PORT HAWKESBURY - One year after the swearing-in of Nova Scotia's first Progressive Conservative government since 2009, MLAs from three parties - and three parts of Cape Breton - joined Telile Roundtable host Adam Cooke for a lively look back at the past 12 months and a look ahead to the fall legislature session. 

Richmond PC MLA Trevor Boudreau, one of several first-time candidates to win seats in the August 2021 vote, joined Sydney-Membertou MLA and former Liberal cabinet minister Derek Mombourquette along with the NDP MLA for Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, Kendra Coombes, for a panel discussion that dovetailed with several government announcements designed to address various issues. 

Boudreau, a longtime chiropractor who was heavily involved in physician recruitment efforts during his time as a Port Hawkesbury Town Council, described the ongoing struggle to address rural health care as akin to "eating an elephant - one bite at a time." He praised Premier Tim Houston for making the issue a centrepiece of his victorious election campaign and following up with such recent announcements as virtual-physician appointments for those in underserviced areas, as well as a provincial plan to fast-track applications by Ukrainian health professionals to work in Nova Scotia. 

While the opposition MLAs congratulated Boudreau on his personal track record, they lambasted Houston for going on the attack during and prior to the election campaign without having specific ideas to stem the tide of doctors leaving the province, resulting in a wait-list of 100,000 Nova Scotians without a family physician. Mombourquette added that his government's cautious approach to COVID-19 restrictions was needlessly dismantled by the PC administration, while Coombes stressed that the collaborative emergency care centres established by her party during its term in office could bear fruit in other communities. 

Coombes and Mombourquette also criticized Boudreau's government colleagues for delaying on the submission of a green-energy strategy to the federal government prior to the September 2 deadline for such a move. However, even with the likelihood that Ottawa will impose a carbon tax on Nova Scotia that could see gas prices spike dramatically in the coming months, Boudreau expressed optimism that his government's latest plan would calm the waters in this difficult debate.