Liberals accused of delaying discussion on health-care issue

Communities struggling to find doctors and nurses to fill vacant, or soon to be vacant positions, may be anxious to know what the province is doing about it.

But Liberals on the legislature's human resources committee decided that wasn't a topic worthy of its attention on Tuesday, but rather something a yet-to-be-created health committee should examine.

Dave Wilson, the former NDP health minister and a member of the human resources committee, accused the governing party of wanting to delay discussion of an important issue.

"They didn't want this topic coming forward right now," said Wilson.

"The health committee will be created some time in the future, but right now it's not a committee of the House," he said. "We don't know what the makeup of that committee is, when it's going to meet, what the structure is."

Health committee might not be running until 2019

As NDP House leader, Wilson will be part of the discussion surrounding the makeup of that new standing committee, but he said those talks aren't scheduled to begin until mid-November.

He said it is likely the health committee won't be operational until next year.

PC MLA Alana Paon proposed hearing from Carmelle d'Entremont of the Nova Scotia Health Authority about "recruitment strategies within the NSHA."

Paon called Tuesday's developments a delaying tactic.

"This topic is a very important topic, on the minds of a lot of people," she said. "We're having problems recruiting doctors across this province and it should be a discussion that should open and transparent."

She was also concerned about one committee telling another committee what it should do. "We're not in a position to tell that committee what should be put on their agenda."

Jessome dismisses criticism

Committee chair Ben Jessome, a Liberal, dismissed the accusation his party was simply trying to put off discussion on a sensitive topic.

"Absolutely not, and frankly we could have voted it down altogether, but that's not what we chose to do," he said. "We chose to defer the topic to a committee that is on the near horizon."

He said it is "reasonable" to assume the new committee will set its own agenda, but believes a request from another committee might hold some sway.

"The fact that we've suggested that this topic be deferred to that committee is not an indication that we don't support this as being an important topic, rather that we believe that it is important."