Premier Tim Houston and members of his Nova Scotia government cabinet have not made themselves available as a group to the legislature’s press gallery for more than five weeks, and it will be another week still before they return to a convention governments for decades before them followed.
Historically, cabinets have met weekly on Thursdays and every other week during summer months. At the conclusion of those meetings, the premier and ministers appear before press gallery reporters to take questions on any topic. Outside of that setting, the premier and ministers are available only at their discretion.
Availability started to become less consistent during the tenure of former Liberal premier Stephen McNeil, and the COVID-19 pandemic further complicated things for a time when access moved to moderated sessions through a video conferencing platform.
But Houston’s government has shown less interest in returning to the traditional availability and there have been several long stretches during his tenure without post-cabinet meeting access.
According to the premier’s press secretary, regular availability will resume Sept. 18, the week before MLAs are scheduled to return to the legislature. That means seven weeks will have passed before Houston and his cabinet face the scrutiny of the press gallery, the group of reporters whose job it is to cover government business.
“The premier has participated in media briefings for the wildfires as well as available to local media while traveling the province,” Catherine Klimek said in a statement.
“The summer months see cabinet members spending more time in their constituencies and speaking directly with Nova Scotians, and as a result, fewer formal cabinet meetings.”
Klimek said cabinet members have had “ad hoc meetings, where schedules allow,” in the last six weeks “to ensure government programs, services and investments continue uninterrupted.”
But NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it seems like the premier and his ministers are more interested in communicating with people on their own terms, as opposed to facing the people who cover their dealings on a regular basis.
“This government is very good at putting out shiny videos and press releases,” she said in an interview.
“It happens all the time. But we need to be able to ask questions.”
Chender said the access to information system is sometimes required if people want a complete picture of what’s happening with government programs. She pointed to information her party recently received showing the waitlist for public housing in the province grew by 1,200 people from last October to this past June.
“These aren’t things that had press releases or shiny videos. They’re things that we had to dig and ask about. That’s what the media does, that’s what we do.”
She noted that during the last session at Province House, Houston tried to undo years of convention by having his office control reporters’ access to cabinet ministers and the premier. The government eventually relented.
Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette, a member of former Liberal government cabinets, said he’s never seen such a long stretch without a post-cabinet meeting availability.
Mombourquette said the situation brings to mind a fundraising letter the Progressive Conservatives issued to supporters earlier this year in which cabinet minister and Cole Harbour MLA Leah Martin said the party needed donations to help on a number of fronts, including bypassing the media.
“I hope that this is not a continuation of that philosophy that the government wanted to push then,” Mombourquette said in an interview.
“It’s unacceptable that it’s been this long.”
