House of Assembly Act - Bill 185 (MLA salaries)

Thank you. I would just like to say a few words.

I think there's some confusion in general today on the government side about who's in control of what. Who makes the decisions about programs for Nova Scotians? The government. Who makes the decisions about how this House runs? This House. Not the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development

The question that we are discussing right now is about representation. We represent doctors and nurses and shift workers and all of the different people in our constituencies who come to us, but this chamber doesn't look like our constituencies. This chamber is not a reflection of the people we serve and that is because there are barriers.

It's true that people of privilege and means, myself included, have much greater capacity to make a decision about whether or not to run. What we want for people in this chamber, we want for everyone. And what we want for everyone, we want for the people in this chamber. The idea that this only impacts us is absurd.

I think if you look at the 360 page document that this government commissioned and then immediately decided to throw in the garbage, you will read a lot of very compelling and thoughtful and studied and footnoted and referenced information about the ways in which not having access to child care directly prevents women from running.

I'm the leader of a party. What am I doing right now trying to find people to run for us in the next election. Why? Well, we'd like to be over there someday making the decisions but we don't want to be over there with a caucus that is all white and mostly male. We would like to have a caucus that represents Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia that we see. It's really different to be able to talk to prospective candidates and say this is what we have to offer this is this is this is a way that you can make your life work.

I will just close by saying that not long after I was elected I had a conversation with a cabinet minister. I ended up in an elevator, and she said to me, “How old are your kids?” and I've shared this story on the floor of this House before. And I said, oh, I think at the time they were four or five, and she said, “Oh, I never would have run when my kids were that age.” And it made me feel horrible. It made me feel horrible because I mean I think most mothers are familiar with Mom guilt. We know how that feels. We know how that feels to feel like we're not doing enough. To feel like we're away from our children and we have no control.

We have introduced tons of legislation that would actually change the game even further around a sitting calendar, around set hours—all kinds of things that would make this chamber more accessible. But right now it's not us introducing it. Actually, it's the recommendation of three independent experts picked by all parties who took the time to study this matter, to review all of the literature, to hear from all the parties, to interview people, and put forward a very sensible and simple amendment that, in their words I think my colleague shared, of which the cost would be very little but would make a really big difference to the representation that we have have in this chamber thank you Mx. Chair.