DON MILLS: A new era in Atlantic Canadian politics

During the last 50 years, there was an ebb and move between which political events maintain energy in Atlantic Canada.

Apart from the one-time authorities of Darrell Dexter’s NDP in Nova Scotia, energy has moved forwards and backwards throughout the 4 Atlantic provinces between the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals. Solely 4 years in the past, the Liberals held energy in every of the provinces. Right now, all however Newfoundland and Labrador are ruled by the PCs.

David Campbell and I had the chance not too long ago to have an in depth dialog with every of the Atlantic premiers for our podcast. We got here away feeling inspired and extra optimistic about the way forward for our area.

Bases of optimism

Regardless of the variations in get together affiliation, what was maybe most reassuring from the premiers was their widespread method to points dealing with their provinces, the clear understanding of the challenges they face and the alternatives that current themselves.

It’s price noting that none of the present premiers had been in workplace 4 years in the past and two, Tim Houston in Nova Scotia and Andrew Furey in Newfoundland and Labrador, have been in workplace lower than two years.

What is maybe most attention-grabbing is that none are lifetime politicians, every working for the management of their events with out beforehand holding workplace.

Furey does come from a political household. His father is Speaker within the Canadian senate.

Moreover, their backgrounds, apart from Furey, who’s an orthopedic surgeon, are all within the non-public sector.

Frequent priorities

In dialog with them, it was clear they shared some widespread priorities regardless of get together variations. Maybe extra importantly, the premiers agreed that demographic and inhabitants progress was a excessive precedence.

Furey was particularly clear on this given his province’s getting old and stagnant inhabitants. Certainly, his authorities has established a inhabitants progress technique of 5,000 yearly by 2026. The earlier authorities had a goal of 1,700, which was insufficient to make sure a alternative workforce.

Dennis King of Prince Edward Island credited his predecessor, Wade McLaughlin, for recognizing and beginning the inhabitants progress technique for the Island. It’s uncommon for any politician to provide credit score to a different politician, significantly one from one other get together. This attribute distinguishes King, who campaigned and received on a promise to be extra collaborative and has acted on that promise since being elected.

Houston has continued the inhabitants progress technique of his predecessor, Stephen McNeil of the Liberals, and has mused about growing the inhabitants to 2 million by 2060 however he acknowledges that fast progress in inhabitants has careworn the housing market, particularly in Halifax.

In New Brunswick, Premier Blaine Higgs has mounted an aggressive inhabitants technique with a long-term objective of rising the inhabitants to at least one million.

The three Maritime premiers acknowledged that inhabitants progress, significantly of their largest centres, was placing pressures on the affordability and availability of housing. One other problem dealing with all 4 is the uneven nature of inhabitants progress, particularly when it comes to attracting immigrants.

Based mostly on our conversations, there’s not but any clear technique by any of the premiers to handle the challenges of inhabitants progress outdoors main city communities.

One other precedence that was clear was associated to the necessity to handle the supply of major well being care. All of the premiers endorse a extra collaborative model, recognizing that the previous mannequin of everybody having their very own physician is now not potential and that the brand new technology of household medical doctors desire to have extra life stability and observe in a gaggle setting.

The longer term will more and more be focussed on entry to major care professionals that would come with elevated use of nurse practitioners and be mixed with psychological well being professionals reasonably than entry to a person household physician. There’s additionally a consensus that telehealth is right here to remain, due to the pandemic.

All Atlantic premiers have supplied extra assets to rebuild their hospitality and tourism sectors, and all additionally acknowledge the educational hole created by the pandemic however none have a plan to handle this.

Areas of distinction

Every premier seems to have a transparent understanding of the financial alternatives that exist of their provinces, however clearly these financial alternatives are very totally different.

King want to duplicate the success of the Island’s bio-sciences sector by focussing on tech. In Newfoundland, Furey makes the case for diversification of the financial system away from its dependence on oil and fuel (at the moment 25 per cent of its gross home product, whereas profiting from its location and oil assets to assist break the dependence of Russian oil in EU international locations.

There are main variations among the many provinces when it comes to their fiscal conditions, with New Brunswick surprisingly anticipating a balanced price range for the approaching yr whereas Newfoundland and Labrador continues to wrestle with large deficits and debt. In the meantime, P.E.I. continues to guide the area in financial progress.

In New Brunswick, Higgs, who has usually been questioned on his help of bilingualism, supplied a sensible answer to reinforcing the province’s official language standing by indicating that the college system should do a greater job producing bilingual college students.

In Nova Scotia, Houston’s plan to reform well being care stays a piece in progress, however his authorities is enterprise a overview of all Crown firms answerable for financial growth, one thing different Atlantic premiers ought to emulate.

Alternatives for co-operation

The pandemic might have confirmed the worth of regional co-operation and it seems there’s a renewed want for extra. One near-term alternative is the proposal for a regional fairness tax credit score to extend the provision of enterprise capital for early stage startup firms. The premiers have expressed curiosity.

This could be a superb likelihood to show their want for regional co-operation. Within the meantime, we are able to take some consolation that each one 4 premiers seem like focussed on the fitting priorities.

Don Mills is the previous CEO and proprietor of Company Analysis Associates Inc. (now Narrative Analysis), an energetic entrepreneur and an advocate for change in Atlantic Canada.