Province House will be bustling Monday as MLAs return for a sitting of the legislature, but NDP Leader Claudia Chender says for most of the year, the building “might as well be a museum.”

Chender held a news conference Thursday at Province House ahead of the sitting and criticized Premier Tim Houston for a “lack of transparency and availability” that she called “shocking.”

“This government has not delivered what they promised, and they have not been accountable for their choices,” she said.

Chender highlighted the Progressive Conservative government’s short sittings — MLAs were at the House last year for only 30 days — and limited media availability with the premier.

Houston has not been available to the press gallery for more than five weeks. Chender noted that during that stretch of time the province was dealt a downgrade by one of the major credit rating agencies and Houston has yet to respond publicly.

“I really believe that this government is hiding from Nova Scotians,” she said.

Chender said her party will table legislation this sitting for a legislative budget officer, which she said will hold the government accountable for its “historic levels” of spending. Houston said last month the deficit had risen to $1.4 billion.

A new budget is expected to be tabled next week, and Houston has cautioned that cuts to programs and the civil service will likely be needed to contend with mounting financial pressures.

Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin also held a news conference Thursday, also proposing a budgetary watchdog for the legislature.

“We’ve never seen in this province the kind of reckless spending that we’re seeing,” he said.

Meanwhile, he committed that a Liberal government would invest provincial money into child care to bring fees down to an average of $10 a day. The PCs admitted last week they will not achieve that target as planned because they’ve run out of money from Ottawa.

“This is about priorities,” Rankin said.

The premier’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Independent MLA Becky Druhan says she’ll table legislation this session “to modernize and strengthen Nova Scotia’s conflict of interest framework, with a focus on transparency, enforceability, and public confidence in democratic institutions.”

In a news release, the former PC cabinet minister said the current legislation hasn’t been comprehensively reviewed in over a decade.

“This is not about questioning the integrity of people who are trying to do good work,” she said. “It’s about ensuring the accountability systems that support them and protect public trust are strong, clear, and up to date.”

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