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HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government is facing criticism after it took down an online dashboard that provided detailed information about the number of people waiting for a family doctor.
Health Minister Michelle Thompson said Friday at the legislature that Nova Scotia Health would continue releasing monthly updates on the family doctor wait-list, instead of the dashboard.
The dashboard hadn’t been updated since June. Thompson says the health agency is verifying if people on the list still need a doctor, and as a result the website is being dropped “for now.”
In the legislature, NDP health critic Dr. Rod Wilson called on the government to restore the service after it was “quietly removed,” saying the public data increased government transparency. The monthly updates, he said, don’t have the detailed information that the dashboard had, such as regional breakdowns of the number of people seeking a family physician, as well as reasons why people were added to the list or removed from it.
In the last monthly update, Nova Scotia Health said there were more than 104,000 people on the doctor wait-list.
Jennifer Lewandowski, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Health, said the agency is contacting people on the wait-list to confirm their contact information, better understand their health needs, and let them know where to go for care in their community.
“The validation process remains a time-consuming but important effort, as it involves calling and having a conversation with every person who is on the registry — more than 160,000 people when this work began,” she said.
However, NDP Opposition Leader Claudia Chender said the removal of the dashboard is another decision taken by the government to make it less accountable to residents. “It’s part of the pattern of secrecy and reduction in accountability we have seen from this government,” she said.
The detailed information on the dashboard was valuable, Chender said, including regional variations and the reasons for people coming on and off the list. “People might move, they might have died. We don’t know and so the more information we can have the better we can understand if any progress is being made on health care.”
Chender also pointed to Premier Tim Houston’s introduction of a contentious omnibus bill last week — which drew criticisms from political observers and access to information experts.
Since then, the government had to reverse course on a number of its proposed amendments, including a clause that would have allowed his government to fire the auditor general without cause, and another which gave cabinet ministers the power to veto the release of her reports.
The premier has also agreed to walk back amendments in the omnibus bill that affected freedom of information rules. The initial proposal would have allowed the heads of public bodies to dismiss information requests for being vexatious, frivolous, or excessively broad.
In response, Tricia Ralph, the province’s information commissioner, asked the premier to modify the amendment by requiring her office to give permission before departments can reject access requests on those grounds.
Houston told reporters Friday he agrees with that change, adding that it will be reflected in the second version of the omnibus bill.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2025.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press