Nova Scotia Office

The Community Coalition to End Poverty and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternaitves - Nova Scotia Office invite you to a "Lunch and Learn":

Growing Gaps or Just Filling Them In: Where’s the Social and Economic Justice in Recent Government Budgets?

Friday, May 25, 12:00 – 1:30pm
Johanna B. Oosterveld Centre
2103 Gottingen Street, Halifax NS

Speakers:

• Sheri Lecker, Executive Director, Adsum for Women and Children
• Wayne MacNaughton, Anti-poverty Activist; Community Advocates Network
• Christine Saulnier, Executive Director, CCPA-NS

Bring your questions, your ideas and your lunch. Coffee and tea provided.

While negotiations between Capital Health and its employees continue, health workers' rights are as prescient now as ever before.  Working people have the right to bargain collectively and withdraw their labour, or strike, if they feel they are being treated unfairly.  Healthcare workers must be allowed their right to strike; their ability to adequately bargain collectively actually benefits the healthcare system as a whole. With a shortage of health care workers willing to remain in the province, the system's ability to recruit and retain workers is a backdrop to any negotiations. CCPA-NS Research Associates explored these themes in a series of studies over 2007-2008.

A Tale of two Provinces: Alberta and Nova Scotia argues that strikes happen whether they are legal or not, and, like in Alberta, when they are made illegal they often grow in frequency.

Health Care Strikes: Pulling the Red Chord  argues that if politicians and health care administrators insist on running a system so low on resources that it cannot handle any labour disputes, then the ability of workers to strike, to pull the red cord as it were, is an essential system mechanism to ensure quality of care in the long run.

Is Compulsory Arbitration a Good Substitute for the Right to Strike in Health Care deals with several of the most intractable problems in health care collective bargaining that make withdrawal of the right to strike especially harmful to the health care system.

Note: Since the release of these studies, Saskatchewan has introduced “essential services” legislation that reached well beyond any existing labour-relations law. In February, the legislation was struck down by the superior court as it found that workers have the constitutional right to strike and while it can be restricted, the court ruled that this legislation effectively took away employees' right to take part in meaningful strike action. The government is currently appealing the decision.

The Community Coalition to End Poverty – Nova Scotia and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia invite you to a lunch and learn:  

Canada's Public Pension System:
What are the implications of proposed changes for Youth, Seniors, Workers and Low Income Women and Men in Nova Scotia?

Date: Friday, April 27, 12.30 – 2.00.p.m.

Where: Johanna B. Oosterveld Centre, 2151 Gottingen Street, Halifax NS

Speakers:

• Monica Townson, Economic Consultant and Specialist in Public Pension Policy
• Margaret Ann Bruhier, Senior Policy Analyst, Department of Seniors, Government of Nova Scotia

Bring your questions, your ideas and your lunch. Coffee and tea provided.

As was expected, the provincial budget released by Nova Scotia's ruling New Democratic Party is characterized by a fixation on getting “back to balance”.  With a debt to-GDP ratio of 35%, there is no need to prioritize fiscal balance to the exclusion of other important needs. What is being further unbalanced in the government’s rush “back to balance”? Our rural communities are struggling against a tide of out-migration, and many people among us are struggling to make ends meet.

Persistent inequalities and inequities across our province require our government to lead the way by reframing this debate so that it is about our collective future.

For a budget that would move the province Forward to Fairness through targeted investments in Nova Scotia's future, funded by fiscally responsible progressive taxation, see our Nova Scotia Alternative Budget, which can be downloaded here.

Click the image above to see footage of CCPA-NS Executive Director, Christine Saulnier, reacting to the budget.

Read Saulnier’s blog post, “HST cut in Nova Scotia: Detracting from real debate about our future,” here.

CBC covered reactions to the budget, here.

The Chronicle Herald covered reactions to the budget, here.

Today, the provincial government is releasing its budget.  While there has been much talk about getting "back to balance," CCPA-NS has advocated for a budget that more accurately reflects the province's real fiscal situation.  Our fact sheet, "Twelve Things You Should Know about nova Scotia's Fiscal Situation," explains that the deficit and the debt aren't really urgent problems for Nova Scotia.  The province's debt-to-GDP ratio and the portion of GDP going towards debt servicing costs have declined dramatically in the last few years.

Instead of making cuts that will slow our economic recovery and jeopardize our quality of life, CCPA-NS has offered and Alternative Provincial Budget that makes targeted investments, paid for through progressive taxation, that will move the province "Forward to Fairness." 

An entire press release, "Understanding the Provincial Budget," can be found here.

"Twelve Things You Should Know about Nova Scotia's Fiscal Situation" can be downloaded here.

The Nova Scotia Alternative Budget 2012 can be downloaded here.

Read a blog post that explains the Alternative Budget by Research Associate Jason Edwards, here.

CCPA-NS brings together academics and community partners to assemble its Alternative Budget for 2012. This document shows Nova Scotians that minor changes in government spending could have a major impact on the health and wellness of its population. Putting the welfare of the province's citizens first, the NSAB projects a potentially balanced budget by 2014 without sacrificing services that Nova Scotians rely on. The NSAB's prescriptions would move Nova Scotia in the right direction: forward to fairness.

“Our budget protects programs while increasing revenues, primarily through increased upper-end income taxes. This budget does not pose a risk to the province’s delicate recovery by imposing austerity measures that will result in job losses. Rather, it continues to build our social and physical infrastructure and invest in our communities and our people where it is most needed.”

Read the full Nova Scotia Alternative Budget 2012. 

The following media outlets covered the NSAB: Global Maritimes (start at 7:00), The Cape Breton Post, The Chronicle Herald, The Canadian Press (Hosted by Ipoitics.ca), The Halifax Media Co-op, and the Halifax Media Co-op (on youth).

Accomplished author Stephen Kimber also commented on the NSAB, here.