No open competition for Accelerate Nova Scotia?

HALIFAX – Premier Tim Houston (pictured) says in many situations it would make sense to have an open competition for a newly created government job, but not in the case of the one announced last month for the former interim CEO of Nova Scotia Health.

Karen Oldfield was named CEO of the newly created Accelerate Nova Scotia on June 30, a job that comes with a two-year contract that pays $310,000 per year.

Houston told reporters that Oldfield’s time at the helm of the health authority, a job he gave her after coming to power in 2021 and firing the then CEO and board, makes her the right person to head up Accelerate Nova Scotia.

It was under Oldfield’s watch that Nova Scotia Health developed the YourHealthNS app and technology to better co-ordinate hospital bed management and reduced the size of the need-a-family-practice registry, said Houston.

“This is the most crucial person to what we’re doing here,” he said.

The new agency Oldfield is heading up is tasked with commercializing healthcare research and technology, with revenues generated being returned to the health-care system.

“The people who understand what we have built in Nova Scotia and the blood, sweat and tears — the mistakes — all the stuff that we’ve had to overcome over five years to get to where we are, the people who understand that are Karen and her team,” said Houston.

But opposition members say not enough is known about Accelerate or how it will operate to know that that’s the case.

“If the premier is so sure that Karen Oldfield is all of the superlatives that he uses about her every time her name comes up, then prove it,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters.

“Put it out to competition, let her apply like everyone else and choose her because she’s the candidate with the most merit.”

Chender noted that Oldfield’s salary is not far off the $350,000 that library officials in the Annapolis Valley say they require this year to keep five branches from closing.

Liberal health critic Becky Druhan told reporters that it should be the “bare minimum” that the government can show what an agency is supposed to do and what financial and operating accountability measures will be in place before it’s launched.

“The reality is, Nova Scotians deserve healthcare that works before we work on healthcare that sells. And that’s not happening right now.”

Houston said the idea for Accelerate evolved from a discussion about how to commercialize things that are already happening and have been developed in the province. Oldfield told CBC Radio’s Information Morning Cape Breton on Wednesday that she was also involved in those talks.

Oldfield said she sees healthcare as a two-sided coin: one side focuses on care delivery, while the other focuses on how to pay for it.

That can include research, clinical trials, data, biomedical manufacturing and pharmacology, she said.

“There are so many parts that come under the umbrella of life sciences and ways to partner and generate jobs and revenue that that’s the opportunity I saw,” said Oldfield.

From that there are opportunities to grow the economy, she said.

Both Oldfield and Houston said the YourHealthNS app is a prime opportunity for commercialization that could help other areas while generating new revenue for Nova Scotia.

“We can sell that and we can take the dollars and reinject them right into our health-care system,” said Oldfield.

The agency will operate outside the health department, although the premier said it would work in conjunction with the department, the health authority and the province’s health innovation hub. Oldfield said Invest Nova Scotia would also be involved at times.

Houston said he does not see any redundancies with the new and existing agencies.

“They all work together,” he said. “They’re all important things.”

Source: CBC News