{"id":28401,"date":"2020-12-17T20:40:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T01:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=28401"},"modified":"2020-12-17T20:40:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T01:40:33","slug":"premier-argues-opposition-forcing-him-to-break-covid-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/premier-argues-opposition-forcing-him-to-break-covid-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier argues opposition forcing him to break COVID restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nova Scotia\u2019s premier is making his last appearance in the legislature, and he\u2019s none too happy about it.<\/p>\n

Premier Stephen McNeil has asked the leaders of the Progressive Conservatives and New Democratic Parties to sit in a virtual session Friday to avoid meeting in a large group during COVID.<\/p>\n

McNeil has previously announced he will prorogue the legislature at that sitting. The formality will close the fall session without any legislation being introduced, debated or passed.<\/p>\n

The premier expressed his frustration with the other two parties at a press conference following Thursday\u2019s cabinet meeting, accusing them of forcing government to meet in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m going to have to tell people that I have to ignore the public health protocols because the two opposition people think they\u2019re equivalent to health care workers, they\u2019re equivalent to teachers, they\u2019re equivalent to people who have been working their tails off to keep us safe when the very job they do could have easily happened virtually. They have no role tomorrow. The Lieutenant Governor is proroguing it,\u201d said McNeil.<\/p>\n

The premier was referring to a letter sent by the NDP, which stated, \u201cAcross the province, teachers, nurses, health care workers, public servants, grocery store workers, and others have been going to their workplaces, and we see no reason why MLAs could not be present in the legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with reduced numbers representing all parties, McNeil objects to an in-person sitting of the legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very thing I\u2019m asking you to do over the holidays to keep our province safe, by keeping your gatherings at ten, I\u2019m being forced by the opposition to cross the street with more than 15 people. I want you to think about that the next time you go to the polls,\u201d said McNeil. \u201cAll the sacrifice you\u2019ve made over the last ten months, all we ask from our elected officials is join you, to be a little courageous, to do things a bit different. But instead they put their own self-interest ahead of yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Gary Burrill said his party isn\u2019t forcing the government to do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo mischaracterize it as though we were forcing the government to do something that is unsafe, this is entirely a misreading of what we have said, at such a level that, in my judgment, it is manipulative and insincere and untruthful,\u201d said Burrill.<\/p>\n

\"NDP

NDP Leader Gary Burrill. Zoom screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n

PC Leader Tim Houston said no one is asking to violate health orders. It\u2019s clear to him the premier is trying to politicize this final sitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s happening here,\u201d said Houston, \u201cis the premier is lashing out because he\u2019s embarrassed by his own mismanagement of the whole file.\u201d<\/p>\n

By law, the legislature needs to sit twice a year. An early spring session allowed the governing Liberals to pass a budget before the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic set in. But the legislature hasn\u2019t met since then.<\/p>\n

House leaders from all three parties have been working since August to find a way to safely return to the legislature.<\/p>\n

\"PC

PC Leader Tim Houston. Zoom screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n

Houston said his party found out late Tuesday evening McNeil wanted to sit virtually Friday and they began to plan accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we find out the premier didn\u2019t really have that plan organized, he hadn\u2019t prepared for that, he hadn\u2019t done the work necessary that should\u2019ve been done over the past couple of months.,\u201d said Houston. \u201cAnd now, if we listen to him, we can\u2019t sit virtually, we don\u2019t know, we\u2019re still waiting for directions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston said he was going to contact the province\u2019s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang for his recommendation on how many people could be safely present in the legislature.<\/p>\n

At dinnertime Thursday Strang responded to the PC leader that he had already given the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s office direction, and that under the current restrictions in the Public Health Order there can be no more than 5 people together in the legislature chamber.<\/p>\n

Strang added, because all Nova Scotians are asked to avoid non-essential travel in and out of Halifax until December 21, MLAs should attend the sitting virtually.<\/p>\n

Premier McNeil said an archaic rule of law would compel the legislature to meet in person to pass a motion to allow them to meet virtually.<\/p>\n

Whether or not select members of all parties will be present at Friday\u2019s sitting, just like the rest of 2020, the final legislative session for McNeil will be memorable.<\/p>\n

Reported by Ed Halverson\u00a0<\/strong>
\nE-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nova Scotia\u2019s premier is making his last appearance in the legislature, and he\u2019s none too happy about it. Premier Stephen McNeil has asked the leaders of the Progressive Conservatives and New Democratic Parties to sit in a virtual session Friday to avoid meeting in a large group during COVID. McNeil has previously announced he will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":14995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[218,225],"tags":[284,458,566,4328,459,4329,567],"radio":[250],"origine":[274,279,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28401"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=28401"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=28401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}