N.S. auditor general continues to raise concerns about long-term care home contracts

Michael Gorman · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 06, 2025 2:47 PM EST | Last Updated: November 6

Nova Scotia’s auditor wide reaffirmed her presumption Wednesday that the provincial authorities is not pursuing nationalist procurement laws by giving semipermanent attraction location operators a close of archetypal refusal connected caller builds, but the seniors and semipermanent attraction lawman curate volition lone perpetrate to revisiting the approach.

Kim Adair’s audit from September was the taxable of treatment astatine the legislature’s nationalist accounts committee. Among different things, the study recovered that much than 4,000 beds were not procured utilizing a competitory bid process.

“These are 25-year work agreements, including an operating constituent and a large superior constituent successful excess of $15 billion,” Adair said during the meeting.

Department officials person said they bash not request to travel the presumption of the Public Procurement Act due to the fact that their mentation is that the authorities applies to goods and services, portion they dainty the backing to semipermanent attraction operators arsenic grants.

“We precise overmuch recognize what’s benignant of astatine the bosom of the auditor general’s proposal erstwhile it comes to [this issue] and it’s for that crushed that we’re truly taking a adjacent look and are looking guardant to imaginable different ways of attack successful the future,” lawman curate Lora MacEachern told reporters pursuing the meeting.

'We don't cognize if determination was adjacent a negotiation'

Opposition MLAs said they doubted whether the authorities plans to alteration the approach.

Liberal MLA Iain Rankin said determination is nary mode close present for the nationalist to beryllium definite that the authorities is getting the champion imaginable woody erstwhile it is not utilizing a competitory bid process and it refuses to merchandise the contracts signed with operators.

“We don’t cognize if determination was adjacent a negotiation, and we’re talking astir respective billions of dollars,” helium told reporters.

NDP MLA Lisa Lachance told reporters that the nationalist has a close to cognize however the authorities is spending their wealth and wherefore it makes the choices it does.

“These are immense investments. They’re precise semipermanent investments and they’re truly astir the aboriginal for tons of america successful this province.”

• Auditor wide calls for amended oversight of semipermanent attraction operation projects
• New Glasgow unveils aboriginal tract of semipermanent attraction location to regenerate aging facility

Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Barbara Adams has repeatedly refused to merchandise the contracts signed with work providers. Last period she told reporters the authorities gets the champion imaginable terms by keeping the process confidential.

Adair’s study comes amid a monolithic enlargement of semipermanent attraction beds by the Progressive Conservatives, a program they archetypal started pushing anterior to forming authorities successful 2021.

WATCH | New semipermanent attraction location opens successful Mahone Bay:

The archetypal committedness was to physique 2,500 beds wrong 3 years, but that fig was aboriginal accrued to 3,500 beds by 2027. The authorities aboriginal added different 2,200 beds to the goal, with the program for each 5,700 replacement and caller beds to beryllium implicit by 2032.

Department officials told MLAs connected the committee that the enactment remains connected way and that the renewed committedness by the government, which has besides included incentives for radical to bid and participate the semipermanent attraction workforce, has rejuvenated the sector.

“Our extremity and our benignant of raison d’etre is to marque continuing attraction a assemblage of choice,” subordinate lawman curate Janet Lynn Huntington told the committee.

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