It wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest the winter session at the Nova Scotia Legislature did not go the way Premier Tim Houston and his government had hoped.

With full control over when the House sits, when the budget is tabled and what’s in that budget, the government had ample time to prepare for the rollout of what it likely wanted to be a short session.

Instead, MLAs spent more time at Province House than they had since Houston became premier — partly because the rollout of the government’s budget could not have gone much worse, and partly because the government’s effort to grind the opposition into submission right out of the gates blew up in its face.

Despite a revenue problem that has the government contending with a deficit of more than $1.2 billion and no sign of getting back in the black any time soon, the government tabled a budget with increased department spending that included a 12 per cent bump for the Health Department, all while maintaining last year’s tax cuts.

The message Houston and his team wanted to send was that even in difficult financial times, they remain committed to spending on core areas including health care, housing and education, and that they’re mindful of affordability.

And to show they are also mindful of the government finances, the budget included plans to cut the civil service by five per cent and grants by $130 million, the first in a four-year plan that calls for cuts amounting to a total of more than $2.5 billion.

That’s where the government found itself woefully unprepared for what was about to happen.

The premier and members of his cabinet struggled to explain those grant cuts, including why they were made and the impacts they would have. Some ministers appeared as though they hadn’t been briefed at all, while others seemed defensive when they continued to get questions on the subject.

It only served to make the public angrier, particularly as it became clear that some of those cuts would have direct impacts on vulnerable people and daily revelations put faces to those affected.

While Houston eventually apologized and restored some of the funding, the damage was already done. A public that has been largely apathetic for the last five years about what happens at the legislature — less that half of eligible voters cast a ballot in the last provincial election — suddenly had a keen interest in what was happening at the House.

For a government that has predominantly known good times during its tenure, it must have been a jarring experience.

Meanwhile, Houston’s trend of calling long hours at the legislature went into hyperdrive.

The government extended hours until midnight almost every day of the session, beginning on the second day. Calling late hours is a step governments take when they’re trying to move their agenda through the House as quickly as possible, in part because of the toll it takes on opposition MLAs who must fill all those hours with debate.

Even still, longtime observers of House business had not seen the tactic used to this degree.

Unfortunately for the Progressive Conservatives, it only seemed to invigorate the opposition, in particular the two MLAs who are former PC caucus members.

Independent MLAs Becky Druhan and Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin shouldered much of the debate load, slowing the process in a way that gave the public more time to digest what was happening and how it might affect them, all while extending the daily questioning from press gallery reporters the premier and his cabinet are subject to when they’re on Hollis Street.

All MLAs, particularly those without cabinet duties, likely welcome the chance to get back to the day-to-day routine of constituency work and more time at home, but things are not going to get any easier for the government.

As difficult as the cuts this year might have been, Year 2 of the fiscal sustainability plan calls for cuts that are more than twice as deep.

More immediately, power rates are going up, a potential strike of long-term care workers looms, the government is facing scrutiny by credit rating agencies and Houston must find a way to address a recent court decision related to a past Liberal government’s contract negotiating tactics that could cost the province untold millions.

All of this comes while there are no immediate signs of new revenue streams, although the premier is pushing hard to create them through natural resource development.

Houston has reached the point in his time as premier where he can no longer rely on the political trope of blaming past governments. His now has a five-year record that people can judge.

The difficult financial times and sudden resurgence in public engagement mean the Progressive Conservatives are unlikely to avoid increased scrutiny, even if they’re finally away from the daily glare of the legislature.

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