September 8, 2015 - 08:22 — Timothy Gillespie
NOVA SCOTIA LIBERAL PREMIER STEPHEN MCNEL
Rural internet service to wait until 2017 for discussion?
In his Sept 7 Howe Room column, ace Chronicle Herald legislative reporter (and former Vanguard reporter) Michael Gorman described how the Liberal majority on the Standing Committee for Economic Development used their majority to stifle opposition topics that could be thorny - "playing fast and loose with committee business". This time, he writes, "to a whole new level."
In his Sept 7 Howe Room column, ace Chronicle Herald legislative reporter (and former Vanguard reporter) Michael Gorman described how the Liberal majority on the Standing Committee for Economic Development used their majority to stifle opposition topics that could be thorny - "playing fast and loose with committee business". This time, he writes, "to a whole new level."
The Grits passed a motion that up to the next 11 meetings would be about ocean technology. This means that the Tories’ proposed topic of rural Internet service and the NDP topic of Nova Scotia Business Inc. and its handling of the film industry will be discussed sometime in 2016 or 2017.
Opposition members, according to Gorman, have already seen the Liberal majority on the human resources committee block attempts to conduct meetings on mental health resources and hub schools.
The Liberals are blatantly ignoring past committee practices where meeting topics would alternate between suggestions from each of the three caucuses, say the opposition MLAs.
"It is unfortunate," Gorman opines, "that some of their more senior colleagues seem to have so quickly forgotten what it’s like to sit in opposition and fail to recognize that while some subjects may create headaches for government, they are also important topics to the people for whom all members of the legislature are supposed to work."
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