BETSY MACDONALD — NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Q: What would your party do to improve rural economic development?
A: What’s needed in Central Nova is renewal, and renewal requires serious investment by Ottawa. The NDP’s 2019 platform includes serious commitments to that renewal:
▪ Using the transition required by climate change as a powerful new engine of economic development, our plan will create at least 300,000 good jobs, including in rural areas like Central Nova.
▪ Reforming EI to make it more accessible, including for workers in seasonal industries.
▪ Putting people before profits on public infrastructure investments. Unlike the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ P3 schemes, we will make local businesses and good jobs part of every project.
▪ Investing in forestry innovation and value-added Canadian wood products, supporting forestry R&D, and helping companies commercialize new technologies.
▪ Supporting local fishers by enforcing owner-operator and fleet separation policies, and upgrading small craft harbours.
▪ Helping local farmers by protecting supply management, providing low-cost start-up loans for new farmers, ending the unfair tax treatment of family farm transfers, and increasing the amount of Canadian food sold, processed and consumed in local markets.
▪ Cutting small business taxes from 11 per cent to nine per cent, making it easier to pass on small businesses to the next generation, easing regulatory processes, and supporting tourism.
▪ Investing over $1 billion in affordable child care to help parents join the workforce.
▪ Making sure every community in Central Nova has high-speed internet and cell service, and establishing a price cap for these services.
▪ Offering a tax credit to postsecondary graduates who work in rural communities.
Q : Access to high-speed internet has been brought up as a topic of concern in rural areas. What would your party do to address those concerns?
A: In 2017, the profits of Canada’s top five telecommunications companies totalled $7.49 billion. New Democrats believe that no matter where you live in Canada, you should be able to stay connected — without breaking the bank because of corporate greed. Our plan will:
▪ Invest to make sure that every community in Canada has access to high-speed internet without delay.
▪ Put a price cap in place to make sure Canadians aren’t paying more than the global average for their cellphone and internet bills, until the industry becomes more competitive.
▪ Make sure that providers offer a basic plan for wireless and broadband that is comparable with the affordable plans that are available in other countries.
▪ Require companies to offer unlimited wireless data options at affordable rates in order to put an end to surprise bills.
▪ Abolish data caps for broadband internet.
▪ Introduce a Telecom Consumers’ Bill of Rights to protect Canadians from unfair wireless and internet sales and services practices.
Q : What would your party do to improve mental health care and resources for people in Central Nova?
A: The NDP believes mental health care should be available at no cost to all Canadians who need it, and we have a plan to accomplish that.
Mental health support is an enormous unmet need across Canada. Even if you have private insurance, too often the services just aren’t there or there are agonizingly long wait times. And while some are able to turn to private counselling to fill the gaps in the public system, many can’t afford to. We think that is unjust and unacceptable.
Here in Nova Scotia, we have a patchwork of mental health interventions and programs, but these are under-funded and inadequate. There is a serious shortage of the family doctors, psychiatrists, counselors and other professionals who are key to good mental health care, and there is an insufficient supply of acute psychiatric beds in hospitals. These shortfalls are especially serious in rural parts of the province like Central Nova.
While the delivery of health care falls to provincial governments, the lack of a comprehensive national mental health system can only be corrected by changes to the Canada Health Act, which is a federal responsibility.
The NDP is therefore calling for a comprehensive system of mental health care to be included in the Canada Health Act so that it is treated the same way as any other health-care needs. Our platform contains a commitment to start this critical transition to comprehensive mental health care immediately. Q : What would you do to assist the provincial government in its efforts to recruit and retain doctors?
A: In 2018, the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society published a report entitled Road Map to a Stable Physician Workforce. Noting that doctors in Nova Scotia are among the lowest-paid in Canada, the report identified payment as the No. 1 problem holding back doctor recruitment in the province.
The recruitment of doctors is a provincial responsibility, but federal governments have played a major role in creating the current problem and they have a crucial role to play in fixing it.
The NDP led the fight to establish universal public health care for all Canadians. Today, New Democrats believe the federal government has a responsibility to preserve and expand Canada’s public health-care system. We are committed to investing in public health care — including the recruitment and retention of health-care professionals — and defending it against the creeping threat of privatization and user fees.
The NDP’s election platform in 2019 states that a New Democrat government will work with the provinces and territories to produce a plan to recruit and retain the doctors, nurses, and other health-care professionals the people of Central Nova need.
There are lots of ideas out there for doing this: nationalizing Canada’s College of Physicians and Surgeons so that if a doctor can practice anywhere in Canada they can practice everywhere in Canada; tripling the size of Canadian medical schools; and assigning doctor licenses on a per capita basis by community. That would give Central Nova a fairer chance of attracting and retaining doctors. Q : What can be done to help keep young Nova Scotians working and living in Central Nova?
A: What’s needed to convince young Nova Scotians to stay and build a life here — especially in rural areas like Central Nova — is a commitment by government to renewal that is convincing and that fosters optimism and confidence in the future. But renewal like that requires a serious investment by Ottawa, and that’s been missing.
The NDP’s 2019 platform includes serious commitments to that kind of renewal. Our plan includes:
Opportunities
▪ Creating at least 300,000 good jobs across Canada in four years as part of our climate plan.
▪ Making serious investments in the industries that matter most in rural parts of our province: forestry, fishing, agriculture and tourism.
▪ Reforming EI to make it more accessible, including for workers in seasonal industries.
▪ Expanding training programs and make them more flexible.
▪ Reducing tuition fees so young people can start out in life without a crushing debt burden.
▪ Offering a tax credit to post-secondary graduates who work in designated rural communities.
▪ Establishing a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.
Services
▪ Defending Canada’s public health system against the threats from privatization and cuts.
▪ Making sure housing is available and affordable.
▪ Making public child care affordable and available to all families.
▪ Making sure every community in Canada has affordable high-speed internet and cell service.