Today the Halifax Regional Municipal Council will consider a staff report that recommends that Council approve the adoption of a Supplier Code of Conduct (including Living Wage requirements). Voting in favour of this recommendation would be one important step forward, but will not have the impact that a broader living wage policy could…
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The big-ticket item in the Nova Scotia budget is the two percent corporate tax cut (from 16%) at $70.5 million, plus a decrease in the small business tax (from 3% to 2.5%) at a cost of $10.5 million. These tax cuts will cost $81 million, but the Premier says he is…
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I was 19 and in my second year of university—with my whole life laid out before me—when the massacre at École Polytechnique happened. I now have three children, including an 18-year-old daughter in her first year of university, and a wonderful career doing work that I love. The women who…
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There is an urgency for our government to use fiscal policy to promote a different kind of economic growth that no longer sacrifices the environment, our natural resources, or quality of life for the many. But this is not what the Nova Scotia Budget 2018-19 has done. Ultimately, our fiscal health depends on…
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The Issue: Nova Scotia has the lowest minimum wage in Canada On October 1, 2017, Nova Scotia became the province with the lowest minimum wage in the country. This needs to change. There is a wave of rising minimum wages sweeping our country and, indeed, the continent. In our own…
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The new provincial Liberal government budget is pretty lacklustre. We expected it to be much the same as the one tabled prior to the April election and, sure enough, it is almost identical. Based on our work with alternative budgets, I have admittedly high expectations of what a government can…
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Halifax City Council should heed their staff’s recommendation to “engage external stakeholders and conduct further investigation on whether or not to adopt an employee compensation/living wage policy for Council’s consideration.” There is enough evidence in Canada that becoming a living wage employer is possible for municipalities — indeed, they can…
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The morning after the Liberals won another majority government in Nova Scotia, a headline on the CBC Nova Scotia website read: “Nova Scotia teachers ‘worried about the next 4 years’ under Liberals.” And no doubt other Nova Scotians have similar concerns: what can we expect from the new government when…
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The upcoming provincial election has thrust into the spotlight various debates about how to best address poverty in Nova Scotia: wage increases, social programs, tax-based incentives, or a job. Recently, the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party announced that, if elected, it would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2020….
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Yesterday, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Finance proudly stood up to table a tiny surplus, and to convince us that a stable economy is good. However, stable is another word for stagnant. With no net job growth to speak of and very little economic growth, and with consumer spending flat; these…
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