SYDNEY, N.S. — The leader of the Nova Scotia NDP says COVID-19 will dictate the important issues in the next provincial election.
Gary Burrill, whose party presently holds five of the legislature’s 51 seats, said the pandemic has also served to validate longtime New Democrat positions on matters such as long-term care, increased supports for workers and mental health.
“This election is going to be defined and shaped by the whole question of recovery from the current COVID pandemic,” said Burrill, whose first term (2009-2013) in the legislature was as a member of Darrell Dexter’s NDP government.
“In this moment, the public agenda is not being set by politicians, by political parties or the coming election. The agenda is being set by COVID which has in the last year has laid out the areas of our life in the province where the government needs to make investments and bring improvements.”
As the leader of an opposition party, part of Burrill’s job is to criticize government actions and inactions that he and his colleagues see as detrimental to Nova Scotians. And he pulls no punches in putting the onus for what he calls a “long-term care crisis” squarely on the shoulders of Premier Stephen McNeil’s governing Liberals.
“The government has fallen down quite badly on issues such as long-term care,” said Burrill, whose time in Cape Breton this week included a discussion about COVID-19 recovery with Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Amanda McDougall.
“The decision to place a moratorium on new nursing home construction was a bad mistake that the Liberals made when they came into power in 2013 and now the chickens from that decision are coming home to roost.
“It left thousands of people living in facilities with shared occupancy and shared washrooms, unlike new facilities that were constructed on a one resident per one-room model. We have since learned that this has had a major impact on viral transmission and those who live in shared accommodation in long-term care facilities are more vulnerable to the transmission of viruses. The one resident per one room is a much, much better model.”
“This election is going to be defined and shaped by the whole question of recovery from the current COVID pandemic." — Gary Burrill
Burrill also reiterated the NDP’s longtime call for a higher minimum wage and more supports, such as an increased number of paid sick days, to assist people struggling to get by and to help those who feel financially compelled to go to work when ill. He also continued the call for better staff-to-resident ratios in nursing homes.
“These are all issues that COVID has shone a spotlight on and run a highlighter across and brought about a starkness of clarity that wasn’t as apparent as before,” said Burrill, who in September 2018 introduced the proposed Care and Dignity Act which never progressed past first reading.
“We also now see that we need a universally accessible and affordable child care system to push forward economic growth and economic development in the province.”
Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives, Nova Scotia’s official opposition party, continue to tout their own plan for an overhaul of the province’s long-term care system. And, like Burrill, PC leader Tim Houston noted that 53 of Nova Scotia’s 65 COVID-19-related deaths occurred at Halifax’s Northwood long-term care facility.
“It’s not the time to wait around,” said Houston, who added that his party’s Dignity For Our Seniors plan is a key component of its platform. “We saw this government ignore the problems at Northwood for years until it was too late. We need to see a plan to know that won’t happen again. We can’t have any more recommendations sitting on ministers’ desks for three years.”
Both opposition parties are calling on the government to set a minimum time of 4.1 hours of daily care per long-term care home resident.
Premier McNeil is set to retire on Feb. 6 when a new Liberal leader, and by default, new Nova Scotia premier will be selected at the party’s leadership convention. None of the three candidates have indicated when they will call an election. Given that the last provincial vote was held on May 30, 2017, the latest possible time for the next election is the spring of 2022.
At this time, the Liberals hold 26 of the province’s 51 seats. The PC Party has 18, the NDP has five and two are occupied by Independent members. Cape Breton has eight electoral districts. The island has two Liberal MLAs, four PCs, one NDP and one Independent.
David Jala is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
