record these free tickets to sporting events.<\/p>\n Advertisement 7<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that\u2019s going to change,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThe barrier to doing that is resources.\u201d<\/p>\n The integrity commissioner\u2019s office is made up of Murray and one other staffer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to need to build a computer database that can handle that, which we currently don\u2019t have, but we are working on trying to find a way to source that at low cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we\u2019re going to need to add at least one more staff member.\u201d<\/p>\n Missing incidents<\/p>\n Murray suggested he may not be even getting a full picture of when New Brunswick politicians are being given free tickets.<\/p>\n Not one gift Blaine Higgs was given while the province\u2019s premier for six years has been publicly registered.<\/p>\n Murray told Brunswick News that no tickets were disclosed by the Higgs premier\u2019s office.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no reports in the disclosures that he did any of those things and I don\u2019t have any authority at this point to compel answers on those questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Advertisement 8<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Higgs did not return a request for comment from Brunswick News.<\/p>\n The newspaper then asked Nicolle Carlin, who worked as the lead spokesperson in the premier\u2019s office throughout Higgs\u2019s tenure, who suggested Higgs likely did attend at least one NHL Leafs game while in office, although likely as a guest of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.<\/p>\n Carlin did recall several internal discussions with ministers about making sure they weren\u2019t spending while on the road.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter COVID, times got tough for New Brunswickers, the economy was hurting a bit, we were very cognizant,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had talks with all of our ministers about travel, about the optics of buying lavish dinners, that they shouldn\u2019t be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlin said it bothered Higgs when Progressive Conservative Tourism Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace and her deputy, Yennah Hurley, were grilled over the large bill officials racked up in a trip to the United Kingdom and France.<\/p>\n Advertisement 9<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n She added that she would be in favour of the public disclosure of things like hockey tickets.<\/p>\n Murray said he did have a problem with hockey tickets while the Higgs government was in power.<\/p>\n The 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship was co-hosted by Moncton and Halifax from Dec. 26, 2022, to Jan. 5, 2023. Murray said he learned after the fact that New Brunswick\u2019s sponsorship of the event afforded the government dozens of free tickets to several games.<\/p>\n A portion of those tickets were to games that likely wouldn\u2019t sell out, including matches like Latvia versus Switzerland where the goal was to get people in the seats at the Avenir Centre to show the appearance of a strong crowd, Murray said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut some people got tickets to the gold medal game in Halifax, and those tickets had a street value of about $3,000 each,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s a very different example of valuation.<\/p>\n \u201cI found out about all of this after the fact, and that was really problematic for me because I cannot make you give back the experience of going to a gold medal game. You\u2019ve accepted that gift.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI told (government) \u2018We do not have good rules on this. We need to build some protocol for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a situation Murray said the integrity office will now scrutinize when the government partners to hold any major tournament.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links New BrunswickNewsThe Issues N.B.’s integrity commissioner says the tickets don\u2019t count as gifts and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-586379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Scotiabank](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0402-lb-hockey-games.jpeg\")
Susan Holt has attended two NHL games and an NBA game all paid for by private interests since becoming premier. But it’s not something that’s publicly disclosed anywhere. Photo by Adam Huras\/Brunswick NewsArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Telegraph-Journal\"](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.9.1\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tj.svg\"){kind=logo}
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