Spring sitting at Province House likely to be dominated by health care, cost of living
CBC
As Nova Scotia's 55 MLAs return to Province House for the legislature's spring sitting, there's little mystery around plans and issues each of the three parties will bring to the historic downtown Halifax building.
Premier Tim Houston's government will table its first budget on Tuesday. The Progressive Conservative leader was elected last summer on the promise to "fix" health care, even if it drives up the provincial debt.
So it should come as no surprise his deputy premier and minister of finance, Allan MacMaster, told CBC News this week that spending on health programs and services would dominate the budget he will table next Tuesday.
"When we think about fixing health care, a lot of it doesn't need new legislation or changes to legislation, sometimes it just needs investment or new ideas, solutions," said MacMaster.
"If our goal is to fix the health-care system, we need to make these investments," he said.
The Tories have already started spending more on a series of health-related measures, including raises for continuing care assistants, the establishment of a new mental health day hospital, mental health grants and power lifts for ambulances.
Over the past couple of decades, successive ministers of finance have embraced their role as fiscal stewards of the public purse, but MacMaster made no apologies for any of this pre-budget spending.
"This is a transition," said MacMaster. "We've been elected to do something different.
"The government has been very decisive in terms of acting right away, not being afraid to make the investments and the costs that are associated with that."
While the party in power is focused on health-care spending, Nova Scotia's opposition parties are focused on what it is costing Nova Scotians to keep a roof over their heads and their families fed.
Liberal Leader Iain Rankin and NDP Leader Gary Burrill both said their focus this spring would be trying to get the government to do more to help Nova Scotians struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing.
Rankin would like the province to consider following the Quebec government's lead and offer Nova Scotians $500 each to offset those costs.
"I think we should look at something similar but my preference would be to tier it at those that need it the most," said Rankin.
In Quebec, the cheques will go out to anyone making less than $100,000 a year.
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