By Kendall Worth!
(Note: I am copying this to the Party Leaders because on Sunday October 27th a provincial election was called here in Nova Scotia.)
Dear Tim Houston, and Nova Scotia party leaders;
My name is Kendall Worth, and, as I am sure you already know, I am a Poverty Advocate here in Halifax Nova Scotia, where I live. For anyone in the reading public seeing this open letter, you can find my BLOG at worthmatters.blogspot.com
I want to start off by saying that before the election got called, I had been putting a lot of thought into what I wanted to say in this letter. As I pointed out in my October 25th 2024 post, I was planning all along to write this letter. The issues I am specifically writing about in this letter is an election issue, because there are a large number of income assistance recipients in my community who depend on the ESIA program offered through the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services. The Tim Houston government called this election right at a time when income assistance recipients, who spend their day–to–day life living on the ground, continue to see next to nothing coming from so called ESIA Transformation that was in place from 2013 till 2021 throughout the time of our previous Government. This election also comes at a time when just over a month away we will be coming into the Christmas Season.
There are 2 reasons why Income Assistance Recipients in Nova Scotia see this as an election issue:
First the need for seriously improved mental health services is a reality during the month of December. Income assistance recipients suffer major serious mental health repercussions during the month of December. They feel this way during the season because December is an expensive month in our society, and as income assistance recipients we have no extra money to live on during that month.
For more on why the month of December's mental health feelings of anxiety and depression can be at it’s worse for income assistance recipients see here, and from further back in the Nova Scotia Advocate see this one. As the 2 articles I just linked point out, it is not only the Christmas Holiday being in the month of December, but IA recipients who are not able to attend certain events leading up the the main Christmas holiday days, contributes to the increased level of depression in December.
Second, as I reported on in my December 17th 2022 Post, in Dec. 2022 income assistance recipients got an extra $250.00 one time payment. However in 2023 income assistance recipients did not receive that extra payment at Christmas time. Many I had been in touch with reasonably believed that their $250.00 one time payment income assistance recipients got in December needs to be a yearly thing. That $250.00 in December 2022 somewhat helped reduced the levels of anxiety and depression that year. It was huge mistake for the Tim Houston government not to repeat this payment in 2023.Those I had been in touch with are saying that in 2022 that $250.00, even though it was only a drop in the bucket, was still a major help for that year.
So in this letter I am asking all party leaders to have a look at reinstating that $250.00 for 2024, and moving forward, keeping this in place as a yearly thing. Whatever party get elected should, and hopefully will, introduce legislation to re-instate this then make it a yearly allowance during the month of December moving forward.
Yours Truly
Kendall Worth!
Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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