NS, under Premier Tim Houston, is trying to enact measures such as: - Limiting media access to elected leaders. - Giving the government the power to fire civil servants without cause.
- Making it harder to find out what the government is up to via access to information requests.
- Making it impossible to propose amendments at a government committee formerly called Law Amendments.
- Lifting bans on fracking and uranium mining (without consulting the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs), protections adopted after consultation and engagement with Nova Scotians and backed by health and economic research.
- Giving the government the power to appoint 50% of the Board of Governors of Nova Scotia universities and requiring universities to align their funding priorities with that of the government: a threat to the independence of academic institutions in the province.
The interview also comes after moves to enable the government to fire the Auditor General without cause and to hide the Auditor’s findings from the public were yanked recently.
It’s the same approach we are seeing in the U.S. itself to centralizing power and is reminiscent of the approach of the Government in Alberta as well.
But resistance to this approach by the provincial government is strong. Over 500 people subsequently joined a rally for democracy, organized by various groups from labour organizations and unions to environmental groups including Sierra Club Canada, that was held in Halifax to push back.
Conor talks with Ken Summers & Gretchen Fitzgerald.
There is also still time to tell the Nova Scotia Provincial Government to keep the bans on fracking & uranium. You can send your short letter with what you want (i.e. Drop Bill 6 - keep the bans on fracking and uranium) and why to: legc.office@novascotia.ca
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