On the cusp of change? The Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

• Author: Smith, Jennifer

Since 1989 there have been five general elections in Nova Scotia and only two majority governments. In 1998, 2003 and 2006, the voters returned minority governments, including the current PC government under Premier Rodney MacDonald. The dynamics of successive minority governments have wrought interesting changes in the House of Assembly. They include the need of the governing party to work with the leaders of the other political parties in order to gain the support of one or other or both of them for the government's legislative agenda; the enhanced role in the legislative process of legislative committees that feature more opposition than government members; and the increased importance of the elected member simply by virtue of the minority situation in the House. This article looks at the socio-demographics of the members; the services and facilities available to them and the party caucuses; and the relationship between the government and the opposition, including the selection of the speaker, the legislative committees and the productivity of the legislature. It concludes with an appraisal of the overall strengths and weaknesses of the House of Assembly as a legislative institution in its own right and from the standpoint of the climate of democratic expectations that exists today.

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Nova Scotia is the pioneer of parliamentary democracy in Canada. In 1758 an elected assembly was established in Halifax, the first in the British colonies that eventually would comprise Canada. Ninety years later Nova Scotia landed another first when it adopted the system of responsible government under which the government must maintain the support of the majority in the legislature in order to maintain office.

While such major struggles are behind it, the Assembly remains a trailblazer in other aspects of parliamentary government. A significant issue in recent years was the use of television in the House. One of the country's private broadcasters sought to film the proceedings of the House from the public gallery using its own equipment. The Speaker refused the request on the ground that the activity would interfere with the decorum and orderly conduct of the House. The broadcaster contested the refusal in court, alleging it to be a violation of fundamental freedoms such as freedom of the press that are guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Both the trial and appeal divisions of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia sided with the broadcaster, at which point the Speaker appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. In the meantime the House authorized cameras under its own control to record the proceedings in a limited fashion, the feed being made available to the media for broadcast purposes.

In 1993, in New Brunswick Broadcasting Co. v. Nova Scotia (Speaker of the House of Assembly), otherwise known as Donahoe after the Speaker of the House, Arthur Donahoe, the court ruled that the legislature's privilege to control its own proceedings, or parliamentary privilege, remains part of the unwritten constitution. It found that the legislature's exercise of the historic privilege to exclude strangers from its midst enjoys constitutional status and therefore is beyond the reach of the Charter. As a result, the legislature continues to coordinate the broadcast and recording of its proceedings, making them available to the public and the media in a variety of formats.

Another effort at democratic reform worth noting occurred during the administration of John Savage, premier and leader of a majority Liberal government from 1993 to 1998. At considerable political cost, and not wholly successfully, he tackled the province's reputation for the heavy-handed resort to patronage appointments in the conduct of government by pursuing a system of merit-based appointments instead. One notable innovation concerned appointments to the boards of government agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs), the staff-of-life of patronage.

Under the old system, decisions on such appointments were made behind the scenes at the discretion of the government, often (although not always) on the basis of partisan considerations. Indeed, the expectation of partisan-driven appointments as part of the "spoils system" was rooted in the political culture of the province. Under the Savage approach, for the first time openings on ABCs were advertised publicly and interested candidates invited to apply for the positions. As well, the rules of the Assembly were changed to enable the standing committee on human resources to vote on the nominees proposed by individual ministers or the cabinet. In other words, the standing committee is empowered to veto ministerial appointments, a practice that is unique in Canada and among the Westminster systems of parliamentary government.

The House of Assembly continues to occupy a pivotal position in the government and politics of the province. It is the democratic centre of the political process. It evolves in response to public expectations about the standards befitting the role of elected representatives. It adapts to technological change. And slowly, the composition of the House is beginning to reflect the efforts of women to engage a career in political life.

Socio-Demographics of the Members of the House

Some 26 women have been elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Currently, nine of the 52 Members of the House of Assembly (MHAs) are women (17%)--an all-time high for the province. Only two provinces--Alberta and New Brunswick--rank lower on this score, but by just a few percentage points. Three of the women elected in 2006 are Conservative cabinet ministers, five are New Democrats, and one is Liberal. A point of interest is that of the 26 women elected in Nova Scotia, 10 have been New Democrats. This is an impressive statistic, given that the party managed to elect only a handful of candidates in each election prior to its breakthrough in 1998.

The first woman to be elected to the House was Gladys Poirier, a Progressive Conservative, in 1960. The longest-serving female MHA was Alexa McDonough, who spent 14 years in the House (1981-1995). She was chosen as the party's leader in 1980, resigned the post in 1994 and went on to win the federal NDP leadership contest the following year after Audrey McLaughlin resigned. McDonough spent her first three years in the Nova Scotia legislature as the only woman and the only NDP caucus member. The party's numbers did not improve significantly during McDonough's tenure: she never had more than two party colleagues.

The current House of Assembly is an eclectic mix in terms of the training, education and professional experience of the MHAs. Many of them report decades of volunteerism and several have experience in more than one line of work. More than a dozen are teachers or professors, almost 20% owned a business, five are trained in law, and three are fishermen. One could say that things have not changed drastically on this front since 1989, when Adamson reported that 12 teachers and 12 businessmen were among the House's ranks. (1) However, his description of it as a "white male bastion" needs qualification. There has never been a Mi'kmaq MHA. However, in 1993 Wayne Adams was elected, the province's first Black MHA. He was appointed a cabinet minister, serving first as Premier Savage's minister for supply and services and then as minister for the environment. Adams claimed victory in the freshly-drawn riding of Preston, which included a significant number of Black constituents. A Globe and Mail editorial rebuked the government for establishing what it called a "troubled riding," wrongly lamenting that "political leaders assumed a black MLA could only be elected by black voters." (2) Given the record, it was not an unreasonable assumption. However, it must be stressed that the new riding of Preston was established by the province's first independent boundary commission, and at the time about one-third of the residents were Black. This number did not make the riding a "designated black seat," but was sufficient to give the community a "realistic opportunity" of electing a black member. Adams lost his seat in 1998 to NDP Yvonne Atwell, the province's first female Black MHA. Percy Paris of Waverly-Fall River-Beaverbank is the only Black MHA in the current House of Assembly.

Resources of the MHAs and Party Caucuses

As of January 2007, members' base salary is $81,805. This is a significant step up from the previous year, when members earned only $65,556 and were the third-lowest paid provincial legislators in the country. In February 2006, Speaker Murray Scott appointed a three-member Commission of Inquiry to study the issue of MHAs' salaries and whether they should be adjusted. The group recommended an increase to put Nova Scotia's politicians on par with their counterparts in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. The Premier earns $83,682 on top of the base salary, cabinet ministers and the Official Opposition Leader an extra $44,963, and other party leaders an additional $22,481. Some members are entitled to compensation because they perform special roles within the legislature or as members of "recognized parties." Committee chairs receive $2000-$3000 on top of their regular salaries. Each of the House leaders of the recognized parties receives an additional $10,000 per year, as do the caucus chairs. Party whips are entitled to $5000.

Pay hikes for elected politicians are not likely to win them too many friends. In a recent national survey, over 90% of respondents agreed that politicians are "paid very well," which suggests little support for a raise. (3) This attitude might be particularly prevalent in Nova Scotia, where in 2006 the House sat for 37 days, fewer than any other provincial legislature. Putting the question of "what politicians are worth" to an independent commission, instead of leaving it to legislators...