By Andrew Macdonald
Tim Houston is the next NS PC leader – winning support from other leadership candidates before a second ballot could be held.
Cecil Clarke endorses Tim Houston as the next NS PC leader. Houston came first on the first ballot, and Clarke came second.
Houston fell 54 votes short of winning on the first ballot. Candidates including second place finisher Cecil Clarke then endorsed Houston as the winner.
Here are two stories from The Notebook archives on Houston.
One of the neat things Houston talked to The Notebook about in June was creating a separate department for Addictions & Mental Health – with its own minister if he forms government.
Tim Houston last spring addressing the crowded room at the Truro Holiday Inn. Photo by Brendan Ahern/Macdonald Notebook.
Headline:MacPolitics: Tim Houston: Let’s Create Addictions & Mental Health Ministry
By Andrew Macdonald
June 1st, 2018
The Macdonald Notebook
Like Jamie Baillie before him, Progressive Conservative Tim Houston believes there is a crisis in the provincial government’s Addictions Services and Mental Health Unit.
It is reassuring that Houston, who some consider the front-runner in the race to replace Baillie as new PC party leader, is addressing the issue.
For seven years, Baillie consistently and constantly raised the alarm over mental health’s delivery in this province. In last spring’s election, Baillie told The Macdonald Notebook there is no bigger crisis than with the provincial health authority’s mental health program.
MLA and leadership candidate Tim Houston with Peter MacKay and Senator Tom McInnis. Photo by Brendan Ahern/The Macdonald Notebook.
Baillie raised the topic for the seven years he was party leader—despite the fact the mental health file is not exactly a vote-getting issue—because of deep stereotypes and stigma around mental health issues in society.
Now, Houston, the two-term MLA for Pictou East has picked up on Baillie’s mental health crusade.
As part of his solution to address the mental health crisis, Houston has announced he would name a separate minister to oversee the $205 million budget for Addictions Services and Mental Health.
He tells The Macdonald Notebook that a separate minister will make the mental health and addictions unit more accountable in the way it delivers programs across Nova Scotia.
I think Houston’s bold policy platform to create a separate ministry does have strong merit. Such a move would go a long way to fixing the mental health and addictions program, and add a ton of accountability to the file.
Houston believes it is a solution to the unit’s crisis mode which currently exists across Nova Scotia.
“It definitely needs focus and attention,” he says.
“How it would work is that within the $4.5 billion we are spending on health care, (being) managed by one minister, doesn’t make sense.”
“Within that $4.5 billion there are a couple of hundred million for mental health and addiction services and support (a budget of $205 million),” he tells The Macdonald Notebook.
“We would pull that out and put it under the control of one minister, who then becomes accountable and responsible to ensure people can access those services when they need it,” he adds.
“It would make accountability the focus,” adding he does not plan to add more money to the existing unit’s budget.
Tim Halman, PC MLA for Dartmouth East, left, Monsignor John Williams, of St. Mary’s Basilica, Valerie Bobyk, and Tim Houston, PC leadership contender.
“Not off the start,” he says. “Here are my priorities for the new department: number one the minister would create a navigator role to allow people to get through the system for services. We’d assess every dollar we are spending, and make sure it is helping people.”
Budgetary needs could be increased after analyzing the existing budget.
Houston said mental health “is a big issue. A lot of people are not getting the help they need when they need it. We see that in our emergency rooms. In many ways, someone who might harm themselves or others are being encouraged to go to emergency departments, and that is not right when they are in crisis mode.”
Houston says he is also concerned by the closure of provincial addictions detoxes across the province.
“I think that falls under the category of taking a real good look at how we are spending the money, and what services are available and make changes to improve it.”
It’s been four weeks since I asked the communications staff at the Nova Scotia Health Authority to provide details on the detox closures. After four weeks, the staff issued a statement, but did not agree to an interview or allow me to speak to the bureaucrat who closed down the detoxes.
I asked Houston if he thinks the Nova Scotia Health Authority is an accountable government body. “I see (problems with accountability) all the time, when I get them to come to Public Accounts, and when they appear before me,” at the legislative committee.
“The problems in health care run all the way through the system, right through to someone working at a hospital and they don’t really know who their bosses are. That starts at the top, with the minister, the deputy minister and the CEO of the NS Health Authority,” he tells The Macdonald Notebook.
“There is no accountability in health care right now, and for three years everyone has hidden behind the merged health authority. They say ‘give us time, give us time to work things out’,” he adds.
Tory Young Turks, including Tim Houston’s family, right to left: Gracie MacIvor, Zachary Houston, Paget Houston, Carol Houston, and Nicole Lafosse. Photo by Brendan Ahern/Macdonald Notebook.
He says the system has to work for Nova Scotians, promising as premier he would improve the delivery of services.
A year ago, health minister Leo Glavine vowed he would not close detoxes in Nova Scotia, but that is precisely what has just happened under his successor, Randy Delorey.
In 2014, more than 10,000 people used detoxes in their addictions battles in this province.
“It is sad but it is sometimes the reality of political promises, and I don’t see how (closing detoxes) helps people,” says Houston. “Every decision government makes should be made through the lens, ‘Does it help people?’,” he says.
“I can’t see why a decision (to close detoxes) has been made.”
On the closure of the addictions services office at Bedford Row, which has been there for 30 years, Houston says that is also a concern of his.
“When you see stuff like that, you always ask questions. It’s like the health authority moving its offices out to Bayers Lake, far away as they can get from the actual delivery of health care.
“When you see stuff like that, you have to ask what is the goal of moving away from delivery of services away from the people who need those services. It is tricky to understand why they would do that,” he says.
Headline: Is Tim Houston The Front-Runner in NS PC Leadership Race
By Andrew Macdonald
Dec 8th, 2017 – archived story
The Macdonald Notebook
Progressive Conservative MLA Tim Houston is the only declared contender to replace Nova Scotia Tory leader Jamie Baillie.
But will he be the front-runner in the contest in which Cape Breton Regional Municipality mayor Cecil Clarke, Valley MLA John Lor, and Halifax businessman Rob Batherson are also mentioned as possible leadership candidates?
I asked Houston about pundit talk he is the front-runner in a race in which a convention date has not yet been established.
“I don’t think there is a front-runner per se. I suspect there will be a number of people in the race — everyone from people who are unelected (as MLAs) to people who have been elected for decades,” Houston tells The Macdonald Notebook.
“Only people will decide who is the front-runner,” he adds.
Houston, the son of a military man, grew up in Halifax’s Fairview, and the 47-year-old is now a two-term MLA for Pictou East where he took the largest vote margin of any candidate in last spring’s election, getting a commanding 74 per cent support.
That means Houston has demonstrated he is electable, a key ingredient of his leadership campaign.
“What I am touting in the leadership campaign is having faith and respect for people that they will do the right thing,” says Houston.
“I work hard in the constituency of Pictou East, and it showed in the election. The final numbers are only numbers. What I take great pride in is four years of work of helping people in the constituency and listening to people in the constituency, and being there for them.
“People on election day in May said that was their way of saying, ‘Thank you for caring about us’.
“People across the province deserve the same thing, and I don’t feel they feel respected and cared for by the current government,” he says.
“That presents an opportunity for sure.”
In 1992, Pictou East sent Don Cameron into the premier’s job. But Houston won’t say if he has taken advice from Cameron, who lost the 1993 election to Liberal John Savage.
“I take all advice and I certainly have no shortage of people to turn to that I respect and admire. There’s a lot of people I speak to. I don’t want to get into specifics,” he said.
“I speak to a lot of former MLAs and speak to a lot of current MLAs,” he tells The Macdonald Notebook.
“If you look back at the Progressive Conservative party, it governed for a lot of years, and there are certainly a lot of smart people around, and I respect them.”
