N.S. lacks POST-COVID economic plan

The new premier will take office in the midst of the ongoing health and economic crisis and, waiting for him when he arrives, is a long to-do list with very tight timelines to get it done.

Some provinces are developing, or have already developed, detailed plans to help their economies recover from Covid-created trauma but, so far, Nova Scotia isn’t among them.

Nova Scotia’s peculiar case was made a few weeks back by Premier Stephen Mcneil, when he rationalized why his government won’t face the provincial legislature this fall.

There’s no point, Mcneil argued, in going into the legislature and passing laws and resolutions that will “create a path” for the next premier to follow.

The inference was clear. The outgoing premier — Mcneil — doesn’t want to constrain, restrict or otherwise hamper his successor’s choices. The next premier will chart his own course.

While that may be reasonable, perhaps even laudable, under normal circumstances, circumstances are far from normal.

The new premier will take office in the midst of the ongoing health and economic crisis and, waiting for him when he arrives, is a long to-do list with very tight timelines to get it done.

Nova Scotia’s Liberals will elect their new leader on Feb. 6, and soon thereafter the winner — Labi Kousoulis, Iain Rankin on Randy Delorey — will be sworn in as the province’s 29th premier.

In a report released earlier this week, Nova Scotia’s acting Auditor General Terry Spicer noted that other provincial governments are developing economic recovery plans to “improve business activity, promote safety and well-being of citizens, and help their economies rebound.”

Spicer wasn’t critical of the Nova Scotia government for not doing the same, but he obviously felt that the absence of such a plan was, at least, worthy of mention.

The Mcneil government has never been big on plans, other than the plan to balance the budget.

Throughout the COVID crisis, other provinces developed elaborate systems that include colour-coded phases that match restrictions to the level of risk as determined by the number of COVID cases.

But in Nova Scotia, Premier Mcneil acts on the advice of Dr. Robert Strang, the chief medical officer or health, and increases or reduces restrictions according to what the “epidemiology” tells them at any given time.

The more elaborate plans may provide for greater predictability, but Nova Scotia’s method offers greater flexibility. It will be up to the experts who examine the entrails of the pandemic after-the-fact to determine which approach worked better.

There’s been no shortage of ideas, proposals and plans for Nova Scotia’s post-pandemic economic recovery, just none emanating from the government.

FEW SPECIFICS FROM CANDIDATES

For months, Nova Scotia’s opposition Conservatives have been peppering the government with ideas to stimulate economic activity, under the umbrella of a plan the Tories call “ready for what’s next.”

And, after the auditor general’s report, the New Democrats renewed their call for the province to strike an economic recovery task force, including industry, labour and a broad and representative cross-section of Nova Scotians.

Among the three Liberal leadership candidates, Iain Rankin has released the most detailed plan but, as you’d expect from a volunteer political campaign, even his sevenpoint plan wasn’t strong on specifics.

Rankin is the only leadership candidate to tie economic recovery to environmental responsibility, however, and said his plan will be low-carbon and climate resilient.

Kousoulis proposed $60 million in direct aid for small business and promised to do “whatever it takes” to get the province through the pandemic without lasting economic damage.

Randy Delorey isn’t putting out many policy proposals because he’s listening to Liberals to hear their ideas and aspirations first. But he said Friday that his plan will support those sectors that were hard hit and, importantly, the people working in those sectors.

When the new Liberal leader is sworn in as premier in February, he will face a health crisis of unknown dimensions and an economic mess of historical proportions.

Because the Mcneil government is proroguing the current session on Dec. 18, a new session of the legislature will open in the spring with a throne speech, followed soon thereafter by a provincial budget.

Those are the first, best opportunities the new premier will get to put his stamp on the government, but he’ll have to get it done mere weeks after taking on the job.

Most new premiers enjoy a bit of a political honeymoon but Nova Scotia’s next premier will more likely be burning the midnight oil, at work.

Journalist and writer Jim Vibert has worked as a communications advisor to five Nova Scotia governments.