Nova ScotiaNDP Leader Claudia Chender says her party would improve accountability by overhauling the province’s lobbyist registry if it formed government.Party creates new ethics and accountability critic roleMichael Gorman · CBC News · Posted: Nov 07, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.NDP MLA Paul Wozney, his party’s new ethics and accountability critic, speaks to reporters while NDP Leader Claudia Chender looks on. (Michael Gorman/CBC)NDP Leader Claudia Chender says her party would improve accountability by overhauling the province’s lobbyist registry if they formed government.In the meantime, she appointed an ethics and accountability critic to keep tabs on what she called the “shady decisions and secretive practices” of Premier Tim Houston’s government.“This government is playing fast and loose with Nova Scotians,” Chender told reporters at a news conference Thursday at Province House.“With our environment, with our money, with our health care and with any number of other things, and it’s time for it to stop.”Chender listed several issues she said raise questions about whether the government is focused on improving the lives of everyone in the province, or people who support it.A lobbyist registry ‘in name only’She highlighted untendered contracts for Sobeys and the Atlantic branch of Enterprise Canada related to Nova Scotia Loyal, talk of intervening on a Halifax Regional Municipality bylaw that would prevent infilling at Dartmouth Cove and the consideration of a proposal from Cabot Cape Breton to develop a golf course in West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.Chender noted that Houston’s government did not intervene when HRM passed a bylaw related to infilling in the Halifax Arm — but she said the owner of the company that has proposed infilling Dartmouth Cove is someone Houston has identified as a close personal friend.Meanwhile, Cabot Cape Breton is not listed in the province’s lobbyist registry, nor is former PC premier Rodney MacDonald, who has done work for the company.“We have a lobbyist registry right now, but really in name only,” said Chender.“We need a registry that has teeth so that Nova Scotians understand who is influencing the government spending their money.”New critic role focused on accountability, ethicsChender announced Thursday that Sackville-Cobequid MLA Paul Wozney would become the party’s ethics and accountability critic. The purpose of the new position is to keep a sustained focus on government spending, whether it’s working and whether there are questionable patterns or connections that should be highlighted, said Chender.Wozney said the role is a direct product of the current political climate, in which “Trump-style politics” overload the public with information, making it difficult to track government activity.He said the Houston government was elected on mandates to fix health care and address housing and affordability concerns. But since the last election there has also been a hard turn to focus on natural resource development and extraction, something Wozney said the public did not get a say on.Houston has said the pivot was a result of the changing political climate in the United States and the economic threat posed by tariffs from south of the border.Wozney said he doesn’t buy that.�“I think the government has used the threats of tariffs and the fears of Donald Trump to do a lot of things that are deeply unpalatable to Nova Scotians,” he told reporters.“But you don’t defend people from Trump by being like him.”In a statement, a spokesperson for the premier said the government has shown it’s willing to work with anyone who has good ideas for Nova Scotians, regardless of political background.”That’s a key reason why two former Liberal MLAs joined our caucus,” reads the statement.”We welcome accountability and the opportunity to communicate the actions we are taking to support Nova Scotians with the Opposition, and directly to Nova Scotians.” MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORMichael Gorman covers the Nova Scotia legislature for CBC, with additional focuses on health care and rural communities. Contact him with story ideas at michael.gorman@cbc.ca
N.S. NDP calls for increased government accountability
