QP - Cost Essential
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Speaker, over the summer we heard from Nova Scotians across this province who are worried about the rising costs of essentials. Since this government was elected, the average family is paying around $400 more per year on their power bills. This government should be helping to lower bills, not standing by as they soar.
Will the Premier support our plan to lower people's bills by 10 percent?
THE PREMIER « » : Our government understands the challenges that people are facing, the stress that people are feeling. We spent our first term fighting against a carbon tax that would have made life more expensive and did make life more expensive. All the while, while we were fighting against that, the NDP was supporting it and encouraging the carbon tax and more pressure on families.
We understand the pressures that families are feeling. We're taking the steps that we can to support families in sustainable, meaningful ways, and we'll continue to do that to support Nova Scotian families.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Thousands of Nova Scotians had their social insurance numbers and other data stolen from Nova Scotia Power this summer, data that the company should not have had and certainly should not have kept. New Democrats are calling for lower barriers to legal recourse against that company so that they can't hold that person information. We want to let people request credit freezes without hurting their credit scores and to change regulations on data retention periods. Will the Premier support our proposal to protect people's private information?
THE PREMIER « » : There is an incredible amount of work happening to protect Nova Scotians from cyber breaches, which we see becoming more and more common, for sure. We've spent a lot of time talking to the financial services industry, talking to the credit protection agencies to make sure that we get to a spot where we can do absolutely everything we can to protect Nova Scotians - of course, that's our motivation - but do that in a way that doesn't create more chaos in the lending industry and have an unintended negative consequence.
We're looking at these things. We're talking. We're actively engaged in making sure we do what's possible to support Nova Scotians. We will continue to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work Nova Scotians deserve.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : While the Premier is concerned about lending agencies, we are concerned about Nova Scotians whose SIN numbers are flying in the wind, and this government, so far, has done nothing about it. This is why we are asking this government to protect consumers' information. They can protect consumers' information and their wallets, but they seem to be choosing not to.
A New Democratic government lowered bills before. This government has no excuse not to act now. Nova Scotia Power was privatized by a PC government, which sold it for less than it was worth, with no cost-benefit analysis. More recent interventions by this government have resulted in higher costs for Nova Scotians. This government can choose to put partisan politics aside, protect Nova Scotians' privacy, and lower their bills. Will the Premier take action? Yes or no?
THE PREMIER « » : The member will probably know that there's a bill before the House to protect social insurance numbers. That's really important to our government. We're taking the steps that are necessary. But every time we take steps, the NDP tries to block it.
We put a solution forward: $500 million in lower taxes for Nova Scotians. Guess what? The NDP voted against that. They think that instead, a roughly $150 million one-time saving is more significant than a $500 million saving, year after year. That's NDP math for you. Right here, we're interested in protecting Nova Scotians. We're not interested in fake math or political sound bites. We'll do what we can for that.