N.S. Liberal Leader Zach Churchill speaks on party’s platform

Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Zach Churchill says his party has created a platform that can transform the lives of people in the province.

“We have a really solid platform that we put a lot of work into, and I think it can be transformative for people’s lives in this province by saving them $3,000 in taxes a year for the average household, bringing in free public transit and expanding that service,” said Churchill in an interview with CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Monday.

“Really tackling the housing crisis by building more homes and deeply affordable homes and getting back to some of the fundamentals in our health-care system.”

The Liberals also pledged in their platform to remove all HST on goods purchased in grocery stores and reduce income taxes by raising the personal exemption amount to $15,750, which they say will save $1,270 per year.

“It’s middle-income earners that are struggling right now,” said Churchill.

“By cutting the HST by two points, by reducing their income tax and taking the rest of HST off groceries, this can save the average household $3,000 a year. That’s real money for two kids in hockey. That’s a year worth of telephone bills and internet bills. That’s the family vacation folks will be able to afford to go on,” said Churchill.

Housing

The Liberals are also promising to build 80,000 homes by 2032, if elected.

“It’s 11,000 a year, and we have to hit those or we are going to have a housing crisis continue,” Churchill said.

“We are going to tackle that by allowing pre-fabricated homes, tilt-up homes, modular homes. Utilizing the new type of buildings out there right now to help build these homes more quickly. On the skills trade front, less than nine per cent of our skill trade workers are women. We want to diversify that workforce, and you will see in our platform were committed to getting more woman into the skill trades.”

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Churchill added that protecting renters is also important.

“We got the most robust protection for renters in our platform as well that will go a long way to keep people in their homes during a very challenging housing market,” he said.

Churchill said immigrants' chances at success are threatened in a province that is without adequate housing infrastructure.

“I’m from a family of immigrants – third generation Lebanese. Immigrants built this province, but it is the amount of people right now that is creating issues on our streets with congestion here in Halifax, in our housing market where there is less than zero or less than one per cent vacancy, in our hospitals that are overcrowded and our schools that are overcrowded. So we just have to grow in a sustainable way that is smart,” he said.

Health care

Churchill says, if elected, the Liberals will build and expand 40 collaborative care clinics across the province.

“I worry that Mr. Houston has given up on the family practice model and that is creating issues, not just in our hospitals and our emergency rooms, but in people’s health,” he said.

“People aren’t able to get diagnosed with cancers, I’m hearing from doctors. We need to get back to those fundamentals in health care where we attach patients to family doctors and also focus a lot more on early diagnosing those illnesses that we know are high rates here in Nova Scotia.”

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