Toward a Modern Nova Scotia. Notes for Remarks. Danny Graham, Leader. Nova Scotia Liberal Party. to the. Greater Halifax Partnership

Transcription

1 Toward a Modern Nova Scotia Notes for Remarks by Danny Graham, Leader Nova Scotia Liberal Party to the Greater Halifax Partnership December 5, 2002 Delta Halifax 1

2 Good morning. I ve been looking forward to the opportunity to speak with you this morning because I think this a great chance for me to share with you some of the ideas that we as a Liberal Party and as a Liberal Caucus have been considering. My special thanks goes to Steve Dempsey, your staff and the people of the Greater Halifax Partnership for providing this opportunity for me and the other Leaders to share our vision for Nova Scotia. One year ago, I was living in Ottawa working at a meaningful job, and my family was quite settled. I read newspaper reports about the test scores of students in Nova Scotia. You might remember the headlines, Nova Scotia, all Atlantic Students Trail Other Canadians in Tests, Nova Scotia Students Trail most of Canada. I wondered, what does this mean for the future of our province? This is a province with a proud history in education. This is a province that has historically been the leader in this part of Canada, both economically and politically. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this is perhaps a symptom of a much broader malaise: I thought about how we were passing to our young people the highest per capita debt of any province in this country. And I thought about how we were passing to our young people a state of health and wellness that is arguably worse than any other province in all of Canada. Frankly, as I sat in Ottawa, I thought about a government that has a reputation in many parts of this country for being under-achievers. 2

3 My decision to get involved in public life really became inevitable from that point on. Too often we have been content to blame Ottawa, or to blame history, while provinces with fewer natural advantages and fewer opportunities pass us by. Think, for example, of our friends in New Brunswick. This is an issue of leadership. There are three paths before us. There is the path of retreat, there is the path of standing still and there is the path of moving forward: of honouring the spirit of the men and women who have built this province and have tenaciously made us proud to be Bluenosers. My message today is about the economy but it starts with political leadership. Economic rules have changed over the last 10 years and we must change with them. We live in a global economy, indeed we live in a knowledge economy. Information and services move from one end of the world to another with the flick of a finger. If we are to find our place in that world, we must work to our natural advantages; our boundless natural advantages here in Nova Scotia. We need a vision. Here is mine: Nova Scotia as one of the leading economies in North America. We can do it, make no mistake. How others perceive us depends entirely on how we perceive ourselves. If we move forward with confidence, we will be seen as being confident and capable and ready for the future. We stand before perhaps our greatest economic opportunity since Confederation. We need to seize it. We must be bold. 3

4 We must be clear. We must be decisive. We must set a direction and we must be guided by that direction in everything we do. Political leaders must be guided by a vision that goes beyond the next 4 years, that goes beyond even the next 14 years, to the next 40 and beyond that. Today, I want to speak about four of our greatest challenges and four of our greatest opportunities: Oil and Gas, the Debt, Political Leadership and the Knowledge Economy. Most of my remarks will focus on the Knowledge Economy, but allow me to touch on the first three. First with respect to oil and gas: We have a very young emerging industry. The first priority, then, is to keep drilling and exploration happening. We must also make sure that Nova Scotians hold realistic expectations and realistic demands as this industry grows. We must enhance the potential for development secondary industries. Many of you will recall our opposition the Gas Plants Bill, which I believe discouraged the potential for developing secondary industries. We must reduce the regulatory burden on industry, in cooperation with Ottawa. We would also press Ottawa to meet its decades old promise to ensure that 100 percent of our royalties will come to Nova Scotia until we become a have province. Our party has established a Leaders Council on Oil and Gas, including people from the community, and from industry. There will be more to report on oil and gas as we move closer to the next general election. Let me move on to the question of the Debt. 4

5 Two generations of Nova Scotians have been burdened by a crushing debt. There is, frankly, a myth in Nova Scotia that the present government has managed our fiscal affairs well. Three and a half years ago, while in opposition, the Premier said to Nova Scotians that he would not add one more dollar to the debt of Nova Scotia. Three and a half years later the debt has grown by half a billion dollars. What is worse, when we look at the government s plan, we see that the debt is going to continue to grow by 100 million dollars next year and 100 million dollars the year after that, and $100 million dollars after that, and the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that. There is not a year in the future that our debt isn t going to continue to grow by $100 million dollars. So we have a rising debt and no plan to pay it down. Worse yet, we still can t pay the bills. The Fraser Institute indicated in June of this year that the average family in Nova Scotia saw their taxes rise more than any other province in all of Canada, approximately $1300 for the average family in Nova Scotia! The 10 percent tax cut approximately $140 million dollars worth has been promised to Nova Scotians. And the conservatives say that it is because they have been sound fiscal managers. I say this has been a fiscal shell game. We have borrowed to pay for it. And we have raised taxes on Nova Scotians to pay for it. You remember the old saying robbing Peter to pay Paul. 5

6 Well, the Conservatives are robbing from Peter to pay Peter. What would be the Liberal position? I m sure you ve been asking yourselves that. We intend to reduce taxes over the medium term, both at a corporate level and at a personal level. At this time in our history when we consider our crumbling roads, that our young people are sharing books in public education, or that we in Nova Scotia have the second lowest life expectancy of any people in all of Canada, the challenges at this moment are too great to spend $140 million on a tax cut. One of my principal motives for getting involved in politics and public service was to address the crushing debt. We must do better and we will do better. We will come forward with a plan to reduce the growth rate of our debt in the short run. And over the long run we must establish a more aggressive plan to deal with the debt. The best way to achieve control over the debt is clearly through economic growth, which brings me to my third subject: strong political leadership. Fundamentally, this is a question of the role of government in the economy. Government must contribute to economic growth by contributing a forward thinking and stable political and economic climate. Now what does it mean to become forward thinking. Let me highlight an example of where we need to become more forward thinking. We are only jurisdiction in all North America not to have Sunday shopping. No issue so clearly symbolizes 6

7 the separation between the views and direction of our party and the views and direction of the party that is governing this province today. It demonstrates the difference between moving forward and standing still. Beyond that this is a $21 million question for our economy. It s a question of 300 full time jobs for Nova Scotians. Workers, especially those currently employed in retail, need to be protected, and they will be protected by appropriate regulation. We can do this, we should do this and we will do this. A stable economic environment would include a competitive and fair tax regime. We also need to streamline regulations. We need to reduce red tape. I hear about this everywhere I go in Nova Scotia: in rural areas and in urban centres. We need also to invest in our infrastructure, not only our roads and our bridges, but also our ports and our airports and our health care and our education. I believe that markets, not governments, best determine the flow of capital. This means that a strong provincial economy will be driven by a strong urban economy, here in Halifax. That ensures that we continue to have the growth and realize the potential that many of you, in this organization, are trying to make sure that we achieve. The GHP is a fine example of the cooperative spirit and optimism that will allow us to build on our strengths, overcome our disadvantages, and realize the economic potential of Halifax. It can also happen in the urban centre of Cape Breton, where they are slowly beginning to make the shift 7

8 and move toward a more hopeful future. The Premier s job is to partner with business and seek out opportunities to support and promote Nova Scotia: our products, our services, our culture, our quality of life, our positive business climate and our exceptional workforce. This exceptional workforce brings me to the fourth and final chapter of my remarks: The Knowledge Economy. If you think that world has changed a great deal over the last 5 years, just wait to see what is going to happen over the next 5 years. If Nova Scotia is to survive and thrive in this global economy we need to become a full and fearless partner in the Knowledge Economy. And I have every confidence that we can do that. The challenge before us is to ensure that we have a ready, highly-skilled, creative, motivated, hungry and healthy workforce here in Nova Scotia. I said at the outset that our goal is to become one of the leading economies in North American. We will do this by working to our strengths. We will do this by working to our brainpower, one of our great natural advantages in Nova Scotia. Our brainpower will be the driver of our economy, just as it has been in jurisdictions like Ireland. Because in a Knowledge Economy wealth and capital flow to those jurisdiction that can best take advantage of their learning and skills opportunity. Consider our Nova Scotia experience. In the past 10 years the provincial economy has 8

9 gained 78 thousand new jobs for people who have more than a high school education, but we have lost 25 thousand jobs for those who did not go beyond high school. The connection between economic growth, and education and skills development can not be overstated. This is a particular challenge to a province like ours that too often sees our best and brightest going down the road to places like Alberta and Ontario, to grow the economy and the tax base and the business opportunities in those provinces. That needs to stop. In the last ten years, the population of older adults in Nova Scotia has grown by over 35 percent and the population of younger adults has declined by over 25 percent. Apart from what this may mean to the challenges of our healthcare system, what does it mean for economic growth? I know that many of you are familiar with the recent APEC Report on the challenges of an aging population, and the concerns raised about our capacity to maintain public services into the future. When I worked for Atlantic Shopping Centres, I spent time with the president of the company many of you would know Jim Gogan. He used to say that there are only two directions in which a company is going, it s either up or down. You are either growing or declining. We, in Nova Scotia, must grow. We can not decline. We need a young hardworking population. Today, I am announcing four components of an initiative we re calling Talent Works Nova Scotia. The purpose of Talent Works Nova Scotia would be to better educate, recruit, re-train and keep a youthful workforce here in Nova Scotia. First, a Liberal government would introduce a tax credit for employers to invest in the re-training of 9

10 employees whose skills are at risk of becoming obsolete. Spending on training on Canadian companies has flat-lined since We are prepared to commit to a program that will turn things around, and provide an incentive for employers to invest in their employees. Second, we need to intensify our efforts to bring Nova Scotians home. We have tinkered with programs for a long time that attempt to bring Nova Scotian expatriates back here. Except for those who are CFAs and you know who you are -- every hand would go up if I were to ask if you have brothers or sisters or children who are living and working in other parts of Canada. Generation after generation of Nova Scotians have been going down the road. Our Nova Scotia birth certificate has become a passport to work in Alberta or Ontario and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, needs to stop. If we are going to become one of the strongest economies in all of North American - that absolutely needs to stop. Three years ago, I went down road myself, and I was tempted to stay, but this is my home and my wife s home. This is the place where I want to raise my children. Thousands of other Nova Scotians are living elsewhere and want to be here in Nova Scotia. We will create a web based registry called Come Back to Nova Scotia to inform Nova Scotians living elsewhere when job opportunities arise that match their skills. When opportunities arise a letter will go from the Premier to those living outside of Nova Scotia to inform them of job opportunities. This would complement an aggressive strategy to recruit skilled immigrants from other parts of Canada and the world. 10

11 Because, Ladies and Gentlemen this the most wonderful place in the entire world in which to live and to raise a family. Thirdly, at no additional cost, we will do what five other provinces have done. We will establish a department of students, training and higher learning to address the unique challenges of linking our post secondary education system to the economic opportunities that are presented by the Global Knowledge Economy. Three weeks ago, I hosted a forum of university presidents, the president of the Nova Scotia Community College and student leaders were there. Business and the community were also represented. To my great surprise, this was the first time that this combination of people, with an interest in post secondary education and training had ever gathered in the same room to talk about their common issues. I issued a challenge to them that they as operators of Universities need to become more involved in the economic development of Nova Scotia by becoming more substantial incubators of business ideas. I know that the universities are working in that direction, but we need to work harder and more aggressively. And we need to work in partnership with business. So the second part of that challenge goes out to you, to link with the wonderful institutions that we have here Nova Scotia: to partner with them to do what we can to incubate business ideas. We also spoke in that forum about other challenges that face, for example, our community college. We have a unique, and false, stigma in Nova Scotia, amongst our high school students and their parents, that Community Colleges don t provide first rate, cost effective, employment friendly education and training. This is absolutely false. I learned, to no surprise, that our nationally acclaimed universities some of our greatest assets in Nova 11

12 Scotia - feel abandoned by government. There is a pervasive sense that their needs are being ignored because the Education Department is preoccupied with the very pressing and important concerns of public education. In a Knowledge Economy, post-secondary education is vital to economic growth. Their issues, the issues of post-secondary education need to have a champion at the cabinet table. That will be accomplished by the establishment of a department with focused responsibility for post-secondary education. Fourthly, is an initiative called Stay Home in Nova Scotia. Present government policies discourage our graduates from staying in Nova Scotia. Our Party is committed to reinstating the cancelled Loan Remissions Program for university graduates and community college students. It is disgraceful that our province, with the highest tuitions in Canada, is the only province without a loan remissions program. But we are also very interested in enhancing the Loan Remission Program with incentives to encourage graduates to stay home in Nova Scotia. For example, there could be more substantial student loan forgiveness for students who choose to stay in Nova Scotia for a longer period of time. I can hear the calculators going in peoples heads as we think about the cost of this. Here are my thoughts on costs. Research suggests that university graduates pay the cost of their university education three times over in tax during their earning lives, because of their higher level of earnings. The breadth and scope of this program will require comprehensive discussions. We have started discussions with university leaders, student leaders and others on this question of Staying Home in Nova Scotia. If effectively implemented, it will accomplish four goals. It would lower the age of our working force. It would increase the skills workforce. 12

13 It would grow our economy and our tax base. It would make post-secondary education more affordable than it is right now. At the beginning of my remarks, I set out four challenges, and opportunities: Oil and Gas, the Debt, Political Leadership and Knowledge Economy. We do not have all the answers -- Talent Works Nova Scotia, for example is not a panacea but we know the right questions and we are focused on the right solutions. Our course is much clearer. What we ve been missing in Nova Scotia is a vision. What we ve been missing Nova Scotia is a modern dynamic government. What we need in government is courage. What we need in government is a commitment. We stand before the moment of perhaps our greatest collective opportunity and we will make sure that we realize it. The talent in this room, partnered with a visionary government, can make it happen. Together we will make it happen! Thank you very much. 13

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