announced Tuesday that it was launching Accelerate Nova Scotia<\/a>, which is focusing on health-care innovation. \t<\/p>\nIt will be led by Karen Oldfield, who was the interim head of Nova Scotia Health for the last five years. \t<\/p>\n
“The interesting part is that in these times of government restraint, it’s clear the premier is selective as to where that constraint takes place,” said Sandra Mullen, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union.<\/p>\n
Oldfield’s leadership at Nova Scotia Health was criticized by opposition members during her tenure.<\/p>\n
Oldfield, a lawyer, was put in the role in 2021 after the former CEO and board were fired by Premier Tim Houston and Health Minister Michelle Thompson. \t<\/p>\n
She retained the title of interim president and CEO for the duration of her five years in the job. <\/p>\n
On July 1, Dr. Nicole Boutilier became the new head of Nova Scotia Health.<\/p>\n
Both Mullen and interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin are applauding the promotion of Boutilier to lead the health authority, saying it’s valuable to have someone in the role who has a health-care background. <\/p>\n
But they say that is clouded by the creation of the new organization. \t<\/p>\n
Oldfield will earn $310,000 annually in her new role. It’s a slight raise from what she earned at the health authority. \t<\/p>\n
In a statement, the province said Accelerate Nova Scotia “will identify opportunities to work with other government and healthcare markets to commercialize on these developments and create a return on our investment.” \t<\/p>\n
Mullen said the union will be watching closely as the agency gets to work.<\/p>\n
“We’re very concerned about commercializing,” she said. “It leads to a lot of questions.” \t<\/p>\n
Rankin said the concept has potential but the government should have been transparent about the creation of the agency, which he said came out of the blue. \t<\/p>\n
“If we have these important leadership positions and we have so many qualified entrepreneurs that have lived and breathed how to grow the economy in this space, why not open it up to open and transparent competition?” \t<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the recent budget cuts, which led to significant public outcry.<\/p>\n
In February, the province announced it was facing a $1.2-billion deficit, leading to cuts that targeted community and arts groups across the province. \t<\/p>\n
“That message of growing the bureaucracy, hand-picking friends, and taking away from community groups, I think, sends the wrong signal,” Rankin said. \t <\/p>\n
The province told CBC News it does not know how many employees will work for Accelerate Nova Scotia. It said that will be determined through the budget process. \t<\/p>\n
It said work on the agency’s operating charter and strategic plan will begin immediately.<\/p>\n
MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-777549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n