Environmental groups want commitments from parties to end fossil fuel support

Welcome toCBC's Election Notebook, your source for regular updatesandessential news from the campaign trail.

It's Day 28 of Nova Scotia's 31-day provincial election campaign.

A call to end fossil fuel development

With Election Day just days away and a recent report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calling for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a consortium of groups is calling on all Nova Scotia political parties to do their part.

"This is a measure of the sincerity of a party's pledge to address the climate emergency," director Gretchen Fitzgerald of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation said in a news release.

The Sierra Club is part of the Offshore Alliance, which is composed of 18 fishing groups and environmental NGOs that want to see an end to oil and gas exploration in favour of a major expansion of green energy projects.

While there isn't offshore exploration or development happening now in Nova Scotia, the release from the Offshore Alliance noted that government funding continues for the purpose of fostering development of offshore oil and gas.

The Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, NDP and Nova Scotia Green Party all devote portions of their respective platforms to the environment. All call for aggressive emission reduction targets.

The Green Party also pledges to end all exploration, drilling and extraction of fossil fuels and provincial subsidies to fossil fuel sectors.

Houston bags unlikely endorsement

A few days after NDP Leader Gary Burrill announced the support of a former Liberal Party of Nova Scotia candidate, Tory Leader Tim Houston announced a surprise endorsement of his own.

Denise Peterson-Rafuse, the former community services minister in the NDP government of Darrell Dexter, said she's backing Houston and the Tories this election because of their plan to help improve health care.

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"I never dreamt in my life that I would ever stand by a PC leader and say that I am supporting him in the election," said Peterson-Rafuse, who represented Chester-St. Margaret's from 2009 to 2017.

While she said it was a difficult decision to publicly support a different party, Peterson-Rafuse said her observations of and experiences with the health-care system prompted her to support the party she believes best positioned to defeat the Liberals on Tuesday.

NDP plan for better mental health supports

Burrill, Peterson-Rafuse's former caucus colleague, started his day Friday touting the party's plan to improve access to mental health care.

The NDP is promising to open same-day or next-day clinics around the province, as well as making emergency mental health response teams available across Nova Scotia.

The party is also committed tospending 10 per cent of the overall health and wellness budget on mental health, a recommendation of the World Health Organization.

"It's important that we're able to make sure that everyone in Nova Scotia understands that if the NDP on Tuesday is able to form the government of our province, the improvements in mental health care that are needed are going to be the improvements in mental health care that are going to be provided," said Burrill.

The network of services would be made possible in part by hiring clinical mental health social workers and psychologists, something already happening in other provinces, said Burrill.

He said it's importantthat these services aren't all located in one place, but rather spread out around the province.

"We wouldn't think of providing all kinds of other health-care services only in one county of the province, but in fact we do this with mobile mental health crisis response teams."

Liberals on agriculture

For the second day in a row, Liberal Leader Iain Rankin didn't make a public announcement, although he campaigned throughout parts of northern Nova Scotia and Halifax Regional Municipality.

The Liberal campaign sent out a news release Friday afternoon drawing attention to the party's agriculture platform, which includes promises of more compensation for losses producers experience, efforts to expand the use of green technology and improve market development and innovation on farms.

The party is also promising to promote local food through a healthy lunches program for elementary school students.

How to vote

Check whether you are registered to vote with Elections Nova Scotia.

Once registered, you can vote in advance of election day by requesting a mail-in ballot or by visiting a returning office or advance polling station.

On election day, polling stations will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

More information on voting is available from electionsnovascotia.ca.

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