Liberals put focus on accountability as N.S. parties begin first full day of campaign

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Liberal leader took direct aim at his Progressive Conservative opponent Monday, saying the Liberals want to bring accountability to government if elected Nov. 26.

On the first full day of the provincial election campaign, Zach Churchill promised a string of “trust and transparency” measures, including a $250,000 fine for any party that doesn’t stick to the province’s fixed election date.

Churchill said the snap election called on Sunday by Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston is unnecessary and “broke the spirit” of the very first law passed by Houston’s government — which set next July 15 as the election date.

“He (Houston) thinks it gives him an advantage,” Churchill told reporters at his party’s campaign headquarters about the Tory leader’s early election call. “Tim Houston is a guy that will prioritize his own ambition over the needs of Nova Scotians.”

Churchill, who was a cabinet minister in a previous Liberal government that was content to leave Nova Scotia as the only province or territory in Canada without a fixed election date, said it is important to hold Houston to his word.

“The spirit of the law has been broken by a premier who thinks he can take advantage of the current situation for his own purposes,” he said.

At a campaign stop in Halifax, Houston defended his decision to call an early election despite the law he had trumpeted as necessary and fair to all parties when his government passed it in October 2021.

“My word is important to me, it’s really important to me, but the thing that’s more important to me is Nova Scotians,” he said, repeating his message that he needs a strong mandate now — not next July — to stand up to Ottawa on issues like the resettlement of asylum seekers and the imposition of the federal carbon price.

But, when he spoke on the fixed date law during a debate in the legislature in 2021, Houston said the legislation would bring “predictability to our elections.”

“Former governments have chosen not to act … but this government won’t look the other way, we’re going to walk the walk,” he said at the time.

Meanwhile, Churchill said measures are needed to battle public cynicism in politics, adding that if elected his party would establish an ethics commissioner and follow through on an unfulfilled Progressive Conservative promise to give order-making powers to the province’s information and privacy commissioner. Those powers would permit the commissioner to compel the government to release information sought by the public, rather than simply issue non-binding recommendations.

Churchill said the Liberals would also give the auditor general’s office more resources to help it audit untendered contracts and government spending above what is budgeted.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail Monday, the NDP held a media event at the site of a Halifax-area hotel called Hogan Court, which is being converted into a health facility. Leader Claudia Chender used the setting to criticize the Tories for “backroom spending” that hasn’t fixed health care.

“Take the Hogan Court boondoggle,” Chender said in a statement. “Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on a half-finished hotel. Yet this facility hasn’t helped a single Nova Scotian — the only ones benefiting are the rich developers profiting from this botched deal.”

A report by the auditor general in February criticized the government for failing to exercise appropriate due diligence when it invested about $46 million to purchase and renovate the Bedford property. In March, long-term care company Shannex bought the property for the same amount, taking over the project.

Also in Halifax Monday, Houston announced that a Tory government would increase the basic personal exemption on Nova Scotia income taxes from $8,744 to $11,744, and raise Nova Scotia’s minimum wage from $15.20 to $16.50 in 2025.

“In big ways and small, we are putting dollars in people’s pockets by helping them earn more at work and to keep more of what they earn,” Houston said.

Last week, the Tory government promised to reduce the harmonized sales tax by one percentage point on April 1, dropping it to 14 per cent.

At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2024.

Keith Doucette and Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press