MLAs from across the province have made their way back to Halifax for the fall legislative session.
It gets underway Thursday afternoon.
Inverness Tory MLA Allan MacMaster says they’ll have questions for the governing Liberals.
MacMaster tells The Hawk those subjects include the health care crisis, emergency response during and after Hurricane Dorian, and the CAT ferry.
“I’m sure that one topic that’ll be discussed, with interest from around the province, is the ferry in Yarmouth,” he says. “(In 2019), the government will spend $19 million- equivalent to half the tourism budget- on a ferry that never ran.”
MacMaster says the Tories won’t reveal specific bills until they come up in Province House, but their theme will be modernizing government and making it work better for residents.
Lloyd Hines, the MLA for Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie and the province’s transportation minister, says he’s ready to field any questions opposition members have about the CAT ferry.
“We’re absolutely convinced- we know it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “We look at the numbers, (and) we look at how down the numbers are in that area because of the lack of that service.”
Hines says they’re determined to get it running again, and still hopes to get a few runs in before the end of the sailing season.
He says funding it is still the right thing to do even if it doesn’t run in 2019.
Randy Delorey, Antigonish’s MLA and the provincial health minister, says he anticipates plenty of questions related to his cabinet portfolio.
“Certainly, (I) expect lots of attention to health- that’s obviously top-of-mind for the residents of Antigonish and the surrounding areas, but indeed, right across the province.”
Cape Breton-Richmond MLA Alana Paon didn’t respond to our requests for interviews.
