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Spring sitting of N.S. legislature wraps after 27 days

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The spring sitting of the Nova Scotia Legislature has wrapped.

The session ended Thursday afternoon after 27 days, it was the longest under Premier Tim Houston.

A controversial budget with millions in cuts to arts and culture programs caused protests outside and inside the House, leading to restrictions on public access.

Finance minister John Lohr says every budget contains difficult decisions.

“We are well aware that we’re nearly $1.3 billion in debt, and we still need to borrow money. We’re doing a massive infrastructure build of things that were deferred maintenance, and continuing to invest in affordability, healthcare and housing,” said Lohr.

Lohr says he doesn’t know what next year’s budget will look like.

He says the world is changing, and they’re meeting needs where they can.

Opposition say trust in Premier is low

Meanwhile, NDP leader Claudia Chender said trust in government is at an all-time low.

She criticized cuts and out of budget spending, and Premier Tim Houston for missing time in the House due to meetings in Texas and Alberta.

“By our calculations, he’s missed over 40 percent of this session. We’ve heard from Nova Scotians across this province that question what the Premier’s job is, and demanding that he come back and stand up for the decisions that he’s made,” said Chender.

Houston is currently in Calgary attending meetings on natural gas with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Liberal MLA Derek Mombourquette says the public engagement during the session was encouraging to see.

He says it likely helped the cause on government walking back some of the planned cuts earlier in the session.

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NDP calls for impact analysis of budget before it passes

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The NDP says the province needs to pause the whole budget process and go back to the drawing board.

After backlash from the public, the government brought some funding back for seniors, people with disabilities, African Nova Scotians and Indigenous students, but they kept a lot of the cuts to the arts, culture and tourism sectors.

NDP leader Claudia Chender says it is clear they did not do any economic analysis.

“But instead of a kind of piecemeal save our political skin approach, what we’re asking this government to do is to actually do the work to understand the impact,” says Chender.

The budget has not passed yet, and she says the government has made amendments to bills at the legislature before.

But she does not want them to make a quick change. The government should take time to properly understand what impact the cuts will have.

Chender voiced similar concerns to an economics professor and political science professor told our newsroom recently, including that it seems like many government cabinet ministers were not sure why certain cuts were made. For more on that story, click here.

She says tourism is a very important industry in Nova Scotia, and those cuts threaten jobs without replacing them.

One of her other proposed solutions would be to create a new Legislative Budget Officer, who would “assess all risks of government spending,” according to a news release from the party. They tabled a bill in the house for that, as well.

They also have a bill that would force the province to table at the legislature any spending that falls outside of the budget. Chender says that would bring more accountability to what the government does with public money.

The legislature resumes next week.

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Premier focused on competition for Nova Scotia Power

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Would the province consider re-nationalizing Nova Scotia Power?

Premier Tim Houston was asked by reporters at Province House Friday if they’d explore buying the company back.

“Discussions around what that would cost in this environment, I’m sure that would be a pretty big number. I’m most concerned about making sure there’s competition for Nova Scotia Power,” said Houston.

The utility could have that competition as soon as next year.

Renewall Energy recently got $200 million for the Mersey River Wind Project on the South Shore.

It’s expected to provide enough clean electricity to power more than 50,000 homes.

Houston says it will offer Nova Scotians a choice on where they buy their power.

On Friday, NDP leader Claudia Chender said the province needs to do a full, economic analysis of the utility.

“That’s an analysis that wasn’t done in 1992 when the PC government sold the utility. It’s one that people across this province are asking for, and that they deserve,” Chender told reporters.

Liberal interim leader Iain Rankin says other provinces own their own power utility, and are still seeing increases.

“We need to focus on how Nova Scotia operates, and continue to look at opportunities for competition. That takes time. Re-nationalizing Nova Scotia Power is not a serious question right now,” said Rankin.

Rate hike still under review

The talk around Nova Scotia Power comes as a rate hike request is before the Nova Scotia Energy Board.

It would go up around eight percent by January, 2027 for most rate payers.

Houston has called the request ‘out of touch.’

In a submission to the board, Houston said the board’s job is to ensure rates are just and reasonable, and the company should demonstrate stronger performance in transparency before Nova Scotians are asked to pay more.