Bill No. 136 - Financial Measures (2019) Act. - Third Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I'll just take a few moments and speak to the Financial Measures (2019) Act, and more broadly, to this budget, and also start, as my colleague did, on a note of gratitude.

Which is to say, as I've said many times in this House, I think we're all here for the right reasons. I think we're all here on behalf of our constituents and we're doing the best we can, and obviously the discussion we just had around this bill was a great example of that.

I think another great example is this morning when we heard the former Minister of Health and Wellness - you know, fete the former - that we can be collegial in difficult circumstances, and we have spent a long time talking about this budget. Sometimes, it seems like forever. If you asked my children, that's what they would say.

I'd like to just spend a few moments reiterating the point that I raised at second reading, which is when we hear about this budget, notwithstanding pieces of legislation like the one we just discussed, there are always bright spots, but when the budget is discussed, what we often hear is this idea that we are innovating, that we are reducing, that we are streamlining, that we're cutting red tape, that we are creating a positive business environment, that we're not afraid of China, and that's fine. It's good that we're cutting red tape so that businesses in Nova Scotia can thrive and so they should but, Mr. Speaker, there is less emphasis to our ears on simplifying and making more accessible the government services that individual people rely on.

Health, housing, income assistance, justice, those are the areas, those are the things our constituents rely on to thrive. They as individuals thrive when those services are available to them and are available to them in simple, accessible, clear, compassionate ways. That's the red tape we are focused on and I would say that that is our core challenge with this budget.

Our unified Health Authority is a bureaucratic nightmare. Having been at the VG only this morning and for much of this week with a loved one myself, believe me, I'm glad we're getting a new hospital. It is long since time. I may not agree with the manner of the build but I'm happy that it's happening. In the meantime, there are policy changes, bureaucracy, red tape that mean that nurses are working short. We don't have enough nurses, we don't have enough nurses because they're not getting their overtime pay - they're not getting their overtime pay, bureaucracy, red tape.

In an effort to consolidate, we've created more bureaucratic paperwork and policy that prevents the people of Nova Scotia from getting the services they need. Seniors' and Family Pharmacare programs are expensive and hard to navigate. I've been doing that this week too. Too many people don't have access to primary care, which means getting the myriad forms required for anything, for income assistance, for housing, which are complicated and challenging to fill out even if you have basic literacy, even if you have two degrees. It's complicated. It's full of unnecessary hurdles, which make it difficult for people, and particularly people who don't have access to primary care and we know that's a challenge.

Public housing wait-lists are too long. Too many of us in this Chamber spend our time and our budgets helping people fill out forms and understand information when the process, itself, could be simplified. We could actually create a transformation of the way that we look at budgeting so that we're putting people and those services, those amazing services our government provides and works hard to provide, we could make them more accessible to people. We could reduce the barriers to those services. We could cut back red tape, and this goes doubly for the most vulnerable who need income assistance or disability support.

What about African Nova Scotians? They've been dealing with the worst kind of red tape, constant stopping and recording of data by police that's stored in databases in HRM and across the province. You know how we could cut red tape for racialized Nova Scotians? We could put an immediate moratorium on street checks. We could stop a discriminatory, heavy-handed, illegal, and incidentally, heavily bureaucratic process.

What does this have to do with the budget or the Financial Measures (2019) Bill to which I am ostensibly speaking? Well, by this government's own admission, a budget is the measure of this government's priorities, their plans, and their successes. Unfortunately, by continuing to place austerity and short-term thinking at its core, this budget falls short.