Liberal Leader Iain Rankin announced his party’s plans to introduce the ScotiaPass if elected. The pass would essentially serve as a vaccine passport that allows private organizations to validate vaccine records.
The Liberals also made a $15 million commitment over four years for the province’s parks. The funds would be available to the 20 existing Provincial Parks for accessibility upgrades, park improvements, and maintenance.
Rankin announced the park funding at Graves Island Provincial Park where he also spoke about the ScotiaPass program.
“The reason we see the need for this is our growing concerns surrounding the rising case numbers in our country and across the world,” Rankin said. “We want to be proactive and another province has already introduced a program like this so we want to ensure there is a system is a place that works well for the businesses that want to use it,”.
The Liberals say a standard, recognized certificate would relieve the pressure on businesses from having to invent their own systems to screen their patrons or invest in an app or software program.
As for the parks announcement, the key item is the $15 million investment but there are other components to it as well.
The Liberals promise to increase the amount of protected public land to 17 per cent by adding more designated protected green spaces.
The Liberals also earmarked funds for two specific issues. The first being damage at the Graves Island Causeway for which the Liberals would invest $350,000 for an assessment study and construction to determine the possible solutions for addressing and mitigating long-term coastal damage, erosion, and storm and tide events.
The second issue specifically identified is the state of the upper and lower bridges at Rissers Beach Provincial Park for which the Liberals are earmarking $100,000 for repairs.
