Legislative committee won't discuss Hogan Court deal until the end of March

Opposition MLAs are accusing the government of ducking more scrutiny of a deal to buy an unfinished hotel to convert it into a health-care facility, but the Tories say they're ready to defend their record.

Last week, Auditor General Kim Adair released a scathing report on the purchase of 21 Hogan Court in Bedford, N.S., and the development of transitional care units for patients who are well enough to leave the hospital, but still need assistance before returning home or are waiting for a bed in long-term care.

It's customary for the legislature's standing committee on public accounts to discuss an auditor general's report the week after it's released.

But New Democrat MLA Susan Leblanc told reporters on Tuesday that the committee will not meet this week because senior officials who are scheduled to testify said they were not available until March 27.

Leblanc put forward a motion via email for an emergency meeting this week, but it failed to receive the support of Tory members on the committee.

"I have serious concerns about this," she said at a news conference scheduled by the NDP. "There's so much that's alarming about the auditor general's report."

Among other things, Adair's report noted there were more than $80 million in untendered contracts, that a consultant's report advised against using the property to house patients, and that the government entered into negotiations with a developer who wanted to buy the property rather than with the owner of the property.

Leblanc said "there's no question" that the project has been "a very poor use of health-care dollars and a bad deal for Nova Scotians."

The government has spent millions of dollars in the name of expediency without oversight, she said, "and the problem with that is that it lacks accountability and it's open to abuse."

Liberal MLA Braedon Clark said it seems like the Tories are trying to do damage control before MLAs return to Province House next week for the spring session.

"I don't think there's any other conclusion you can draw," he said in an interview.

"If the government members thought this was a great story for the government, they would be glad — I am sure — to be talking about this every single day. But obviously they don't think so."

But Tory MLA Nolan Young, the committee's vice-chair, said he and his colleagues have nothing to do with the scheduling of witnesses. That's the job of the committee clerk and chair, he said.

"We're ready to meet and have our meetings of the public accounts as we always do, and I'm saying that genuinely," he said in an interview.

"Whenever the clerk and the chair do set these meetings, that's the schedule that we're following. So, there's no ulterior motives. It's just this is how the schedule laid out."

Witnesses for the meeting on March 27 include the deputy ministers of Health, Public Works and Service Nova Scotia, the CEO of Build Nova Scotia and the interim CEO of Nova Scotia Health.