N.S. Progressive Conservative election platform includes cap on electricity rates

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s incumbent Progressive Conservatives released their election platform Friday, announcing that if elected to govern Nov. 26, they will impose a cap on electricity rate increases.

Party leader Tim Houston, who is seeking a second term in office, confirmed that if Nova Scotia Power Inc. is given approval for a rate increase, a Tory government would calculate the average of rate hikes across the country and then order the privately owned utility not to exceed that number.

“If rates go up, they won’t go up more than the Canadian average,” Houston told a news conference at his Halifax campaign headquarters. “I’m concerned about rate affordability.”

Houston also announced that a Tory government would reduce the small business tax rate from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent, while increasing the tax threshold to $700,000 from $500,000. He said 12,000 businesses would benefit, saving $3.8 million.

Much of the Tory platform repeats previous pledges made during the campaign, as well as initiatives announced by Houston’s government before the election was called last month.

Those key initiatives include reducing the harmonized sales tax to 14 per cent from 15 per cent, and increasing the basic personal exemption on provincial income taxes to $11,744 from $8,744. Houston has also promised to boost the minimum wage to $16.50 in one year if re-elected.

The slim, 28-page platform signals an important shift for Houston’s party, which released a 130-page platform before their winning election campaign in 2021. During that campaign, the Conservatives focused almost exclusively on their promise to “fix health care.”

But Houston has made it clear that there is still plenty of work to do before he can claim success on that front, given the fact that the health-care system remains beset by shortages of doctors and nurses, and long wait times for ambulance and emergency room services.

In a letter at the beginning of the new platform, Houston says his party’s work to “fix health care” has only just begun.

“I was clear with Nova Scotians in 2021 that things would probably get worse before they get better,” he said, “and they did get worse …. But we’re on the right path.”

In a government pamphlet distributed across the province before the campaign started, Houston crowed about hiring 300 doctors and specialists, as well as 2,000 nurses. He also said there were commitments in place to establish a medical school in Cape Breton; increase nurse training; provide free tuition for paramedics; add more long-term-care rooms; open 31 primary care clinics; expand a major hospital in Halifax and fast-track accreditation for foreign medical graduates.

The Tory platform has little to offer to address the province’s housing crisis, aside from a plan to make more vacant land available to communities and reduce the minimum down payment for a home to two per cent.

Houston said the housing policies his government introduced during its first term will take time to come to fruition. “There’s no pixie dust for housing, no magic wand,” he said. “Continuing on that path is a good thing.”

Meanwhile, the Tories say they expect to accumulate budget deficits for three years, followed by a projected surplus in the final year of a four-year term. The document did not include a total cost for the party’s commitments.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said the Tory platform fails to mention Houston’s plan to get rid of Ottawa’s carbon pricing policy.

“The document is as thin on vision as it is on details or costing,” Churchill said in a statement.

The Liberals are promising to replace the federal carbon price with an Atlantic region cap-and-trade model for industrial greenhouse gas emitters.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the Tory plan continues to ignore pressing issues like the doctor and housing shortages. “Given the Conservatives’ legacy of broken promises, there is little reason for Nova Scotians to put faith in this paper-thin plan,” Chender said in a statement.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail Friday, Churchill highlighted several measures contained in his party’s platform that are aimed at improving women’s health. A former provincial health minister, he said that while women make up half the population, only about eight per cent of medical research in Nova Scotia is focused on them.

“The study of biology defaults to the male body which results in many prescribed treatments being less effective for women as well as missed diagnoses on health issues as critical as heart attacks,” he said.

To fill this gap in women’s health care, Churchill said the Liberals would require 50 per cent of all provincial research grant funding to be used to study women’s health.

Meanwhile, Chender was in Cape Breton where she promised to restore provincial equalization payments to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. She said a New Democratic government would double the municipal finance grant from $15 million to $30 million in their first year of government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

Michael MacDonald and Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press