No bloodletting in Liberal debate
The three men who want to succeed Stephen Mcneil as premier of Nova Scotia squared off in a low-key debate Thursday morning.
“As part of the Mcneil government, we accomplished a lot,” said Antigonish MLA Randy Delorey, echoing his rivals Labi Kousoulis and Iain Rankin in promoting the current Liberal government of which all three have been members since their elections in 2013.
“We invested in our people and our infrastructure while restoring faith in our province's financial health,” said Delorey, who has served as minister of Gaelic affairs, environment, finance, and health during his seven years as an MLA.
“Then a global pandemic hit,” Delorey said. “As health minister, I've worked with health officials and our partners to plan and execute our provincial COVID response.”
Delorey said Nova Scotians didn't see much of him on television during the first wave of the virus.
“That's because I was working with the department and our health partners to create policies and programs that were implemented throughout the pandemic. Those very things that the premier and Dr. Strang were able to announce were the result of the work that I was doing with the department and our partners.”
Kousoulis, representative for Halifax Citadel-sable Island, has served as minister of the public
service commission, internal services and labour and advanced education.
“My pledge to you is that I will do everything as premier to get you through this pandemic because we need you to provide jobs for Nova Scotians and we need you to be providing revenues to the province so that we can deliver our health care and all the other services that we rely on,” Kousoulis pledged to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the debate at Pier 21 and streamed it online and on Facebook for interested viewers.
When he got into politics, Kousoulis said he forged an immediate connection with Mcneil, primarily focused on working “toward fiscal responsibility of government, which was a huge challenge.”
Rankin said he has been a dedicated representative for his community, which is the riding of Timberlea-prospect.
“I pride myself in the work I've done for this region and I'm ready to be the Liberal leader in the next election,” Rankin said. “My commitment to Nova Sco
tians is that I will be as engaged and as accessible as I have been for the last seven years.
“While serving as an MLA and the minister of environment and lands and forestry, I have been speaking up on the need to address two of the most pressing issues of our time — the climate crisis and social inequity. As premier of Nova Scotia, I will remain focused and commit to creating the conditions for a more socially inclusive climate-resilient, lowcarbon economy.”
The three candidates offered opening statements and then had the opportunity to answer questions from moderator Patrick Sullivan, president of the chamber of commerce.
Questioned about rent controls to mitigate the province's housing problems, Kousoulis said he believes in a rent cap and cutting red tape on developments.
“You cannot have a developer who has three to four years to get through a planning process,” Kousoulis said. “At that point, all the taxes they paid are in your rent.
“The province and the municipality need to be part of the solution.”
Delorey said housing costs impact most Nova Scotians.
“We have to build stock and that has to be the priority for solving this particular problem in Nova Scotia,” Delorey said.
Delorey warned that rent control could result in unintended consequences, similar to the introduction of a cap on provincial assessment.
Rankin said action must be immediate.
“Nobody should be worried about paying rent in the next month and worrying about a place to live,” Rankin said. “It's unimaginable during a global pandemic that we have evictions occurring and we are seeing rent increases of 20, 50 and close to 100 per cent.”
Rankin said his plan includes increasing the building supply, stimulating more growth from the private sector and mandating a certain per cent of affordable units and collaborating with municipalities on a task force to tackle the housing shortage long-term.
“What we can start with is looking at the Count Us In report as we responded to the (International) Decade for People of African Descent,” Rankin said in response to a question of advancing Black and Indigenous and people of colour in leadership.
Rankin said government must be held accountable “to ensure that we are looking at specifically recruiting and targeted recruitment for senior leadership positions from under-represented groups.”
Delorey said the systemic barriers within society and within government institutions have to be tackled.
“Those barriers are barriers to leadership roles but they are barriers that occur earlier in life as well,” Delorey said.
He said the approach to taking down those barriers includes acknowledgement that the problem exists, understanding how people have been impacted by those barriers, how those affected believe the barriers can be overcome and taking the action to implement the necessary changes.
Kousoulis said as a child of Greek immigrants he is very passionate about inclusion.
“I have already worked so hard to level the playing field throughout my career,” Kousoulis said.
Kousoulis said the labour and advanced education department brought in hiring subsidies and bonus programs to employ people from under-respresented groups.
The three candidates, part of one of the least transparent governments in Nova Scotia's history according to many critics, all acknowledged the importance of working in collaboration with stakeholders and media and providing transparent governance.
The only attempted foray into levity came when Sullivan asked the candidates how they were similar and different from the outgoing premier.
“Well, I'm tall,” said Rankin, to which Delorey replied that the major area of disagreement between him and Mcneil is the premier's contention that the electorate should vote for the tallest person on the ballot.
The 2021 leadership election will take place Feb. 6.