House to meet with hybrid sitting

Stay the blazes home has morphed into a hybrid attendance at the people's House of Nova Scotia.

“All three house leaders have come to an agreement of having limited numbers in the House,” Premier Iain Rankin said after a Thursday cabinet meeting.

“We can continue to operate the House that works well, moving bills forward and most members will be on virtual.”

The Speaker's office sent out a notice Thursday afternoon that said all 51 members of the assembly have been sent a proposal endorsed by the three House leaders — Geoff Maclellan of the Liberals, PC Allan Macmaster and Claudia Chender of the New Democrats — providing for a hybrid sitting, in which some members attend in person and others attend by videoconference.

The hybrid sitting, necessary to provide for physical distancing in the House, would have the Speaker, three members from each party caucus and the two independent members sit inperson at the House.

The message sent to each MLA asks that they respond to the poll of consent on the hybrid set-up by Friday at 3 p.m., according to the Speaker's office.

If there is unanimous consent, the speech from the throne will go ahead as planned on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

“The three House leaders have agreed to the terms of the resolution and hopefully will be able to convince their caucuses to vote accordingly,” said Claudia Chender, the MLA for Dartmouth South and the NDP House leader.

Chender said the three recognized parties can rotate the members who sit in the House from day to day.

The Speaker's office said MLAS can ask questions remotely during question period and some of the answers by ministers will also be delivered from a remote location. Voting on legislation will be done virtually.

The Liberals hold a slim majority in the 51-seat House with 26 members. The Opposition Progressive Conservatives have 18 seats, the NDP five and there are two independents.

Rankin, elected Feb. 6 as leader of the Liberal party to replace two-term premier Stephen Mcneil, vowed Thursday that all Nova Scotians would get a COVID vaccine by the end of June and talked about concerns on limited paid sick time during the pandemic and the upcoming budget. His ministers talked about environmental issues, including the implementation of the Lahey forestry report, rental caps and the Fitch report on ambulance service in the province.

Rankin also talked about meeting with Tim Houston and Gary Burrill, the respective PC and NDP leaders.

“There are areas of mutual understanding that we need to advance,” Rankin said. “Burrill was the first meeting. We discussed issues related to the environment and helping those who need it the most.

“I had a virtual meeting with Mr. Houston and he assured me that we would find ways to work together and I take him at his word.”

Rankin hinted that he would be more open to discussing opposition legislation than his predecessor was.

“Nobody owns all good ideas, so I am definitely open to bills or ideas being brought forth by anyone,” Rankin said. “That's why it was important for me to meet with the leaders. I have respect for them and there are a number of issues that we brought forward that I think are important and where we can agree. Hopefully they'll support the budget but again we'll see.”

Burrill said opposition parties have to be at different times co-operative and strong in opposition.

“The previous administration had not distinguished itself in its capacity to work respectfully with opposition parties,” Burrill said. “Mr. Rankin has emphasized that's an area where he sees his party looking for improvement. I am hopeful that he will be able to bring about those improvements.”

Houston said the province has had a government of one for a long time so Rankin's tenure "has to be more open" than the previous regime.

"I don't need private meetings to share what I think is important for this province," Houston said. "We've been very open about our plans, they are right on our website. They are detailed, they are thorough and if the government is really interested in hearing the thoughts of Nova Scotians as channelled through opposition members, they can talk about them anytime."

Labi Kousoulis, the new finance minister, said he is aiming to introduce the budget the week after March break, the week of March 21.

“We are putting the final touches on it tomorrow,” Kousoulis said Thursday. “We've done a lot of work in the last couple of weeks, trying to fit two months of budget work into a twoweek period.”

Kousoulis said he had enough time to make sure that as much of Rankin's leadership campaign platform as possible has been added into the budget.

At his final cabinet meeting Mcneil had forecast a $500-million deficit because of COVID expenditures. Kousoulis said he would leave budget forecasts until budget day.

“We're in pretty good shape,” Kousoulis said. “The fact that we had five or six surpluses in the last five years has helped us weather this storm and I am very confident that Nova Scotia is going to rebound quickly in the next few years from the pandemic and get bac on track. I am very comfortable with the budget and with the future of Nova Scotia.”