ELMSDALE: The P.C. leader took some time before going door knocking on Elmwood Drive in Elmsdale with Hants East candidate John A. MacDonald to answer questions from The Laker News.
We asked Tim Houston similar questions to what we asked Premier Iain Rankin when we spoke with him on his campaign bus between stops in Fall River and Enfield on July 30.
ADDRESSING SPEEDING IN EAST HANTS, FALL RIVER
Houston was asked how a PC government would address lowering speed limits on Hwy 2 in East Hants and the Fall River-Wellington corridor area.
“This is this is the type of thing that’s possible for sure,” he said. “We’d want to speak to communities and have some consultations, just see what’s right. Sometimes the lowering of a speed limit can be unsafe as well. So, we need to be careful of that, too.”
He said before any change is made traffic flow would need to be understood.
“I understand the concerns of the community, understand what the main use of the road is, but I’m certainly happy to have those discussions and some public consultations on those.”
EAST HANTS DOCTOR SHORTAGE
He said the doctor shortage is a big issue province wide.
“It’s been growing for so long,” said Houston. “I mean, 70,000 Nova Scotia don’t have a family doctor. There’s a whole series of family doctors that are getting set to retire or move on because they’re tired of working under this government.”
Houston explained his own family are losing their own family doctor as of Aug. 13 as he is retiring.
“I myself and my extended family, my wife, my kids, my in-laws, we’re all losing our family doctor who gave his notice that he’s retiring,” he said. “This puts a lot of stress on families. That’s happening to thousands of families across this province.”
Tim Houston interview. Video by Dagley Media:
He said there are solutions, but the fix won’t happen overnight.
“It’s going to take time, but one of the one of the solutions we’re putting forward is a pension plan for our family doctors just to send a message to them that we want you here, we respect you and we want to support you and get you to get you to stay here.
“You can’t recruit if you can’t retain. We have to retain the doctors we have. That’s a problem because this has been a very difficult government to work under.”
He said N.S. hasn’t been a good place to practice medicine under the Liberals.
“This Liberal government has been very disrespectful to health care professionals all across the spectrum,” said Houston. “We need to change the culture to fix health care. We need to change the government.
“That’s the message that that is resonating with Nova Scotia. They understand that. They agree with that, and they’ll show it at the polls.”
Hants East Candidate John A. MacDonald speaks on health care. Video by Dagley Media:
Hants East candidate John A. MacDonald said losing doctors is a big concern he is hearing as he and his team campaigns.
“Whilethe biggest concern is that we are going to be losing doctors in the near future because some of them have been doing it for 40 years,” said MacDonald, “we’ve got to find a way to make it so that they don’t retire when they are right now.
“I feel Tim’s plan is going to do it, will make it more attractive for doctors to want to come here, come to Nova Scotia and then show them East Hants is a great place to live. That’s why all of us live here.”