The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Return of in-person legislature a hopeful sign
It was interesting, and a little encouraging, that neither the premier’s office, nor the leaders of the opposition parties, mentioned COVID when asked what their focus and priorities will be for the fall session of the legislature.
No doubt Lt.-gov. Arthur Leblanc will say — or rather read — something about the pandemic today when he delivers the new PC government’s first Throne Speech, that traditional, ceremonial and reliably tedious tome that lays out a government’s agenda in broad, sometimes opaque, terms.
While COVID will hang over the legislature this fall, like it hangs over everything, the first session of the 64th general assembly brings the return of MLAS — live and in-person — to the legislature where they belong. That may not warrant a celebration, but it’s a glimmer of hope that something closer to normal is within reach.
The last time all MLAS took their seats in the house was March 10, 2020, just weeks before COVID arrived and the province locked down. Since then, when the legislature met at all, it was with a corporal’s guard of members attending in-person, and the rest beaming in “virtually.”
Today’s Throne Speech won’t deliver many, if any, surprises to those few Nova Scotians who paid rapt attention to this summer’s provincial election. Indeed, it probably won’t surprise even casual observers of the campaign.
The themes of the Tory platform will echo through the Throne Speech, which means we’ll hear plenty about health care, a good deal about the economy, something on the environment, and a little about a lot. It was a big platform full of big promises.
And it’s those big promises, or rather the government’s progress on or plans for each that will draw much of the opposition parties’ attention.
Liberal leader and former premier Iain Rankin, now in the unfamiliar role as leader of the official opposition, claims to have no concerns that his party’s volleys at the nascent government will be returned with spin.
That spin, of course, would be that Premier Tim Houston’s six-week-old Tory government will need time to get things straightened out because the previous management — the Liberals — left quite a mess.
NDP leader Gary Burrill sees that as a problem for the Grits.
There’s “not much of an authentic punch,” left in the Liberals, Burrill said, given that their eight-year record wasn’t enough to get them re-elected.
He said the Liberals “went to sleep” on vital issues like affordable housing, and he’s not optimistic that the Tories will do any better.
Rankin also plans to test the Tories’ claim — often and strenuously repeated by Houston — that these Nova Scotian Conservatives are the progressive sort.
The government’s commitment to equity and social justice and its action on the environment are areas where Rankin says the Tories are vulnerable and where their progressive bona fides are most dubious.
The government fumbled when it named all-white leadership to head up the office of African Nova Scotian Affairs, a mistake Houston said he’ll rectify.
And, on the environment, Rankin points out that members of the government caucus and cabinet have advocated fracking and are in favour lifting the decades-long moratorium on uranium mining.
The opposition will make valiant attempts to take the Tories down a notch or two, and they’ll undoubtedly cause the government some discomfort, but the first legislative session under a new government generally belongs to that government.
The premier’s office, in a written response, said the government has a full agenda to take to the House.
That agenda will dominate the media coverage.
If their election platform is their guide, as the Tories claim, look for the tolls to come off the Cobequid Pass post-haste and for a new, farreaching environmental bill to be introduced this fall.
The Tory platform promised to remove the tolls “immediately,” and pledged to bring forward the environment bill — called the Enviro-goals and Climate Change Reduction Act — in the first session after their election. That would be now.
Fifty-five MLAS — the most ever — including 24 rookies are entitled to take their seats in the legislature today.
If you’re wondering how such a large assembly is permitted under COVID restrictions, remember there are no limits on the size of many gatherings, like arts and cultural events, festivals, sports, performing arts, weddings, funerals and faith gatherings.
If you had to fit a session of the legislature under one of those categories, performing arts likely comes closest.
And, like all those other gatherings, visitors to the legislature will have to show proof of vaccination to enter. So, while the party leaders didn’t mention COVID by name, signs of the pandemic are never far away.