Unproclaimed Bills - QP

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Speaker, when legislation is passed in this House, we often invite stakeholders to mark the moment. This is especially true when legislation has wide-ranging impacts or has been championed by advocates or community groups. But we have seen bills that get passed by this House fade into obscurity because governments never proclaimed them. If a bill is passed but not proclaimed, does the Premier think that those same stakeholders deserve the courtesy of being informed?

HON. TIM HOUSTON (The Premier) » : Speaker, when the Legislature makes a decision on a bill, I'm not sure which ones are proclaimed and which ones are not. I think our government has proclaimed the legislation that we've passed, but the broader theme of the question is: This government listens very carefully to Nova Scotians and takes every step to respect Nova Scotians. When we make a mistake, we have the courage to say we made a mistake, and we will continue to operate like that. We are only here in support of Nova Scotians. That's why we do everything we do.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Speaker, we have a law requiring criminal record checks and training for bouncers at bars in this province. It was passed, but it was never proclaimed. It was brought forward in 2010 after a young man died following an assault at a bar. His parents were here when it passed, and they were here to voice their concerns this week. The family only found out that the law wasn't enforced after learning of another tragic, preventable death similar to that of their son.

Not only has the law been left unproclaimed, but it will soon disappear completely because of changes proposed by this government. Will the government enact this law so that no other family has to go through what this family has suffered?

THE PREMIER « » : Speaker, obviously these are incredibly tragic situations, for sure. The hearts of all Nova Scotians go out - when somebody is out with friends having a good time and something tragic happens, those are heartbreaking stories to hear. In the case of this piece of legislation, I think it was passed by the NDP - I'm not sure why the NDP didn't proclaim it. Then, of course, we had years of Liberal government, and I am not sure why they didn't proclaim it. My understanding is that when it came to our attention, the department worked to make some regulation changes and try to meet the safety standards, but this is certainly an overall - it's just a tragic situation for everyone, for sure.

CLAUDA CHENDER: The families feel that this tragic situation could have been prevented by this law being put into force and whoever proclaimed it - it's true, the NDP government didn't, but it is this government that has the opportunity to do it now.

Another example of legislation that was passed in this House with all-party support is the Coastal Protection Act. Years later, with no explanation, this government shelved it and there was a tremendous public outcry. Despite this government's terrible decision not to enact the law, that public outcry has actually forced some of the investments that we've seen. Now with these changes, Nova Scotians won't know when legislation isn't enacted.

In addition to all of the other attempts to evade oversight, why does the Premier think that keeping information about the bills that govern us secret is necessary?

THE PREMIER « » : Speaker, certainly it was no secret that we were not going to proclaim the Coastal Protection Act. To insinuate that was a secret would absolutely be false. We are not proclaiming the Coastal Protection Act. It will not happen under our government, and we made that clear before the election. Nova Scotians had a chance to have their say on what they thought of that as part of the election, and I think they spoke loud and clear because what we did do - and they had great respect for - is we initiated another suite of actions.

If we are not going to proclaim a piece of legislation, we will be pretty frank and clear. It is unfortunate that the NDP wasn't equally as frank and clear when they decided not to proclaim this legislation all those years ago.