March 25th, 2022

Premier Tim Houston

Office of the Premier
7th Floor, One Government Place
1700 Granville Street
P.O. Box 726
Halifax, NS
B3J 2T3

RE: OPEN LETTER-In these uncertain times we require major shifts in how government invests in people. 

Dear Premier Houston,

As we enter the spring sitting of the legislature, there remains growing anxiety and fear among Nova Scotians regarding the uncertainty of our futures and the ongoing impact of the global pandemic, rising costs of living, stagnant wages, climate change, and now a global conflict and escalating military expansion. Nova Scotians are worried about their quality of life, their future, and their children’s future.

Investing in health and wellbeing provides countless benefits for Nova Scotians, our society, the environment, and our economy. An upstream, social determinant of health approach is necessary to ensure health for all. Increasing access to family physicians and reduced surgery wait times will not improve the health of people struggling on a low income, trying to access good quality housing, food, education, social services. Now is the time for a comprehensive strategy to end poverty and ensure health and well-being for all Nova Scotians.

The pandemic has proven just how fragile our current social, health and economic systems are and why we must fundamentally shift our political and economic positions to become a sustainable, fair, and just province. You have an opportunity to shift course after decades of austerity to make the province a better place to live and work, and one in which we truly care for one another. We fear that if we don’t act now to repair and extend our social and health infrastructure the rising cost of living, stagnation in wages, and the absence of meaningful social and health services will create greater despair and civil unrest, as well as drive inequality. A failure to act now will place an even greater burden on the health, social service, and education sectors and disproportionately impact marginalized and racialized Nova Scotians.

Your government must prepare for and make significant shifts away from a reliance on a globalized economy, shift perspectives and tactics on fiscal policy, provide supports and programs to lower the cost of living and provide greater pathways to healing and well-being so that all Nova Scotians benefit from a shift away from a globalized, carbon-based economy. Below is a list of specific policies that your government must adopt if we are to weather the storm ahead.

Fiscal Policy

The austerity of the past three decades must end as inaction and underinvestment in people and programs have had a tremendous cost and put an unnecessary strain on our systems. Poverty costs Nova Scotians $2 billion per year, which represents 4.8% of the GDP. As inflation has risen, government revenues have as well; balanced budgets and running surpluses would be reckless fiscal policy when 100,000 Nova Scotians (47,000 of which are children) are living in poverty. The debt to GDP ratio in Nova Scotia is 37.4% and debt servicing costs as a percentage of expenditures have fallen to a decade-low of 5%, and the government continues to be able to borrow at near-historically low-interest rates.

The plan you put forward in your campaign to cut corporate taxes in exchange for increasing employees’ salaries is also reckless when there are so many social needs. This scheme could cost up to $200 million in tax revenue, and will accomplish little. As Premier you have policy tools to increase wages for all Nova Scotians (without compromising government revenues) by increasing the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, with a plan to move towards a living wage. This is a proven way to ensure wage increases.

There are zero reasons for austerity to be continued.

Focus on Local Economic Growth

We must focus on localizing our economy and reducing costs particularly when it comes to necessities like food, housing, and energy. There must be core investments in the following:

Education

Central to this goal is education from early learning to post-secondary.

  1.  Provide the funding to build a high-quality early learning and childcare system that is child-centered, play-based, seamless (all day, full year), truly affordable, accessible, inclusive, and quality; it should be not-for-profit and publicly managed so that every child under the age of 12 can have access. Immediately address low wages of ECEs. Childcare is not only an essential social policy but an economic one allowing parents to engage fully in the workforce.
  2. Strengthen public education so that it is inclusive, high quality, and safe. Increase funding to post-secondary education institutions, immediately lower tuition, and commit to the eventual elimination of tuition fees (first at the NS Community College.) Post-secondary education is an economic engine empowering innovation in social, health, energy, and tech sectors; it ensures a well-educated diverse workforce, and the less indebted graduates will provide more spending in the local economy and impact outmigration.
  3. Increase funding to post-secondary education institutions, immediately lower tuition, and commit to the eventual elimination of tuition fees (first at the NS Community College.)
Economic Development
  1. Address the Nova Scotia trade deficit and strengthen our supply chain by focusing on import replacement. This can be done by inventorying community assets, promoting cooperative enterprises, engaging in direct marketing strategies, extending community-supported broadband service, and targeting policy change in institutional procurement. Increase the minimum wage immediately to $15.00 an hour with a plan to reach a living wage.
  2. Increasing the minimum wage not only impacts the quality of life but is a local economy booster as Nova Scotians would have more income to spend in the local economy.
  3. Update Labour Standards to include at least 10 paid sick days and create a four-day workweek for all Nova Scotians. Not only would this lead to a more productive workforce, but it would increase mental well-being and allow Nova Scotians more leisure time to engage and utilize the local tourist economy.
Food Security
  1. Approximately 87% of food consumed in Nova Scotia is from outside the province. Reliance on imported food means less money going to the local economy and it creates vulnerability. Given the size and scope of Nova Scotia’s agricultural sector, your government must invest in a provincial food strategy to create positive change towards the local food system.
  2. Invest in province-wide consultation with school food leaders to create a universal healthy school food program sourced through local producers. The projected Social Return on Investment (SROI) is $3-10 for every $1 invested.
  3. Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage should provide continued investment in the development of a local Food Hub in collaboration Municipalities. A Food Hub will support local producers to store, process, and distribute their products more efficiently in the Halifax area and will better prepare us in the event of climate emergencies or supply chain disruptions.

Eradicate Poverty

Poverty costs Nova Scotians $2 billion a year which represents 4.8% of the GDP.  Poverty must be eradicated. There must be core investment to:

  1. Implement the 95 recommendations in the Housing for All report to ensure that all Nova Scotians have access to safe, permanently affordable, secure, supported, energy efficient housing including in this budget cycle making a targeted and large-scale investment in affordable housing units delivered via the not-for-profit, cooperative, and public sectors (planning for 33,000 units in total) while also investing in core funding support for the community-based housing sector. Rent control must be permanently maintained to curb the financialization of housing.
  2. Fully fund a comprehensive and robust Poverty Eradication Plan, developed using the Social Policy Framework; include targets and timelines that are embedded in legislation (as outlined in CCPA_NS child and family poverty report card).
  3. Immediately invest to enhance income supports and address deep poverty while working to ensure that the combination of current income supports, namely the Nova Scotia Child Benefit, the Nova Scotia Affordable Living Tax Credit, and the Poverty Reduction Credit, equals 100% of the Market Basket Measure poverty line. All of these benefits must include regular cost of living increases and take housing/rental inflation and food inflation into consideration.
  4. Invest in proactive strategies developed with communities that have particularly high poverty rates to ensure policies and programs meet their needs.
  5. Immediately end the practice of removing the Canada Child Benefit, Child Disability Benefit, and the Nova Scotia Child Benefit from families when a child is brought into temporary care and custody.
  6. Provide funding to ensure access to affordable essential infrastructure, including communications (cell phone, internet) and public transportation.
  7. Create a Child and Youth Advocate Office that upholds the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Principles relating to the status of national instructions for the promotion and protection of human rights (‘the Paris Principles’), General Comment No.2 of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.
  8. As outlined in the open letter by the Disability Rights Coalition, the government must “implement the Court of Appeal October 6 ruling, drop the application to the Supreme Court of Canada, negotiate a systemic human rights remedy to the problem of discrimination against people with disabilities in accessing social assistance, and end the funding cap which singles out the disabled and creates barriers to their inclusion in our communities.” Deinstitutionalization of persons with disabilities ensuring access to community housing and supports must be a priority.

Focus on Climate Justice

Climate justice is crucial to ensure a fair transition through these uncertain times as it grounds climate policy in a clear focus on the social and economic effects of climate change and acknowledges that climate change affects people differently, depending on their position in society. Climate justice must be a clear goal within any climate policy and strategy, as the most vulnerable must not bear the burden of the transition away from a carbon economy. Investments must be made to:

  1. Cancel the energy rebate that encourages consumption and redirect the savings (of about $100 million per year) to address energy poverty.
  2. Amend the regulations that govern the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board and legislate Nova Scotia Power to create a Universal Service Program for energy; such programs make sure people don’t lose access to energy services due to their low income, and provide low-income credits on energy bills.
  3. Ensure investments in energy efficiency and deep retrofits as well as remove barriers for those least able to afford retrofits.
  4. Improve public transportation infrastructure across the province and invest in active transportation.

Health Care

Our health care system functions with very lean capacity in terms of its human resources and intensive care units which results in unmet health care needs. We also have some of the highest rates of anxiety and depression in the country. We are overdue for investments in our social infrastructure to expand resources, support providers, and apply evidence-based strategies to improve health outcomes and reduce the costs and burdens on the direct provision of health care. Contemporary research highlights the importance of recognizing the social determinants of health. The World Health Organization further notes that no public health strategy is complete without a dedicated focus upon these, with special attention to the promotion of mental health. Deep Investments in public health care now need to make up for decades of underinvestment. To achieve this, you must:

  1. Invest at least $230 million into mental health and substance care to meet the World Health Organization’s recommendation of spending at least 10% of total Department of Health and Wellness spending on mental health and addictions programs. Spending alone is not enough; the Nova Scotia Office of Mental Health and Addictions must develop a strategy that embraces a bio-pyscho-social model of mental health care.
  2. Invest in public health front-line services, contract-in to save money, and extend universal public health care by investing in collaborative community health centers that utilize the full scope of regulated health professions.
  3. Work with the federal government to ensure the timely delivery of pharma care and dental care programs.
  4. Continue investments in long-term care to ensure that staff ratios are met and that there are enough beds to meet the population needs.
  5. Ensure that all residents regardless of immigration status have access to an NS health card, including international students, migrant workers, and refugee applicants.

Failure to invest now will lead to more complex issues for individuals, families, and communities, while further entrenching the rapid rise in inequality. The continued class divide between the rich and the poor has allowed the voices of the oppressed, particularly those of our racialized communities to go unnoticed, eroded trust, and increased anxiety and illness. Investing in health for all is the right thing to do and now is the right time to do it.

You Must Act Now.

Sincerely,

Coordinating Committee of the Nova Scotia Action Coalition for Community Wellbeing

CC: Iain Rankin Leader of the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia; Gary Burrill Leader of New Democrat Party of Nova Scotia