Speaker needs to recall Nova Scotia legislature, professor says
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The province has promised hundreds of millions of dollars for struggling individuals and businesses coping with the pandemic, including a $230-million stimulus package announced May 27.
That level of spending requires legislative oversight and opposition input, says NDP House Leader Claudia Chender. The Dartmouth South MLA wrote the Speaker on April 17 asking that the public accounts and health committees resume meetings.
‘It’s important as legislators that now more than ever ... we are able to conduct legislative business,’ Chender said. ‘It’s also important that we continue to play the oversight function that those of us in opposition play as the government creates program after program with massive government spending that’s quickly going out the door.’
With businesses reopening in the province and people getting back to work, the McNeil government needs to follow suit and get back to urgent legislative business, the New Democrat said.
‘Everyone in this province has been asked to adapt to a 'new normal' as we move through this COVID-19 era, but the premier seems to think that his government is exempt from meeting to do that,’ she said. ‘So it’s fine for me to go to the bar and have a drink but it’s not appropriate for me to take my seat in the legislative committee. That’s deeply problematic.’
The human resources committee is the lone committee mandated to meet regularly. The committee met May 26 by teleconference for the first time since the public health order came into effect. Chender got unanimous support for her motion recommending government require all workplaces in their reopening plan to make allowances for employees who might not have access to child care or supports.
Chender said since then, the government has not responded with action.
‘We have tons of questions around child care and access to child care,’ she said. ‘We have an economy that’s open for business and thousands of families that have no supervision. We have heard nothing from government about how to resolve those two facts.’
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