Political speak -
The Nova Scotia Legislature rose on May 12, having left much work undone.
Today, our province is the only one in Canada not to announce it will cover the drug Lucentis to combat wet age-related macular degeneration. Despite valient attempts by the Official Opposition, the CNIB and the Canadian Council of the Blind to change the government's position, the government refused to budge - even though the NDP championed Lucentis while in opposition.
The government claims it does not have money to fund Lucentis, but it has found money to stage expensive photo ops, buy land, and pay for the premier's extensive travel. This decision is about priorities, and it's clear that elderly citizens who are going blind are not the priority of the government.
Our seniors were also the target when the government decided to try to balance its books on the backs of retired civil servants by limiting their pension increases. Most of these civil servants are just scraping by - in fact, their average pension is only $17,000 per annum - and I heard from many widowed pensioners who are devastated by the way the government and their union leadership worked together to take this money from them.
One woman wrote to me that: "How does a social democratic party betray retirees by changing the regulations they have been hired under and retired under?... While this may not be illegal it borders on unethical and leaves one to cast aspersions upon the ultimate goals of the present government."
Dave Peters, former President of the NSGEU said, "Never, ever, in all my years have I witnessed such cloak-and-dagger behaviour to slip through such devastating changes to any pension plan... The arrogant, dictatorial approach to taking away the pension-indexing promise is unbelievable and certainly unacceptable... It came as quite a shock."
That's probably the way the folks in Yarmouth feel after the government unilaterally cancelled ferry service to Yarmouth - a decision that willimpact on tourism throughout the province. This precipitate decision exposed the government to a $3 million dollar cancellation fee and was not accompanied by anything even remotely resembling a plan to ameliorate the effects of the CAT cancellation.
I do want to give credit where it's due - the government did bring in some measures this spring to help those on limited incomes, like the Poverty
Reduction Credit. But those same people will be impacted disproportionately by the 2 percent increase in the HST come July 1. And remember: in less than a year, this government has increased the debt by more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.
Nova Scotians were led to expect a lot of this government. No one can blame them for being disappointed.
Kelly Regan is the MLA for Bedford - Birch Cove
