Thank you, Sarah, for that kind introduction–you read it exactly the way I wrote it.

Good afternoon, Cabinet Ministers, MLA’s Municipal Councilors and Chamber members. I wish to thank the chamber and MT&L for their continued support of this annual event.

I am very pleased to be here, to deliver my second State of the Province address.

Now traditionally, this opportunity is used for the premier of the day to brag and boast about his accomplishments, and all the great things he and his government has done over the past year.

But not me. You see, I am a modest man.

Now, if you have been paying attention to what they are saying about me in the legislature, you would probably think that I have much to be modest about, but the government I lead can be very proud of what it has done, and continues to do for the people of Nova Scotia.

Two weeks ago, our speech from the throne outlined our vision for achieving the New Nova Scotia, and the five immediate priorities of our government. Now, in the political rhetoric that always follows a throne speech, our side says it was the best ever, the opposition says it was the worst ever–you may have missed these priorities.

Getting to where we want Nova Scotia to be, where we know it can be, in 2020 requires vision, and it requires immediate attention to social and economic priorities. I was astounded that some MLAs would even question the need of forward thinking and looking ahead to 2020.

I have no difficulty with anyone disagreeing with our vision for the New Nova Scotia, but I take great issue with those who have suggested we don't need a vision at all.

There's an old Japanese proverb that says vision without action is a daydream, and action with without vision is a nightmare. I make no apologies for having a vision of where I want Nova Scotia to be in 2020, and our actions must flow from that vision.

A forestry company plants trees today so they will be ready to turn into paper in 40 years. Software engineers are planning years ahead so they will lead innovation, not catch up to it. Your government has immediate priorities today, so that we can realize our vision for 2020.

The five immediate priorities for the coming year are educating to compete, protecting our environment, improving our roads and infrastructure, creating safer and healthier communities, and reducing health wait times.

Educating to compete means having an education system that gives young Nova Scotians the skills they need to compete for jobs in this economy. It also means ensuring our province is not passed over by any investor, by making sure we have the skill sets they need to prosper and create jobs here in Nova Scotia.

Creating jobs, growing our economy and protecting our environment go hand in hand. We recognized that when we passed our ground-breaking environmental protection law last spring. We set aggressive but reachable targets, and we go further yet and appoint a minister whose sole focus will be the environment.

Another priority is to build safer, healthy communities. I'm sure many of you in this room are shocked and saddened when violence in Halifax makes national headlines. Next week, we will unveil a comprehensive strategy that will be tough on crime and the people who commit them.

We have convinced the federal government to toughen up the Youth Criminal Justice Act, we are putting more police on the streets, we are intensifying our supervision of offenders released into the community, and we are forcing drug dealers out of our communities.

We will also work closely with communities within metro to aggressively tackle the root causes of crime, and to identify and intervene with at-risk youth before they harm others or themselves.

Part of being a healthier community means having access to medication.

Our government's pharmacare program will mean up to 180 thousand people without private prescription drug coverage will have that access. No one will be left behind.

Closely related to building healthy, safer communities, is our priority of reducing the wait times for medical services. New MRIs across the province are already cutting in half the wait times for diagnosis. An agreement with Ottawa will enable us to put in place a wait time guarantee for cancer radiation treatment.

In keeping with the spirit and letter of the Canada Health Act, we will establish protection, standards, and control that will allow publicly funded, private facilities to play a clearly defined role in providing access to certain and prescribed heath services. This will help us shorten wait times for patients who need service, while remaining true to our commitment to a universal, publicly funded health-care system.

Another priority addresses one of the biggest challenges facing Nova Scotia, and one that is so huge, will require the attention of governments for years to come. I'm speaking of our need for better roads and infrastructure.

Quite frankly, at our current pace, we will never catch up to fixing our infrastructure deficit of eight billion dollars. Like trying to put out a house fire with a garden hose, the problem will get bigger, and we will fall farther behind.

Unless, of course, we are innovative and willing to embrace what has worked well in other parts of the world facing the same problem. The Atlantic Gateway, has the potential to make a huge difference in our transportation infrastructure. This is especially so here at the Port of Halifax and the ports connector routes to our highway system.

Much has been said about our intention to rebuild and replace our aging infrastructure through partnerships with the private sector. Our critics are saying we shouldn't do it. They are saying Nova Scotia tried it once and it didn't work.

Isn't that a fine message to send to young Nova Scotians? If at first you do not succeed, give up.

These critics are saying that you, the men and women of the Nova Scotia's business community are not competent enough to partner with the province to fix Nova Scotia's infrastructure deficit.

What a fine message to Nova Scotia's business community–you're good enough to be the backbone of our economy, but you can't be trusted to build and heat and clean a building. The fact is, we need far more roads, bridges, and public buildings than we can afford to build on our own, and we need them today.

I don't believe that history repeats itself as much as people repeat history. The P3 experience of a decade ago is history we will not repeat.

Instead, we have learned from that failed experiment, most prominent among those lessons is that no accounting smoke and mirrors can keep these projects off the books.

Now, my critics may choose to have their minds stuck firmly in the past, but I do not.

Valuable lessons have been learned, lessons that are already being applied to strategic infrastructure projects, or SIPs across Canada and around the world.

You can get in your car and drive from here to the Quebec border on twinned highway. Much of that drive will be on a highway built through New Brunswick, using an innovative public-private financing agreement involving the federal and New Brunswick governments, and a national engineering and construction firm.

Our neighbours in New Brunswick are also pursuing SIPs for three new ferries and a new courthouse in Moncton.

British Columbia is doing more than any province in SIPs. Assisted living facilities, water treatment plants and recreation facilities, all being built through partnerships with the private sector to serve British Columbians.

As much as Canada is doing in strategic partnerships, we are way behind the rest of the world when it comes to involving the private sector to build public infrastructure.

Schools in Australia, public transit in Ireland, railways in Norway–all built through some form of strategic partnership.

Perhaps no nation does more of this than the U.K., where under a Labour government everything from street lighting to revitalizing the London underground system was done with some level of strategic partnerships.

To help Canadians catch up, the federal government has made available 1.25 billion dollars to support innovative projects that provide an alternative to traditional government infrastructure procurement.

They can work. They are working around the world. And we will make them work for Nova Scotia.

Some people, by no means everyone, need to get over their paranoia about the private sector. After the things I've heard in the legislature over the past few days about our business community, I would swear that all of you have horns, hooves, carry a pitch fork and spend most of your time in a very hot place.

These nay-sayers should stop to think about all the public services that are already delivered wholly or in part by the private sector. Our emergency ambulance service is one of the best in the world and it is delivered by world-class paramedics who are employed by a private company.

Today, I am very pleased to announce that another major project, one that will improve the lives of thousands of Nova Scotians will be completed thanks to the province and private sector working together. It should be well known by now that in two years, Nova Scotia will become the only jurisdiction in North America where every one of its residents has access to affordable high-speed internet.

Just two hours ago in Canaan, I announced we have reached an agreement with Eastlink Cable and Seaside Cable to deliver this critical piece of our economic infrastructure to the 165,000 Nova Scotians currently without this service.

No one–no other province, and no U.S. state–can claim to be as far along as Nova Scotia in bringing high speed internet to 100 per cent of its residents.

This project will go a long way to leveling the playing field between rural Nova Scotia and the larger centres. I am a proud son of rural Nova Scotia, with a young son of my own. I know how important this project is to a generation of Nova Scotians.

This is every bit as important as electrification was 70 years ago, and I am very proud to be part of the government that is making it happen. And we want to do so much more.

For its own good and the good of Nova Scotia, Halifax needs to work with the private sector to develop more quality office space downtown. Our business development agency, NSBI, and I have met with many potential investors, especially in the financial community who are interested in coming to Halifax. They want to be where other banks and financial institutions are located, and in Halifax that is downtown.

Having lived here for a good part of the past eight years, I have become very attached to this great city. I would hate to see its great economic potential stymied because potential investors cannot find the right space to set up shop.

I have offered HRM any assistance the province can provide to ensure municipal by-laws encourage, and not discourage, the future growth and prosperity of Halifax. I know what it is like to be doing the right thing when everyone says it is easier to do nothing.

Many have asked why we persisted in introducing legislation to achieve labour settlements in health care without the use of strikes. The answer is simple: because it is the right thing to do.

It was the right thing to do when we first proposed it several months ago, after a one-day strike at the IWK forced the cancellation of 59 surgeries and 474 specialist appointments.

Imagine waiting for months for your child to see a specialist, or to have an operation, only to be forced to wait even longer because of a strike, or as is the case more often, the threat of a strike.

I've never met anyone in the health care field who wants to strike. What they do want is good working conditions, a competitive salary, and a health care system that is responsive to the needs of their patients and the people who work in it.

Our proposed law would help accomplish this.

All the things health care workers want: a decent wage, better working conditions, and an opportunity to make the system work better for them and their patients could be achieved through one or more of the settlement options proposed in this legislation.

And they wouldn't have to go on strike to get it.

Believe me, it would've been very easy for me to carry on without engaging the health care unions on this issue. But that wouldn't be leadership. Leadership means facing the music even if you don't like the tune.

With the passage of time, I suppose many of you have forgotten the chaos that ensued because of that one day strike last April. Unless of course, you or your child were impacted by it. Pretending it didn't happen certainly would've been the easy way out.

And sadly, many Members of the Legislature have demonstrated loudly and clearly that the easy way out is the path they have chosen. It is very easy, and I must admit at times very tempting, to just tackle the safe issues. But that isn't going to help Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia needs innovative solutions to problems, because that is the only way forward. We need to be creative, and we need to challenge convention. The status quo just isn't good enough.

Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. The solutions to our problems do not lie in the same old, tired responses, whether its resolving health care labour issues, replacing our aging infrastructure or preparing Nova Scotians for jobs in the new economy.

The people who say Ano@ to these things and every other innovative idea we've had, would've told Henry Ford the horse is just fine. They would've said it doesn't even need to be faster, you just need to feed it more money.

We don't need faster horses, we need better ideas. So if it means being the first to provide all our residents with broadband, that's what we'll do.

If it means trying to obtain healthcare settlements without strikes, that's what we'll do.

If it means being innovative to fix the infrastructure deficit, that's what we'll do.

And if it means giving special focus to five important priorities, that's what we'll do.

What is the State of the Province?

Our finances are stable, our environment is a priority, our education system is an advantage, our infrastructure is being addressed, and our communities are becoming safer and healthier. Sounds like a good place to live, work and raise a family to me.

That’s my Nova Scotia–by choice.

I wish to thank the chamber and MT&L for this opportunity to speak to you this afternoon.

I’m happy to take your questions.

Thank you.