Shortages of housing and health care are getting smaller
Posted May 16, 2025
Tim Houston was elected Premier of Nova Scotia in August 2021, just as the population was passing the one million Mark. He had campaigned on a vision of doubling that amount by 2060. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the resources needed to support that pace were conspicuously absent.
To achieve the doubling goal would require an average increase of 25,000 a year over the next 40 years. In 2021 the increase was 20,000, most of which came from net interprovincial movements. Many of the migrants were urban dwellers in central Canada who had been confined to their condos during the covid outbreak.
The interprovincial increase gradually slowed down in 2022 and 2023, but international migration swelled, increasing the population by 30,000 and 28,000, respectively.
That out-of-control increase came from the Liberal’s gross incompetence in managing the number of non-permanent residents. These are made up of international students and temporary foreign workers. In prior years, the number of arrivals was mostly offset by those who were leaving.
Corrective action on that and the end of net interprovincial growth meant that Nova Scotia’s population growth in 2024 was 11,000. For many, that brought sighs of relief. The province had not been prepared for a growth of 90,000 residents in four years.
The supply of housing struggled to keep up. Students in Cape Breton were living in overcrowded apartments. Tent cities appeared in Halifax and elsewhere.
All three levels of government contributed efforts to accelerate the pace of new construction, though the possibilities are limited by the number of tradespeople available. Various initiatives by the provincial government have greatly reduced the number of people living rough.
Nova Scotia’s housing starts were 7,381 units in 2024, a 3.1% increase from 2023. That should be enough to absorb the 2024 population increase and begin reducing the backlog from prior years. It certainly is not enough to accommodate increases like what happened in 2021 and 2022.
Housing is one of many resources that are stretched by population growth. The other big one is accessibility of health care.
One closely watched measure of this is the number of people who do not have attachment to a primary care provider. Usually that is a doctor, but more and more nurse practitioners are providing many of those services.
The closely watched statistic is the number of people who are not attached to a provider. There are 6.5 million Canadians, about 16% of the population, without a doctor. According to a 2025 Health Canada report analyzing the health-care workforce, the country is currently short 22,823 family physicians.
This has been accomplished by several strategies. One has been expanding the scope of other health care providers. Pharmacists can prescribe drugs and do needles. Nurse practitioners can order tests and prescriptions for most common illnesses. Another is for patients to access care remotely by phone or internet providers.
The most important has been recruiting efforts. On April 25 Nova Scotia Health reported that they had recruited 259 physicians, for a net gain of 187.
|
Net Impact |
|||||
| Specialty Group |
Central |
Eastern | Northern | Western |
Grand Total |
| Family Medicine | 29 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 62 |
| Specialist | 73 | 19 | 13 | 20 | 125 |
| Grand Total | 102 | 30 | 24 | 22 | 187 |
Source: Nova Scotia Health
As of May 1, there are 91,474 Nova Scotians on the Need a Family Practice Registry. Compare that with June 1, 2024 when there were 160,234 Nova Scotians on the registry. Some of the reduction was due to improving data quality, but by any measure this is a very positive result.
The 62 doctors can handle far more than the 11,000 increase in Nova Scotia’s population during 2024. If recruitments can maintain that pace, another big reduction in the registry can be anticipated during the next twelve months.
There are other constraints on population growth. More schools are urgently needed, especially in HRM. So are more transit vehicles and facilities. Roads and utilities need to be extended. We need more tradespeople.
That said, it would appear that the annual increase in Nova Scotians can gradually grow. The new arrivals needing housing and health care will be part of the solution.
The recent data on population suggests that the number of permanent residents in Nova Scotia will grow by about 10,000 in 2025. Nova Scotia is doing better than the large provinces in addressing the shortages of doctors and housing.
The Houston government has been able to deliver three consecutive surpluses, and it will not be a surprise if the final results for 2024-2025 turn out to be positive. A growing population makes this possible.
Reaching 2 million Nova Scotians is still a good idea, but the pace of getting there must be limited to what public services can support.
Related Articles
We Need More Nova Scotians- Canada and the United States have important border issues November 15, 2024
- It’s time to restore Canada’s successful immigration policy November 1, 2024
- The Liberals are pointed in the right direction but proceeding much too slowly March 29, 2024