N.S. political leaders talk about changes to House procedures as combative fall session wraps up

A combative fall session of the Nova Scotia legislature came to an end Thursday with third-reading debate on a couple of contentious bills and talk of doing things differently in ensuing sittings.

Something that didn’t happen in the 25-day session, according to opposition leaders, was legislation to make life more affordable for financially strapped Nova Scotians.

“I’m really proud of our team for engaging in rigorous debate, asking the questions that needed to be asked and pushing a number of bills that would help with affordability, the cost of living and housing,” Liberal Leader Zach Churchill told reporters after question period Thursday.

“We put forward 32 bills to the government’s 12 on issues that really matter to Nova Scotians,” Churchill said.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the fall session has to be a disappointment for struggling Nova Scotians.

“We came in understanding that some rebate programs, like the heating assistance, had been cut from last year, we advocated to freeze pharmacare fees, to ban child-care wait lists, to cut the HST on groceries, to implement a seniors income supplement,” Chender said.

‘We did not see what we think are really the (top) issues that Nova Scotians are coming to us about, which is affordability, the ability to make it from month to month. We didn’t see that addressed in this chamber and it’s really disappointing.’

Claudia Chender, NDP leader

“We didn’t see action on any of those,” she said. “Not to mention the challenges people are facing with housing and homelessness, we still don’t understand where people are going to sleep when the snow falls, not everyone, so we leave disappointed that we did not see what we think are really the (top) issues that Nova Scotians are coming to us about, which is affordability, the ability to make it from month to month. We didn’t see that addressed in this chamber and it’s really disappointing.”

The session ended Thursday night with Lt.-Gov. Arthur LeBlanc giving royal assent to 17 bills, including the controversial Municipal Reform Act and the Halifax Regional Municipality housing bill.

Premier Tim Houston then moved for adjournment, which received unanimous approval at 9:55 p.m.

Earlier in the day, the session finale regressed into finger-pointing, from the opposition accusing the government of trying to push an agenda through and get out of the House as quickly as possible, to the premier charging the opposition with filibustering and demanding recorded votes on clause after clause on government bills that were certain to pass under the Progressive Conservative majority.

With recorded votes came ringing House bells to call MLAs for the vote and long days in the House that extended to midnight most evenings at the government’s calling.

‘Highs and lows’

“Sessions have highs and lows, for sure,” Houston said after question period. “Some of the highs for this session right off the top were two historic firsts with Karla and Twila.”

Karla MacFarlane was voted in as the first female Speaker of the House and rookie MLA Twila Grosse of Preston became the province’s first Black female cabinet minister.

“Those were high points and important legislation worked its way through the House but there is no question that I think every member has been frustrated at times with how things were proceeding or not proceeding,” Houston said. “I think it is time to sit down and look for ways to make it more effective for Nova Scotians.”

Houston said his party would have to work with the Liberals and the NDP to change some procedural rules, to look at how things operate in other jurisdictions.

“The NDP leader has talked about a calendar of sitting days and certainly in-session, the bell-ringing for an hour on every single clause, ringing the bells for an hour and then supporting the clause and the bill, didn’t seem to serve Nova Scotians that well,” Houston said, pointing the finger at the Liberal caucus.

Houston said other jurisdictions limit how many times and for how long that tactic can be used so that there “can still be an effective opposition but in a commonsense way.”

The premier said the extended hours were necessary because there was a legislative agenda to complete and the hours were needed “to get through the work on behalf of the people” in the wake of obvious dilatory motions and hoist motions right out of the gate.

“We did what we thought was necessary but it’s time for everyone to have a look at how this operates.”

Changing House rules or procedures would require a super majority or more than the simple 50 per cent plus one vote required to normally pass a bill.

Accountability

Churchill said his party is amenable to talking about procedural changes “but I’m worried that the premier’s intention is to limit the opposition’s ability to hold them accountable and to ask tough questions.”

“We had a premier who came in here with controversial legislation and tried to ram it through in seven days,” Churchill said. “He called hours until 12 o’clock every night to try to shake the opposition off.”

Churchill was reminded that the previous Liberal government, under the leadership of former premier Stephen McNeil, conducted itself in the House in the same way.

“Better governance for Nova Scotia, better outcomes from legislative debate,” Churchill said of the advantage for the majority PC government to promote procedural change.

“It’s in everybody’s interest and I do think that the government should not be able to extend hours into 12 o’clock for arbitrary reasons,” he said. “If there is an emergency, if there is a special circumstance, sure, but in this case the premier did that just to ram legislation through at nighttime when Nova Scotians are sleeping and when many members of the press are unable to be here. He blamed us for being here at 12 o’clock when he called the hours.”

Calendar needed

Chender said a legislative calendar is needed, legislation for which the NDP has had on the order paper for almost seven years.

“We need to do what every other province in this country does, we need to know when we are required at work and have some reasonable expectation that when we are at work we’ll get things done and we will be then able to go home,” Chender said.

“The premier has made a lot of the filibuster and yet this was a four-week session,” she said. “Most legislatures will sit for six or eight weeks twice a year. The reality is that it is not just the legislative calendar, it’s the way in which the public can have input on bills.”

Chender said a majority government is always going to move its agenda through the House, and “they can choose to do that in a way that creates a positive work environment, good legislating or they can choose a way that creates an extraordinarily toxic environment here.”

Chender said the PC government “certainly chose the latter this session,” but there are structural changes that can happen to enable the positive work environment.

Kim Masland, the government House leader, said the lengthy bell-ringing is a waste of time in the legislature.

Masland said the solution “is everyone in that House working together and that’s not happening right now.”

What’s needed is for the three House leaders to sit down and look at a jurisdictional scan of how things work in other legislatures across the province, Masland said.

“It takes the House leaders coming together, caucuses coming together and talking about how to make the time in the people’s House more effective and more efficient.”

Masland said structural change by the spring House session is unlikely but said her frustration with current House procedures has prompted her to look into the issue after the House rises on the fall session.