Candidates hit ground running on first full day of election campaign
Posted May 1, 2017 05:49:14 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Election campaigns are in full swing just one day after the provincial election was called. Both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives focused on infrastructure today.
Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil is pledging an extra $240 million over four years in infrastructure spending, with the money going towards schools, main streets and gravel road improvements.
And while campaigning at an insulation manufacturing plant in Dartmouth Monday, Tory Leader Jamie Baillie promised a $2-billion Rebuild Nova Scotia Fund with half the money coming from Ottawa.
Baillie says the Tories would not go into deficit for the fund.
Meanwhile NDP Leader Gary Burrill couldn’t resist criticizing Liberals’ infrastructure promises, noting that no one knew the extra $240 million was included in last week’s budget projections.
Burrill said his opponents are now promising something that wasn’t “immediately apparent” in the numbers they put forward in the budget documents.
The budget wasn’t passed before the election was called, meaning a new budget will have to be introduced by the party that wins the May 30th vote.
As for his own plans, Burrill has announced plans to hire more doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners. Burrill says the NDP would spend $120 million over four years to build new primary care clinics and to hire more health professionals.
He says his government would work with family doctors to determine what resources are needed and in what communities.
