Despite some changes, Nova Scotians still aren’t getting the results they need from their government

HALIFAX –On Friday, the Leader of the Official Opposition made the following statement about the fall legislative session:

“Throughout this very short legislative session, New Democrats put a number of proposals before this government that would protect taxpayers and make a material difference in the lives of Nova Scotians.

We introduced measures to protect renters with real, effective rent control and create more homes that hardworking people can actually afford.

We called for an action plan to keep more emergency departments open and reduce wait times.

We have pushed every day to get answers for the women who keep telling us that they can’t get the care they need. Yet, five years into a promise to fix health care, the Minister of Health still can’t say how many specialists we should have to actually lower the years-long wait time for women desperate for care.

The lack of progress on these issues has been incredibly disappointing for Nova Scotians who have been patient for the last five years and are expecting real results.

Much of the legislation that passed this fall started as ideas put forward by the Opposition. For years, New Democrats have been working to ban tip theft, make improvements in labour standards, introduce performance-based regulation for Nova Scotia Power, and protect Nova Scotians from deep fake intimate images.

These changes should not have taken Tim Houston five years. While the government finally has finally begun to take action on these ideas, they didn’t go far enough to protect Nova Scotian workers in the middle of a tariff war.

Nova Scotians still have to work 44 hours before they get overtime; we pushed the Houston government to reduce it to 40 hours but they refused. New Democrats also pushed to protects gig workers, give Nova Scotians five paid sick days, and get rid of the overtime carve outs that force some Nova Scotians — like construction and IT workers — to lose out on thousands of dollars.

People need to see real results. More money in their pockets. More homes. Shorter wait times for care. Stable, predictable monthly rent. And most of all, they need a government they can trust to make it happen."

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