N.S. Progressive Conservatives project Year 1 election promises at $553 million
Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservatives released their election platform Thursday, projecting $553 million in new spending during their first year in office to fulfil campaign promises, mostly for the health-care sector.
The new spending would increase this year's estimated provincial deficit of $584 million but the bulk of the added cost would appear in the 2022-23 budget, Leader Tim Houston told reporters during a campaign stop.
The chartered accountant added that his party would run deficits the following five years to pay for improving the health system.
"No one cuts their way out of an economic downturn," Houston said. "A failure to make the right investments could severely damage our health-care system and our economy."
The party's 130-page costed platform budgets $430 million in new spending for the health-care sector, including a pension plan for doctors, the extension of operating room hours on weekdays and 2,500 more long-term care beds.
Another $140 million would be spent his first year on a program allowing companies to pay lower taxes if they put the money toward workers' salaries, the Tory leader said.
The Progressive Conservatives say the cost of their promises will be partially offset by two new taxes on out-of-province property owners -- a deed-transfer tax and an absentee-owners tax -- which they say will bring in close to $149 million annually.
The leader said he is firmly committed to the promises, adding that political leaders who do not provide fully costed platforms erode the public's trust in the political system. Houston cited the Liberals' promise in the last campaign to ensure a family doctor for every Nova Scotian. Instead, he said, there are tens of thousands of citizens searching for a doctor.
"Nova Scotians are right to be cynical -- I don't blame them; I'm sick of it too," Houston said. "This platform we're talking about today is my word."
The NDP has been critical of the Tory pledge to allow companies to pay lower corporate taxes in return for increasing wages, having said it amounts to a tax cut for big business.
But Houston says the NDP's criticism is a false portrayal of the program because the companies would not be saving any money; rather, he says, companies would be redirecting some of the tax dollars directly to employees.
The Tories' pension plan for doctors would exempt contributions from new doctors during the first five years they practice. Doctors with five to 15 years' experience would contribute $10,000 annually -- which would be matched by the province -- and those who have worked 15 years or more would contribute $15,000. The pension plan would cost the province about $6 million a year.
Houston's party says higher salaries for doctors to aid recruitment and retention will cost about $56 million.
The Tories are also promising about $52 million in new spending on a variety of education programs, including restoring school boards that the Liberals abolished.
Houston's platform includes fertilization funding for couples struggling to conceive, a $500 tax credit for kids in sports, and a buy local program. The platform also increases the budgets for roads, including rural, gravel roads, by $44 million.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.