By Chris Parsons and Christine Saulnier Nova Scotia’s Auditor General Michael Pickup calls the government’s decision to use a P3 model (public-private partnership) for the $2 billion Queen Elizabeth II redevelopment “reasonable and appropriate.” The problem is, we don’t know how he arrived at his conclusion. At a minimum, the…
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On June 23, 2020, Halifax Regional Council unanimously passed their new climate action plan, ‘HalifACT 2050: Acting on Climate Together’. The plan is focused on ensuring equity, creating thousands of jobs, reducing energy poverty, strengthening resilience and saving the municipality $22 billion over the course of the plan. Crucially, the…
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I am a child care advocate. And in this COVID-19 pandemic, I am torn. On the one hand, this public health emergency demonstrates what advocates have been saying for a long time – that child care is a vital public service and the lack of it was a crisis for…
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital importance of collective responses via governments at all levels. The Canadian context of federalism, with a division of powers between federal and provincial/territorial governments, also highlights key differences in approaches to the pandemic. At its best, federalism is an advantageous arrangement, with the…
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COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the lack of paid sick leave for workers in our province, indeed our country. Whether employees have access to sick leave, paid or unpaid, is part of labour standards legislation. Given that only 30% of workers are unionized in Nova Scotia (12% in the…
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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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“No one is happy with the property tax. It is expensive to administer. The property tax is regressive – it puts a heavier burden on people with low incomes than on everyone else. Property tax rates are divisive, varying between classes of property owners – such as residential, commercial, and…
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It has been 30 years since the all-party resolution in the House of Commons to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. It is also almost 30 years since Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. Article 27 of the Convention directs…
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My paternal grandmother has a great saying that she likes to remind me of. Drawing from a well of old Jamaican wisdom, she says: “Don’t watch the noise in the market, just watch your correct change.” On September 18, Time magazine released a photo showing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in…
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When we talk about housing affordability the focus is usually on home ownership and high housing costs. Less discussed is the affordability crisis faced by the third of Canadian households (4.7 million families) who rent their homes. This paper looks at the extent of the problem by determining the hourly…
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