Highlights of the Speech From The Throne, First Session of the 59th General Assembly

SPEECH FROM THE THRONE--Highlights of the Speech From The Throne, First Session of the 59th General Assembly

The following are the highlights from the speech from the throne read today, Sept. 25, 2003, by Lt.-Gov. Myra A. Freeman at the opening of the first session of the 59th General Assembly of Nova Scotia:

OUR COMMON COMMITMENT

Government knows that every member of the legislature shares the common commitment to make Nova Scotia an even better place to live, work, and raise a family. We also know that every member of the legislature agrees that we must live within our means, yet find the means to improve the quality of health care we provide Nova Scotians, the quality of education we provide our children, and the level of economic prosperity we all know is within reach.

ENSURING OUR PROGRESS

The first speech from the throne since government has been honoured with its second mandate highlights many of the actions it will take to ensure Nova Scotia's economic and social progress, including: -- a commitment to take the necessary steps and to make the necessary investments to provide better health care for you and your family; -- a commitment to make the necessary adjustments to ensure your province stays in balance; -- a commitment to make our promised investments in better roads, safer bridges, and healthier schools; -- a commitment to advance our plans to reduce class sizes, to kick-start a voluntary pre-school program for four-year-olds, and to increase opportunities for young Nova Scotians to go to community college and to find a good job here at home; -- a commitment to lower personal income taxes so Nova Scotia's economy continues to grow and government has the revenues needed to pay for vital public services over the long term.

SUPPORTING BETTER HEALTH CARE

Knowing that health care is the number one concern of Nova Scotians, government is making adjustments in other spending areas to provide our hospitals with funding over and above the significant increases designated through multi-year funding. The additional investments we are making to front-line health care will enable us to act on our plan to provide you and your family with better health care. A plan that includes: -- new investments in state-of-the-art medical equipment; -- training and recruiting more nurses and doctors and vital health-care professionals; -- implementing a provincewide stroke strategy; -- collecting and broadly sharing information on wait times so doctors and their patients know where they can get faster diagnosis and treatment; -- taking additional steps to promote healthy living.

PROTECTING YOUR INTERESTS

The ambitious legislative agenda that government will pursue this fall and next spring also addresses the following important issues of concern to Nova Scotians. Specifically, government will: -- legislate a 20 per cent reduction in automobile insurance premiums; -- provide Nova Scotians with the ultimate and final say on Sunday shopping; -- establish a cap on annual property assessment increases; -- take the necessary steps to better protect Nova Scotia's public health and safety.

ADVANCING SOCIAL PROGRESS

Government will take the following steps to ensure we advance the social progress of Nova Scotians.

We will:

• introduce legislation to provide greater protection for many of Nova Scotia's well-meaning, community-based volunteers;
• take additional steps to support the independence of Nova Scotians with disabilities;
• eliminate mandatory retirement within the civil service;
• advance plans to protect more of Nova Scotia's valuable wilderness areas;
• develop a new strategy to support Nova Scotia's smaller communities;
• seek recommendations to ensure Nova Scotia's voters' list is more accurate and complete.

SUMMARY

In the final analysis, government will take the steps it knows are needed to provide better, faster health care, to improve the quality of our children's education, to create new jobs, and to support a growing economy.

NOTE: The speech from the throne is available at the Vital Statistics Office, 1609 Hollis St., Halifax and Access Nova Scotia Centres throughout the province, or on the Web at www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/house_business/throne.html .