Liberals release plan for health care ahead of leaders debate

Welcome toCBC's Election Notebook, your source for regular updatesandessential news from the campaign trail.

It's Day 12 of Nova Scotia's 31-day provincial election campaign.

Liberals release health-care platform

Liberal Leader IainRankin released his party's plans for health care during an event in Halifax on Tuesday.

With the redevelopment of the Halifax Infirmary visible in the background, Rankin reviewed steps the Liberals took before the election was called and outlined some new ideas to improve the system.

That includes $1 million a year for community groups' doctor recruitment efforts and taking overall responsibility for doctor recruitment away from the provincial health authority and moving it into the Health Department. The Liberals are promising $5 million a year for the new recruitment and retention office, which will include a dedicated team focused on the issue.

As the province works to get more doctors,the Liberals will spend $6 million to get virtual health-care access to all people on the wait-list for a family doctor, which right now is almost70,000people. The Liberals would increasethe number of training seats for nurse practitioners and expand the midwifery program to new communities, including Cape Breton and the Annapolis Valley.

On mental health, the Liberals are promising $4 million a year to create eight new mental health walk-in clinics near regional hospitals, and they would spend $200,000 a year on a new mobile outreach street nurse program for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

The Liberals also pointed to previous announcements that include more training seats for licensed practical nurses, increased funding for home-care services, 500 new long-term care beds and renovation work at 24long-term care homes.

Overall, the Liberal platformpromises$131.6million over four yearsinnew spending on top of the additional $510 million in spending thatwas announced in the spring budget. While the Liberals' spending commitments aren't as high as what the Tories have previously promised, Rankin told reporters the public shouldn't be judging the parties' plans based only on how much they're willing to spend.

"Our spending is targeted and effective," he said. "I think it's about finding the right programs."

Tories talk chronic illness, NDP climate change

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston continued to extolthe virtues of his party's plan to improve health care in Nova Scotia.

On Tuesday he told reporters a PC government would invest $12 millionmore for an in-home support program for people who are living with a chronic illness, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

"Under our plan, it means experts coming to the patient into their homes to enhance their care so they can prevent their diabetes or other illness from getting so bad that they need to sit in an [emergency department]for hours, or too often so bad that they ultimately end up hospitalized," Houston said duringhis daily briefing.

Houston said the new service would be an expansion of the existing "Inspired Program" that helpspeople who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

Inspired is currently run out of six hospitals across the province.

"In Nova Scotia, we've been reluctant to recognize the importance of this program and make the significant investments in it, but I love this program," said Houston.

"I've spoken to patients,I've spoken to nurses who visit homes,I've seen the positive impact of it. This program will see significant expansion under a PC government."

NDP Leader Gary Burrill talked about his party's plan to address climate change.

Burrill said an NDP government would set a new target for greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. The more stringent GHG reduction targets than what's currently on the books would amount to pulling about 240,000 cars off the road and is what would be required for Nova Scotia to do its part to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees by 2030, said Burrill.

"We mean that as an absolutely hard cap and everything has to be adjusted in order to meet it because we understand that we are, in fact, talking about an emergency, which is germane to all our lives."

Burrill was joined by three high school students who participated in the climate strike of 2019 that saw thousands of people descend on downtown Halifax calling for government action.

While she isn't old enough to vote in this election, Chloe Wentzell said she's stressing the importance of action on climate change to everyone she knows who can cast a ballot.

"I remind them that, you know, now is important, but the future of our planet is so important and that it is so important to look for climate justice, to look for someone who really wants to, you know, help Nova Scotia become as renewable and as clean as possible," she said.

Burrill said his party would work to have 90 per cent of the province's electricity produced by renewable sources by 2030; that's higher than the 80 per cent target the Liberals and Tories are advancing. Burrill said the change can be made while also being mindful of energy costs for people.

"These are not two mutually exclusive alternatives; we can eliminate energy poverty while we get ourselves into a sustainable position about energy production in the province."

The party is also pledging to study whether the use of biomass actually qualifies as a renewable energy source.

CBC to host leaders debate

Today is likely to be a light day for appearances for the three main party leaders as they prepare for a debate this evening.

CBC Nova Scotia will host a debate, moderated by Amy Smith and Tom Murphy, from 6-7:30 p.m. AT.

The 90-minute event will be carried live on CBC TV, radio and online on CBC Nova Scotia's website, Facebook and YouTube pages, and the CBC Gem app. The debate will be broken into five sections: health care; the economy; diversity and inclusion; the environment; and virtual questions submitted by audience members.

How to vote

Check whether you are registered to vote with Elections Nova Scotia.

Once registered, you can vote in advance of election day by requesting a mail-in ballot or by visiting a returning office or advance polling station.

On election day, polling stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. AT.

More information on voting is available from electionsnovascotia.ca.

• Read more election coverage

MORE TOP STORIES