Opinion
By Neal Livingston
(Neal Livingston is an award-winning, film producer and woodlot operator. He is also a renewable energy developer, maple syrup producer, and community volunteer who lives in western Cape Breton.)
In January, Premier Tim Houston announced he was going to take the ‘No’ out of Nova Scotia, and will be renaming the province this spring as ‘VaScotia‘.
If you look up VaScotia you will find that it is an imaginary realm where “the high elf royal family rules over the entire region, (with) the vast wealth they have accumulated.”
So now we will be governed by a bunch of wealthy oligarchs and their old boys network, who have no intention of listening to any other ideas besides their own. This doesn’t sound like a good plan.
At first, when I read the Premier’s letter, I thought, wow he’s telling us that he’s going to be extremely broad minded, and not listen to the 1%, though for some reason he’s calling them the 2%, and he said they’re going to start listening to us – the 98%. But when I looked at it again, his message reminded me of something from 45 years ago when John Buchanan was premier. I thought we’d matured since then, that any government we elected would respect the public. It’s unfortunate to find out the opposite.
I’ve met Premier Houston a few times. We last chatted March 15, 2024, at Newark airport. Unfortunately, the Premier is 100% convinced that nuclear energy is the best option for Nova Scotia. Besides all the downsides and risks of nuclear energy, I expressed the fact that it was the most expensive electricity option, and that we would just have to agree to disagree.
As for the Premier’s brouhaha about hydrogen development, he talks about us being an energy powerhouse, but it is ammonia that this proposed project would be exporting to Europe — to make fertilizer and other uses that have nothing to do with energy production.
As a successful wind developer, I find the suggestion that offshore wind will be a $4.6 billion industry in Nova Scotia by 2032 to be a joke. More serious is the fact that this hydrogen developer came to Nova Scotia, promised to spend his own money, and now is getting multi-million-dollar support from both the federal and provincial governments. Such corporate welfare means these funds don’t get spent in our communities for public infrastructure that we need today.
When this proposed hydrogen project was first announced, they promised to develop offshore wind for their energy source. Now they have staked claims to a huge amount of Nova Scotia for onshore wind development. This will make it almost impossible for the province to use wind power to stop burning coal. There simply isn’t enough territory to do both. When I expressed this to Premier Houston, he didn’t care.
The Premier is intent on removing the moratorium on uranium mining and fracking, both of which came about as reasoned, careful decisions by government. Minister of Environment Tim Halman stated in a Jan. 30 CBC interview that anything the Premier wants he can deliver by directing his staff to do so. Definitely back to the days of John Buchanan. Such dictatorial governance is just unacceptable in today’s Nova Scotia, though it might be normal in VASCOTIA.
The Premier has had a major shift in his mindset. This seems to have come after he appointed in mid-2024 Stephen Moore as his Director of Communications. Moore’s previous job was the head of Forest Nova Scotia, a group that promotes itself as able to influence government. This means to not reform industrial forestry practices — clear cutting and chemical spraying — that 90% or more of Nova Scotians, for more than 40 years, have wanted changed.
The Premier ignored calls for Mr. Moore to be fired shortly after his appointment in 2024, after media headlines stated “Premier’s communications director defended Nazi symbols at Freedom Convoy protests”.
— The Premier should remove advisors who have preached the message of intolerance to him. The Premier should fire his Director of Communications.
It’s time to remind Premier Houston that he is our “Progressive” Conservative leader, which is how he described himself when we elected him. VaSCOTIA, the land of old boys and oligarchs, is not what we voted for. Those in government need to remember they represent us all, not just their friends and lobbyists.
January was an embarrassing month to be a Nova Scotian. To continue to have a wonderful province, let’s keep the ‘No’ in Nova Scotia.
Neal Livingston is an award winning, film producer and woodlot operator. He is also a renewable energy developer, maple syrup producer, and community volunteer who lives in western Cape Breton.
