Federal Conservative leadership candidate and TV celebrity Kevin O’Leary has penned an “open letter” to Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, criticizing the provincial leader on how he is governing the province.
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In the letter posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday, O’Leary said he spoke with Nova Scotians while attending the federal Conservative leadership debate held in Halifax on the weekend and said he heard several concerns.
“Person after person told me the same thing – that they are worried about their local economy, how their friends or family members are struggling to find work, and the province is drifting in the wrong direction,” said O’Leary in the letter, who then asked McNeil if he had spoken with voters recently.
The newest leadership candidate went on to say fishing, forestry, farming and natural gas were “key ingredients for economic success” and were all found in the province, but questioned McNeil on the Nova Scotia economy’s growth.
READ MORE: Federal budget will help boost NS economy: Premier McNeil
He also asked why Nova Scotia has “some of the highest tax rates” in Canada but one of the “lowest economic outputs,” questioning if the two were related.
The province’s most recent economic outlook showed expected increases in several key indicators including retail sales and employment, though a decrease was expected for real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2017.
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O’Leary also said Nova Scotia’s moratorium on natural gas extraction has “gotta go.” He said developments in technology had changed how extraction can proceed.
“The science has made this safe, and we must get extraction going,” O’Leary wrote.
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He also criticized the offshore industry, calling it a “vastly underdeveloped area” due to tax policies.
“The high bidding fees for exploration make it seem like you are more interested in exploration fees than royalty revenues from production,” O’Leary said.
Late last year, Nova Scotia’s offshore regulator reported no bids had been received for offshore exploration, which at the time Energy Minister Michel Samson said was symptomatic of a market downturn in the industry. There were also no bids in 2013 or 2014, however deepwater parcels worth $82 million were awarded in 2015. Shell Canada Ltd. had also received approval for exploratory drilling in 2015.
O’Leary then ended the letter with a challenge, saying he was “putting you (McNeil) on notice.”
READ MORE: Nova Scotia gets no bids for offshore exploration for 3rd time in 4 years
“It’s time you start doing a better job for the people in Nova Scotia,” O’Leary said.
“You can do better. You must do better.”
The Facebook post had been liked by about 2,700 people by 4 p.m. Wednesday and shared more than 870 times.
A spokesperson from the premier’s office said in an email to Global News he would not be commenting on O’Leary’s letter.
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