| Honorific-Suffix: | MLA |
| Kris Austin | |
| Birth Place: | Hamilton, Ontario |
| Office: | Minister of Public Safety |
| Premier: | Blaine Higgs |
| Term Start: | October 13, 2022 |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Honourable |
| Predecessor: | Bill Hogan |
| Office1: | Leader of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick |
| Term Start1: | June 5, 2010 |
| Term End1: | March 30, 2022 |
| Predecessor1: | New Party |
| Successor1: | Rick DeSaulniers |
| Assembly2: | New Brunswick Legislative |
| Constituency Am2: | Fredericton-Grand Lake |
| Term Start2: | September 24, 2018 |
| Predecessor2: | Pam Lynch |
| Party: | Progressive Conservative |
| Otherparty: | People's Alliance of New Brunswick (2010– 2022) |
| Occupation: | Minister |
Kris Austin (born 1979) is the former leader of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick and current member of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick and an MLA in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.[1] On October 13, 2022 he was appointed minister of public safety and solicitor-general by Premier Blaine Higgs.[2]
Austin led the People's Alliance into the 2010 provincial election and 2014 provincial elections in which the party won no seats. In the 2018 provincial election the party won three seats including Austin's riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake. He was re-elected in the 2020 provincial election in which his party lost one seat, electing two MLAs.
On March 30, 2022, Austin announced he will be leaving the People's Alliance of New Brunswick to join the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.[3] [4]
Austin is a Baptist minister and has worked in public relations.[5]
Austin's appointment to provincial cabinet in the Higgs government was denounced by the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick due to his opposition to Acadian rights and official bilingualism.[2]
On October 13, 2022, Austin was appointed as the Minister of Public Safety following Dominic Cardy's resignation as the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, which had caused Bill Hogan, the former public safety minister, to take his place.[6]
In December 2023, Mayor Allan MacEachern of St. Stephen's declared a state of emergency due to an increase in homelessness along with the recent death of a homeless person in the municipality. The provincial government was accused of failing to offer housing and social services as part of the declaration. The municipality has a population of just over 4,000, 70 of whom are homeless.[7] [8] Shortly following the state of emergency, Austin terminated it,[9] [10] calling it disappointing and likened it to car accidents by saying, “People die all the time in car accidents, and we do not declare state of emergencies for that.”[11] He later reaffirmed this by emphasizing that the situation wasn't severe enough to constitute a state of emergency. The ensuing disagreement between Austin and MacEachern led to Austin proposing that St. Stephen provide shelter for the homeless, which MacEachern claimed to have already tried doing through a homelessness committee with council approval. However, according to MacEachern, the province later deemed the selected property to be used unsuitable, resulting in a temporary halt in the project.[8] Austin made additional comments in which he put the blame of the homeless man's death on Liberal policies, stating, "All of these issues that we're facing today is based on Trudeau policies, leftist agendas, that is degrading our society that we're seeing right across the country."[12]