By Kendall Worth!
Recently word got out in the Community, that the House of Assembly in Nova Scotia will be going back in session on September 5th, 2024. For the longest time in Nova Scotia the house has had 2 sittings a year - a Fall sitting and a Spring Sitting. However, in Nova Scotia’s history, we rarely have seen, or heard, of the sitting of the House Of Assembly talking place any earlier than Mid October. So the news that recall is Sept 5th this year, came as a shock to several community members.
If you click on this link, and have a look at some of history of my Blogging/Journalism, you will find that I advocate for persons living in poverty, here In Halifax Nova Scotia. My For What Matters Journalism BLOG tells the History of why and how my BLOG got started. Since I started getting published, every time Province House is called back, I do a post telling the Government , including the current PC, Tim Houston government, what the expectations are -- coming from the community of people I advocate for. This news comes out to the community right around a time when:
We are continuing to see a large increase in the number of Homeless in Nova Scotia.
The Homeless Population is looking more and more visible in other parts of Nova Scotia, outside of HRM.
As this BLOG post points out, we have an increased number of people who cannot afford to pay their Nova Scotia Power Bills.
As pointed out in this BLOG post, Out of Control Inflation remains unresolved.
As of June 1st, the number of people in Nova Scotia without a family doctor is 160,234
As this blog post points out, 60% of Income Assistance Recipients did receive a recent $300.00 increase, and, as pointed out in this BLOG post a second Increase in Income Assistance Rates happened, however, we still have a system with a lot of systemic problems and bureaucratic nonsense that include the unfinished business of the ESIA Transformation that the previous Liberal Government undertook from 2013-2021.
This time around, the community I advocate for, have very high expectations for bigger and better things to happen, especially because this Fall’s house sitting is happening a lot earlier than normal.
The community I advocate for strongly believes that our provincial government needs to have a serious look at Homeless Encampments, and then really put their heads together and think about how are we going to resolve this crises. Many in the financially better off community are complaining that these Homeless Encampments are becoming more and more problematic to the community in general.
As much as many financially-better-off are wanting Homeless Encampments dismantled, the homeless themselves do not want to be living in these encampments. They are living in these homeless encampments in tents, because they cannot afford a monthly rate in the current rental market. Inflation, and landlord and corporate greed, are making life more and more difficult in every corner. Also, shelters are full to capacity these days. We are also seeing more and more persons with disabilities becoming part of the mix in our Homeless population.Another thing is the current rent cap in this province is in place until the end of 2025. Removing the rent cap at the end of 2025 is going to do nothing to solve the problem. Landlords are going to just use the removal of this rent cap to Jack up their current rent more. This current rent cap needs to remain Permanent beyond 2025. I suggest this should be the sitting where the Nova Scotia Government needs to revisit the removal the rent cap, and pass Legislation to make it permanent.
In two of my very recent BLOG posts, here and here, I talked about changes that need to made to the DSP Program. Some who are part of the Disability Community in Nova Scotia, however, who are not part of the DSP say they want to see major change in that program, and one of the changes should be a implementation of a real Disability Living allowance. Others who are actually part of DSP are saying they want to see the structure of the program changed from top to bottom. They are saying that this upcoming sitting is where the work should get started of reforming DSP.
Nova Scotia’s HARP program needs to be $1000 just like it was in 2022/2023. Also in 2021 The Provincial Government gave Nova Scotian's on Income Assistance an extra $250.00 in the month of December. This needs to happen again.
So the message in this BLOG post is Nova Scotia Government, in this upcoming sitting make things happen please!
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