Making It Happen for Nova Scotia, Eh?

 

Dear Premier Houston - hard copy mailed today Feb 26, 2026

While I cannot forget the curious axing of the Coastal Protection Plan, recent announcements raise concerns.  I do not believe that removing bridge tolls will reduce congestion. Unless we have a Secret Santa, much bridge maintenance will now be paid by taxpayers. No matter what new structures have been set up, discarding over $30 million in annual revenue will require our robbing Peter to give Paul his free ride.  In 2022, CBC reported "Province provides Halifax Harbour Bridges financing for maintenance - $155M loan will be repaid using tolls from MacDonald and MacKay bridges.” This poses an interesting question. The answer, Paul: The province has now added $300 million to the provincial deficit to cover this. Your children can pay for your free ride. If reducing congestion was the goal, wouldn’t it have made more sense to work with the municipality to reduce fares and improve public transit to encourage people to choose an alternative to the bridges.

Past photo ops and secret meetings with the Everwind "lobbyist" and Trump supporter, Trent Vichie, do not inspire confidence.  Why would we think it a good idea to build NS wind power to make ammonia to sell to Germany to make money for your friends, when it should be going to the NS power grid for more self-sufficiency?  Instead, you plan to remove the ban on fracking. I have natural gas but would switch rather than see us go that route. Our solar panels work well and we will get a heat pump. An article from the February issue of Harper's Magazine uncovers the byzantine joys we can anticipate from more fossil fuel and fracking  Searching for my publisher’s radioactive oil waste  by Justin Nobel. 
Our province does not yet have a credible record on requiring companies to clean up after themselves.

Confidence has been further eroded by the transfer of the formerly independent Communications Nova Scotia to your direct control. This emits a slight whiff of Eau de Kremlin and Oval Office. What happened to the promised transparency, so quickly abandoned?  Then came ending the175-year practice of ministers scrumming with reporters outside the legislative chamber. These moves convey the impression that there are things to hide. As opacity increases, it is perfectly natural for suspicion to do likewise. A fundraising letter from PC MLA Leah Martin revealing this chirpy pitch to party members confirmed this:

Will you pitch in here right now to help us withstand NDP attacks, overpower the special interests and professional protestors, bypass the media when we need to, and stay on track with our plan to Make It Happen for Nova Scotia?

It certainly appears that 1) there are things going on that you don’t want us to know about, and
2)  there is no respect for the checks and balances of opposition and free press that are essential to good government.. Unlike the Trent Vichies of the world, I do not have any special interests. My protests are not "professional," simply those of a citizen concerned about exactly how you are planning to “Make it Happen for Nova Scotia”, and how that will serve the common good.