N.S. government finally releases more details on COVID-19 stimulus spending

After several months of refusing to fully detail how almost $230 million in unbudgeted COVID-19 stimulus money was being spent, the Nova Scotia government released more information on Wednesday.

Despite the new details, gaps remain in the accounting.

The department-by-department breakdown came a little more than a week after the three men running to replace Premier Stephen McNeil all said the information should be in the public domain and that they would release it if they were premier.

Information provided by government departments shows the following allocations, totalling $229.7 million:

• Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal: $106,605,000 (123 projects).
• Business: $43,110,000 (nine projects).
• Health: $24,900,000 (number of projects not specified).
• Labour and Advanced Education: $19,400,000 (nine projects).
• Education: $18,479,000 (number of projects not specified).
• Agriculture: $9,394,000 (four projects).
• Community Services: $4,400,000 (four projects).
• Justice: $3,450,000 (three projects).

Although most departments provided the list of projects that make up their respective spending, the Health and Education departments did not.

Instead, the Health Department listed the 37 health-care sites that received money (list is at bottom of this story) — the IWK Health Centre ($7.25 million) and QEII Health Sciences Centre ($4.71 million) being the largest. The department also listed a total of $2.2 million attributed simply to the four health zones and $1.6 million attributed only to "hospital capital repair envelope."  

The Education Department provided a list of 51 schools and three bus garages where work is being done (that list is also at bottom), along with their originally approved budgets. There is also $100,000 attributed to "school capital repairs." In 10 cases, because the tender awards are pending, the value of the projects was not included. No details about the specific work at any site was released.

Where some of the money went

First announced in May, the stimulus program was touted as a way to create jobs during the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.

None of the eight departments included details about what companies were selected to do the work.

The three largest Transportation projects were the Bennery Brook bridge on Highway 102 ($4.9 million), work on the Cabot Trail ($4.75 million) and the Mira Gut bridge ($4 million). A full list of those projects is at bottom of this story. 

Business Department projects included work at the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship ($13.4 million), and the Maersk Wharf and Halifax waterfront boardwalk ($9.3 million).

The Justice Department spending was for work at the provincial courthouses in Halifax, Kentville and Sydney, while the Community Services spending was for the replacement of four small options homes. Labour and Advanced Education spending was on upgrades at nine NSCC campuses.

The Agriculture Department used the majority of its money ($8.24 million) for work at the provincial exhibition grounds in Bible Hill. 

'Big deal'

NDP Leader Gary Burrill wasn't exactly overflowing with praise for the government about its decision to release the information.

"Imagine — big deal — the government has agreed to do their job and to account for their spending in a way that is plain and clear to the public," he said in a telephone interview.

Burrill said the government should have made the list available the first time reporters requested it earlier this year.

After government officials initially said a list would be made public — and, in fact, some details were released in June — McNeil said anyone who wanted to know how all the money was being spent could find out by cross-referencing the government tender website with the various capital plans.

"I don't know how much more transparent I can be," he said last month.

Efforts by reporters at AllNovaScotia.com using the approach the premier suggested produced only a fraction of the projects. The premier's suggestion also did not account for a point made by his own transportation minister, Lloyd Hines, which is that some work was never tendered because it was simply tacked on to projects already in progress.

Despite changing course on Wednesday, McNeil remained dismissive of people unable to find the information without help from the government.

"It was my hope, quite frankly, that I could keep [government department staff] focused on delivering the services that Nova Scotians have expected in the last nine months," he said following a cabinet meeting.

"Unfortunately, those Nova Scotians that are responding to the citizens of this province and working on their behalf everyday had to do your work as well."

Government needs to be open

Burrill said the premier's attitude on the matter "has a resentfulness in its tone that's entirely uncalled for."

"This is what governments are supposed to do, to make spending decisions and then to present those decisions through democratic structures, which include the media, in a way that the public can make sense of them and evaluate them."

Tory Leader Tim Houston said releasing the information is the right decision, although he couldn't understand why the premier initially resisted doing so.

"People are busy with their lives," Houston said in a telephone interview.

"They want to believe that the system is working and the system means that the government is open about where they spent the money."

Houston said he was disappointed the lists do not include details about the companies that did the work or, in some cases, what work was being done.

List of 51 N.S. schools and three bus garages where stimulus money being spent

List of N.S. health-care sites that received stimulus money

List of stimulus projects for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal