Nova Scotia legislature slowly returning to in-person business

Some Nova Scotia legislators will return to Province House next week for the first time since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

The provincial health committee, which has nine members from across all three parties, is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon and hear from three witnesses.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang, and the deputy and associate deputy ministers for the Department of Health and Wellness are slated to appear. The main agenda items are the pandemic response and future preparedness.

Typically, witnesses at committee meetings offer brief remarks, but are primarily there to answer questions from committee members.

The province paused most committee business because of COVID-19, with the exception of the human resources committee, which has met once per month, virtually, from May to August.

NDP call for a change to committee rules

Unlike other legislature committees, the human resources committee has to meet regularly, by law. In a news release on Tuesday, NDP Leader Gary Burrill said his party intends to table legislation during the next sitting to apply a similar mandate to all committees.

"During the last five and a half months the Liberal government has been running the show behind closed doors," he said. "We need legislation in place to make sure that a government can't unilaterally shut down things like the health and public accounts committees."

Burrill said his bill would require committees to meet unless they have unanimous consent from all committee members.

The stoppage of most committee business has been repeatedly criticized by both of Nova Scotia's opposition parties, who have been calling for a chance to question the government directly on its handling of COVID-19.

PC leader Tim Houston said he expects his party's health committee members will have more questions than there will be time to have answered next week, although he said that isn't a new challenge. Committee members are given timed allotments for questions, and responses from witnesses are sometimes cut off mid-sentence to keep things on schedule.

But Houston said he's optimistic the health committee will yield some useful information about long-term care, schools reopening and how the province is preparing for a second wave of the coronavirus.

'Sunshine is the best disinfectant,' says PC leader

He said he's now anxious for other committees to reconvene, and he could get behind the NDP's proposed bill to mandate regular committee meetings.

"I'd be supportive of anything that just allows more light to shine into decisions that are being made by the government, by government," Houston said. "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."

Last September, six committee meetings were held before the House started sitting on Sept. 27. So far, the health committee meeting is the only one on the legislature's official calendar for this month.

House leaders from each of the three parties have been working together to find a way for legislators to return to Province House for a fall sitting, although there is no formal plan and the government hasn't called a start date.