By Kendall Worth!
Holding Sign in front of Province house which reads: Premier Tim Houston. Hopefully you get the hint when the house resumes on Oct. 12th 2023. The homeless population remains unacceptably high in Nova Scotia; inflation remains at an all-time high. What is the plan?
On October12th 2023, the Nova Scotia Legislature will be going back into session. It is the hopes of the Community of People I advocate for that, in this coming session, Premier Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservative government will get the message that something needs to be done ASAP to address poverty and homelessness. Since Tim Hoston got elected in 2021, every issue regarding ESIA transformation, which I have written about extensively, have been ignored by government. Also, next to nothing has happened to improvements to the health care system.
Think about this:
In the 2022 and 2023 Budgets no increase at all in the Income Assistance rates.
People on Income assistance are still experiencing the same bureaucratic nonsense and systemic problems, both to get on Income Assistance and getting approved for Special Needs allowances.
The list of Nova Scotian's waiting for a family doctor hit a new milestone in August -- it now sits at more than 150,000 – or about 15 per cent of the population.
Over these past few months Walk-In Clinics have been getting harder and harder to find or access. People have been showing up at walk-in clinics during the hours they have been advertised as open only to find them closed.
And what is clear to everyone's eye, the homeless population in Nova Scotia has increased to an unacceptable level.
And let's not forget how we In Nova Scotia continue to see an increase in inflation.
Even the minimum wage in Nova Scotia is not a livable Income.
Two recent articles – here and here address the issue of Nova Scotians not being able to celebrate Thanksgiving due to inflation, and this one address Christmas this year – an issue due to the same inflation. These posts point out issues like inflation that the govertnmnet needs to consider in this sitting.
So, there are lots of issues that the Government needs to be paying attention to during this upcoming sitting of the house. People I have been talking to lately have been asking me about what is the point of even having a mental health system, if the government is going to expect us to live on next to nothing? (no improvements to the mental health system have happened under this current Tim Houston government) They mean to say that there is nothing better than the current $950.00 standard household rate here in Nova Scotia? After all, it is the way that the government expects us to live through this time of nflation being at an all-high record high and the increasing risk of those of us living in poverty. caused by the substantially increased anxiety these days. No system, whether we have the same or better system of mental health, is ever going to fix this. What will fix this is more money to live on, and inflation going away. Us having more money to live is not going to happen by us having increased visits to the hospital or by keeping our appointments with professionals - that we can all agree on.
Hopefully during this upcoming sitting the Nova Scotia PC Government will smarten up and do something.
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