Just months after a snap election that gave NS Premier Tim Houston a supermajority, the man who would be king has attempted to pass a slew of legislation that would have enduring effects on this province. Apparently encouraged by the bullying president to the south, Houston has attempted to introduce new bills or amendments to existing bills, including:
- Bill 6, which would open up activities such as fracking and mining of some minerals such as uranium within NS
- Bill 12 (amendment to Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act, 2015), An Act Respecting Higher Education and Research, which would give the province more power over universities, such as the right to 50% representation on each Board of Governors
- Bill 24, which would give the province powers over transportation decisions
- Bill 36, Free Trade and Mobility within Canada, which could impact labour unions, professions with licensing/registration specific to NS, and local businesses
A protest on March 5 at Province House included Mi’kmaw activists, local chapters of The Council of Canadians, Ecology Action Centre, Extinction Rebellion NS, CUPE Nova Scotia, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia, Action Against Canso Spaceport, and Annapolis Waterkeepers–the so-called “special interests” that Houston says are “somehow harming the province”. Accusing Houston of using Trump’s playbook, protestors said he is attacking democracy with Bill 6, since many Nova Scotians, particularly Mi’kmaki leaders, have protested fracking due to its potential harms to marine life and water quality, and uranium mining. The Assembly of Mi’kmaw Chiefs stated that neither of these announcements were in the Conservative Party’s election platform, and that they have not been consulted as required by law.
Nova Scotia municipalities have come out against Bill 24, which would give the province the power to build or remove infrastructure, with municipalities footing the bill. Rural municipalities are also concerned that they would need to pay for upgrades to provincial roadways. Bill 24 also changes the Joint Regional Transportation Agency to Link Nova Scotia, broadening its scope to the entire province instead of Halifax and surrounding areas. Houston has already removed tolls from Halifax bridges, which many councillors opposed and Ecology Action Centre calls “a worrying and undemocratic level of provincial overreach into municipal jurisdictions.”
Bill 12 would expose universities and colleges to the whims of government, such as deciding which programs are funded and which are not. The Auditor General, whose office very nearly came under threat by another proposed bill, released a report on March 4 stating that while the province has given $2.5 B to its 10 universities, it does not closely monitor how the funds are used. Universities in the province generally use the money as operating funding, which an be used for salaries, student aid and infrastructure, executive compensation, debt servicing and other expenses. On average, that represents about $10,000 per student, but there is a wide range across universities. The auditor general recommends a plan for health education funding that details goals, costs, timelines, measurement of progress and public reporting of the effectiveness of funding. Funding agreements with schools should include conditions that address conflicts of interest, the ability to audit, and the return of unused funds to the department, as well as performance targets. If universities do not comply with conditions, funding should not be disbursed, the report says. The department should also define financial health of universities and development benchmarks to reflect it, and meet regularly with schools to review financial results. Proposed changes to Bill 100 (2015) would require universities at risk of losing existing funding to submit a restructuring plan.
Universities are already insufficiently funded, which is one reason Dalhousie University’s tuition is the highest in the province. In Nova Scotia, provincial support for post-secondary institutions dropped from 70% in the 1980s to 40% in 2018, and is currently at 33%; we have already been held hostage by the province last year with 2024-25 bilateral agreements to ensure student housing needs were met. Universities in other parts of the country have already been forced to completely shut down programs such as English as a Second Language and Indigenous Studies. English programs have been closed at the University of Winnipeg, St. Mary’s College (Halifax), and Simon Fraser University (Burnaby). Colleges in Ontario have reported their position untenable after decades of provincial underfunding and a cap on tuition introduced by Premier Doug Ford in 2019. They had been able to supplement this with higher numbers of international students, but the federal government drastically reduced student visas in 2024. Programs such as business, scriptwriting, technical writing, esthetics and hairstyling, applied health and community studies, and applied science and technolgy have been shut down or drastically cut in Ontario. Even the Sheridan College Animation program, long considered the best animation program in Canada with seven of its alumni winning an Academy Award, faced cuts last month. These effects are widespread despite a three-year sustainability funding program for universities and colleges introduced in Ontario in 2024.
In BC, the percentage of provincial funding for post-secondary institutions dropped from 70% to 41% since the early 2000s, but the province rallied last year with an increase in $23 million for technology-related programs for UBC, 500 technology-related spots at SFU, a new medical school at SFU, and co-delivery and development of an Indigenous Master of Nursing program. The province’s StrongerBC: Future Ready Action Plan includes an investment of $74.7 million over three years.
Health, technology, and STEM fields are among the few where international student applications could still be viable, as we found last year during our admissions season. Architecture and planning are both STEM fields, so we were able to get provincial letters of support to accept some international students into the Master of Planning program.
Proposed changes to the Research Nova Scotia Corporation Act could mean the province would determine the areas of research they fund, including matching funds for the Canadian Foundation for Innovation grants. We’ve already seen how government priorities have killed research in the US in the matter of weeks, endangering everything from public health to climate change to housing. Bill 12 would dissolve existing boards of governors at universities and could replace them with boards having up to 50% government-appointed members. Having some provincial representation is not unrealistic, but up to half could sway universities towards becoming tools of the state, as opposed to independently operated institutions capable of making their own strategic decisions.
Premier Houston has demonstrated with this slew of amendments and new bills that he is using a foreign playbook that is already failing. Let’s hope our universities do not fall to someone who called a snap election at a time of federal crisis to ensure his power increased. The whole process was undemocratic (especially as the Canada Post strike ensured that older voters did not receiver voter cards by mail), and now he is acting against the democratic process in trying to pass bills with no consultation of Indigenous peoples, no mandate, and no public support. As teaching members of Nova Scotia university faculties, we are calling on you to help send 1,000 letters to Premier Tim Houston and the Minister of Advanced Education Brendan Maguire by the end of this week. Click here to add your voice.
