PC MLA Jeannot Volpé charges that the MLA pension being paid to Jacqueline Robichaud is illegal. (CBC)

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives are raising questions about a pension being paid to the widow of the late former New Brunswick premier Louis J. Robichaud.

The Tories allege Jacqueline Robichaud has been illegally receiving the monthly payments of about $2,000 since 2007.

PC MLA Jeannot Volpé, who did not identify Robichaud by name but it was clear from documents released by the Opposition that she's the one receiving the money, said the payments should not have been made.

"There's nothing wrong with the person asking for it. The problem is there's no authority that I can see where the money should be coming from," Volpé said.

Until 2007, the widows of MLAs weren't eligible for a survivor's pension if they weren't married when the MLA was in the legislature.

In mid-2007, MLAs voted to change the law but it was after the payments had already started.

Finance Minister Greg Byrne said the payments were authorized by the province's Board of Management.

The board is a committee of cabinet ministers that can spend money under the Financial Administration Act.

"It's an act that deals with payments made by government, and so it was duly authorized by government at that time," Byrne said.

Unhappy widow

CBC News contacted Robichaud who said she wouldn't go on tape for an interview but she made it clear she was very unhappy about the Tories bringing this up as an issue.

Jacqueline Robichaud became Louis J. Robichaud's second wife in the 1990s, long after his time as premier.

Robichaud was the iconic Liberal premier from 1960 to 1970. He was the first Acadian to be elected premier of New Brunswick and he brought about radical social change during his decade in the premier's office.

He is best known for instituting the province's Official Languages Act, he ushered in the equal opportunity reforms, which sought to end regional financial disparities and he opened the University of Moncton, the province's French-language university.

Robichaud, who served as a Liberal senator until 2000, died in January 2005.

Volpé is disputing the way in which the Liberals decided to help Robichaud's widow.

Robichaud was seen with Graham and Liberal candidates in the 2006 election campaign.

Volpé said it would have taken an order-in-council of the full cabinet to authorize the payments.

The Tory MLA, who is not running in the Sept. 27 election, said a 2005 letter by the Office of the Ombudsman backs him up.

He still does not believe the pension is legal.

'Astonishingly sleazy'

The NDP blasted the Tories for making the pension allegations for Robichaud's widow public just before the election.

Dominic Cardy, the NDP's campaign director, said PC Leader David Alward has been silent over his party's decision to go along with pension reforms for MLAs. Cardy said the pension questions should have been dealt with away from the public's glare.

“It is astonishingly sleazy that the Alward Conservatives would try to score political points by making an election issue out of a widow's pension,” Cardy said in a news release.

"Any allegations about wrongdoing involving a private citizen with no connection to politics should be dealt with privately, not dragged into an election campaign. It is even sleazier that Mr. Alward and his party would make this choice after spending two years running from their own pension scandal.”

The NDP has tried to make pensions and MLA salaries an election campaign issue.

NDP Leader Roger Duguay has proposed to cut MLA salaries by 20 per cent and pensions by more than 50 per cent.