Porter says the NDP have lost touch with reality

March 30, 2012

WINDSOR, NS  The NDP government has grown so out of touch with the reality for families in Nova Scotia that they consider taking $743 in higher HST from every person to be making life more affordable.

The Throne Speech does nothing to make life more affordable for families in Hants County, said Hants West MLA Chuck Porter. The NDP are telling Nova Scotians that they are putting money back in their pockets when, in fact, they have taken $743 from each of us in higher HST. Thats almost $3,000 for the average family.

Porter says they arent investing in our kids and our schools, or our hospitals. Instead they are cutting classroom positions and front-line health care workers, hurting students and growing wait lists.

Nova Scotians want to know their government is standing up for them, to make life more affordable, but they arent getting that from the NDP, said Porter. We pay the highest taxes and the second highest power rates in the country. Nothing about that makes life more affordable for families.

Porter says the biggest contrast between what the NDP is doing in Nova Scotia and what other provinces, like Ontario and New Brunswick are doing, is that those provinces have looked for savings on the spending side without asking people to pay higher taxes.

Other highlights:

1. The NDP celebrated Michelins contribution to jobs and the economy, even though according to Michelin, the NDP damaged Nova Scotias chances of future investment because of the First Contract Arbitration law.

2. The NDP talked about securing a 35-year price for hydroelectricity, but they have no idea what that price is because they have not done a cost-benefit analysis on our provinces role in the Lower Churchill project.

3. The NDP promised more access to care for seniors, but have not announced a single new nursing home bed since being elected. The waitlist has grown to the highest levels in years. The wait for nursing home bed in Cape Breton is over 400 days.

4. The NDP named three gamechangers as reasons to be hopeful for the future: the shipbuilding contract, the Lower Churchill project and the Shell Oil investment.

The speech says opportunities like these rarely just drops into our laps. It must be pursued, planned for and seized.

In the case of these projects, they did indeed fall into the NDPs lap.

a) The shipbuilding contract began as the federal governments merit-based shipbuilding procurement strategy (NSPS) and was won fairly by Irving Shipbuilding.

b) Interest in Nova Scotias participation in the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project began with a Memorandum of Understanding in 2008.

c) The Shell Oil commitment was secured thanks in great part to funding set aside after the 2007 Crown Share deal to begin detailed research into potential offshore sites. The funding was opposed by the then opposition NDP.

5. The NDP repeated their goal to get the province back to balance, which is where they found it. The fiscal year ended March 31, 2009 was in surplus.