Government Reform
Intoduction
This set of policies lays out what elected members of Nova Scotians United (NSU) will work towards and how we would run our administration and the House of Assembly once elected with a majority government.
Objectives
1. Pass legislation and amendments, if necessary, that make new requirements for the House of Assembly and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA)
2. Legislation will require the House of Assembly to hold a session no less than once per month.
3. Legislation will make allowance if three or more MLAs collectively request a session be held in the House of Assembly. The session will be scheduled by the premier for no less than 10 days from the time of the request.
4. Legislation will make allowance for any member of the public to submit a petition to the house of assembly removing the necessity of cooperation from an MLA
5. Legislation will be written to make allowance should any civilian present in person to Elections Nova Scotia a petition for the recall and removal of any MLA.
-When assessing a recall petition, Elections Nova Scotia will use the same verification and requirements for the signatures as they do when they register new parties.
-Petitions must require no less than 100 more signatures from residents in the MLA’s district than the votes they were originally elected with. Should the petition be successfully presented and verified, Elections Nova Scotia will instruct The Premier to call a by-election that shall take place within a 6 months time frame in the affected district.
6. An MLA who is recalled will automatically lose any pension, benefits, or privileges they have earned or accumulated.
7. A temporary public civilian committee will be formed to come up with operating parameters for a new town hall system in each respective electoral district.
- Legislation will make allowances for libraries, fire halls, schools, or any provincially owned building suitable for town hall meetings to be made available free of charge.
- Legislation will require sessions to be held no less than once per month and as much as necessary.
- Legislation will require the attendance of each MLA to attend said town hall in their respective district. MLAs must take questions from any member of the public under the penalty of perjury.
- Legislation will require a procedure to be written that allows the Town Hall or its committees the authority to summon any taxpayer-funded public servant. For example, town councilors, mayors, police, Dr, teachers, etc take questions under the penalty of perjury.
8. Shrink the size of our House of Assembly and the number of MLAs down to two-thirds initially.
Closing Statment
We delegate the duty to our elected officials to manage and distribute our resources and to write laws to keep our communities safe. When these officials become complacent and or fail to achieve their promises there's no recourse other than to wait till their term runs out.
Not only will we create a platform that opens transparent channels of communication under the penalty of perjury, but we will also create the means necessary to hold our officials accountable and responsible for their actions and the promises they make.