Bill No. 243 - Financial Measures (2020) Act. - 3rd Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in my place and respond to the Financial Measures (2020) Act.

We've all spent a great deal of time discussing and commenting on Budget 2020-21 over the past couple of weeks through Budget Estimates, debates into those Estimates, and most recently in the Committee of the Whole House on Bills. We've discussed it in the context of the $70 million corporate tax cut - a cut with no discernible impact on the economy other than the vague assurance of reinvestment and increased attractiveness of jurisdiction to major corporations whose profits are elsewhere.

The increase in the Nova Scotia Child Benefit and other program investments for vulnerable Nova Scotians are insufficient. The investments we've been advocating for are the ones that we know pay dividends in the lives of Nova Scotians, Mr. Speaker. They help us to meet the social determinants of health. Investments in programs like the Nova Scotia Child Benefit can keep people healthy and well-fed and potentially out of hospital.

Modest investments in housing will mean a few dozen more Nova Scotians will have a roof over their heads. Imagine what we could do with more investments in this budget that have positive and demonstrable outcomes in the lives of Nova Scotians.

We support the small business tax cut, Mr. Speaker. Again, this is an investment with a clear return. These business owners often live in the communities where their businesses are located; certainly that is the case in Dartmouth South. They employ folks in the community and they spend in the community.

The context of this budget, when it was presented, was not great. By the government's admission, growth would be minimal but the need, of course, is great. We still have the lowest median income, the second-highest poverty rate in Canada, the highest rate in food insecurity, and are above the national average for household spending of over 30 per cent of income on rent and utilities. Across this province, 23,645 households are spending over 50 per cent of their income on rent and utilities. That context looks bleaker by the day. The closure of Northern Pulp will be a hit to the economy, but more important or as important, to the workers, the woodlot owners, and the businesses that depended on the mill.

The global uncertainty swirling around COVID-19 and its impact on the markets and our key trading partners will also be a hit - not just to the economy but to Nova Scotians, particularly to our seniors and to our health care workers across the province.

Against this backdrop, it is our position that investments in social programs, income assistance, health care, and all the other areas we have been stressing is more important now than ever - more important than a $70 million corporate giveaway. Every $1 of corporate tax cut generates 10 cents of private investment. Corporate tax cuts are a bad deal for the province, particularly now.

Moving on to a couple of other areas of the Financial Measures (2020) Act that weren't debated in the budget, I want to take the opportunity to thank the minister for the repeal of the Crown Attorneys' Labour Relations Act. As we said repeatedly during debates on that bill, it was unnecessary from the start. There was never a need to debate the details of labour relations on the floor of this Legislature. Once introduced, there was never a need to advance the legislation beyond first reading, and as I said in Committee of the Whole House on Bills, as the Minister of Finance and Treasury Board was laying out the reasons for the passage of this Act on the third reading of that bill in this Chamber, the Minister of Labour Relations was negotiating a move back to the bargaining table at the very same time in this very same building. It was announced minutes after the passage of the bill.

It's clear, Mr. Speaker, that this bill was intended as a sword hanging over the negotiating table. I'm very pleased it has been repealed as promised, and I sincerely hope we will see less of this type of legislation in the future and more good-faith negotiation.

Amendment of the Gaming Control Act - providing a shield from liability for the province, the ministers responsible for the Act, the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation and casino operators, retroactive to 1991 - is another feature of this bill that we have not had time to debate. Here is a proposal that merits more discussion than it has gotten. I'll leave a few questions on the table.

Why? Why now? Are we facing legal action? If so, if there is, for example, a class action lawsuit against a casino owner in the province, do we want to be the ones to ensure that it cannot go forward? At a time when this government has failed to update the mental health and addictions strategy, has cancelled the My-Play program, and otherwise has a long way to go on ensuring that if we are going to be in the business of gambling, we're doing it with Nova Scotians' health and safety at the forefront of our concerns, why now would we introduce a bill of this kind?

This provision also stands in stark opposition to another bill on the order paper, which will certainly pass this evening: the Opioid Damages and Health-care Costs Recovery Act. This is an Act that paves the way for this government to join lawsuits against the manufacturers and distributors of opioids. It goes without saying that what's good for the goose in this scenario is not good for the gander. We can collect for harms faced by Nova Scotians, as we should be able to, but we are unwilling to have the difficult conversations about our government's involvement with a revenue-generating activity that we know can be very harmful to its participants.

Mr. Speaker, the present moment calls for solutions to a number of complex problems. They are complex but not impossible, and our caucus has been putting forward solution after solution. We have called upon the government to invest in jobs for the sustainable economy, jobs like child care, home energy retrofits, sustainable forestry, arts and culture, and the list goes on. We have called upon this government to address the issue of low wages so that working Nova Scotians are able to afford the things they need: healthy food, accessible homes, and cell and internet service. We have called upon this government to address the inequities in access to health care services, where those who can afford to pay access timely mental health service and those who cannot afford to pay have to wait.

We have called upon this government to prioritize the climate and the future of the coming generations of Nova Scotians. To meet the challenges of the coming year and of the coming decades, we need to build community, we need to build resilience, and we need to build a shared prosperity, one that does not trickle down but is built and shared by all. We need to attend to and prioritize people and places, we need to diversify our economy while we protect and prioritize the sustainable fishers and foresters who have formed its backbone for generations.

We are all in this together, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, this budget still prioritizes the few at the expense of the many. We, in the NDP caucus, will keep pushing for a different kind of prosperity, one that is truly shared.