Election campaign promises and protests continue as Nova Scotia election draws near

You can call them the dog days of summer on the campaign trail as Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston spent Sunday morning campaigning at a dog park in Clayton Park West, where he announced a $500 tax credit for Nova Scotians who adopt a dog from a recognized adoption agency.

Houston, who has two rescue dogs, called it a personal passion cause and another piece of the PC’s health-focused platform.

“We know the importance of an animal in a person’s life and dogs are a great mental health stress reliever, and adults who own dogs are less likely to have hospital visits and all kinds of things,” said Houston. “There’s a lot of research on the value of it and they are important. We want to support those that are rescuing dogs.”

A group of disability advocates greeted Nova Scotia Liberal leader Iain Rankin at a campaign announcement Sunday in Halifax’s south end.

Rankin was there to highlight the Liberal’s commitment to investing $4 billion in continued spending to modernize the health care system infrastructure across the province and to build new hospitals, emergency care centres and community health centres.

“These historic builds are not just bricks and mortar, these are brand new facilities that will attract more doctors and other health care providers to this province like we are doing right now,” said Rankin. “There has been more modernization in the last year in health care than there has been in decades.”

Rankin was flanked by more than a dozen protestors and accessibility advocates from the Community Home Action Group and the Disability Rights Coalition of Nova Scotia.

They criticized the government for not following through on the landmark 2013 report, referred to as “The Roadmap,” that called for phasing out institutional facilities and replacing them with small options homes by 2023, and transforming the social assistance and disability support systems to give individuals with disabilities timely access to services.

The Liberal leader swiftly left the announcement without taking questions from the media, which didn’t sit well with the crowd.

“I want to see the roadmap and what you’ve done for (people with disabilities),” said Milt Issacs, 31, who has global developmental delays has been on a waiting list for residential care for 13 years.

Issacs said he’s grown frustrated with the government’s inaction and says they’ve shown no effort to improve the long delays on services for those waiting on the supports list.

“I see the investment, they are talking health care and what I don’t see is that same roadmap for people with disabilities,” said Issacs. “I don’t see that and have never seen that.”

NDP leader Gary Burrill was campaigning in the south end of Halifax and said the government owes the people with the Disability Rights Commission of Nova Scotia an answer.

“All through these eight years, the Liberals have said, ‘yes we are following the roadmap and yes we are going to have small options homes for everybody who needs them,'” said Burrill. “And for all that time they didn’t build the places to do it.”

The Disability Rights Commission of Nova Scotia says the waitlist for services has grown 74 per cent since the report was published, growing from 1,099 people on the waitlist in 2014 up to 1,195 people to date.

Rankin spoke with disability advocate Vicky Levack before his health care announcement and in a press release thanked her for raising the issue.

“We committed more funding in our most recent budget,” said Rankin in the press statement. “We have to do better, and we will.”