Christine Saulnier (she/her)

Me three. This could mean not just reversing these cuts but more support where it is needed.

The other cut was to bus passes for recipients of income assistance. Make it make sense.

Actually, looks like they are going back to the HRCE transportation policy as per email from them. Distance not means-tested starting in Sept. Free passes for those in middle/high school « who live more than 2.4 km fr the school in their designated catchment area. » www.ednet.ns.ca/docs/schoolt...

‘Sounding the alarm’: Advocates express concern about austerity budget impacts on poverty and affordability in Nova Scotia  - Halifax Examiner CCPA-NS hosted Friday event called "Communities Respond: What the Budget Means for Nova Scotians: A public forum on poverty, affordability, and the road ahead"

“This [#Nova Scotia budget] will deepen inequality, whether you look at it by income, by gender, by race, by rural community,” @csaulnier.bsky.social said.
“Women actually make up 63% of public sector jobs. They will be disproportionately affected by cuts.” www.halifaxexaminer.ca/dismantling-...

N.S. Supreme Court strikes down former Liberal government’s wage restraint legislation | CBC News The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has struck down landmark legislation former premier Stephen McNeil’s government used in an effort to restrain wage increases for public sector workers as it attempted ...

This is a rather big deal. Chef’s kiss on the timing 😂

About that $1,400 average tax cut. There is no actual average Nova Scotian. The avg includes the higher income and the lower income; one benefits 10 times more (fr HST & PIT cut). Income of $290,000 or more, taxes reduced by $2,600, income of $25K and less by $256. (Using SPSD/M stats can modelling)

Yes.

His comment about how he gets that it’s some people’s jobs to make him look bad. This is not about you. You govern a province. It is about your government’s priorities and decisions. The deflections about making these ´hard decisions’ as good leadership, as if there weren’t other choices. Tax cuts?

I understand this may be offered but means-tested. So kids and families identify as low income to schools and bus drivers. Terrible stigmatizing policy change, if true.

There is an intersectional analysis to be done. We are able to analyze tax cuts and who benefits most (higher income, men); and we know women make up 63% of public sector jobs and will be hurt more by those cuts. They could easily do this analysis, but harder to defend their « difficult decisions ».

“I just heard that one of our NSCC sites where we have 2,000 members, they lost funding for their daycare,” she said. “I just can’t believe they’re closing a daycare in this province. That is absolutely absurd.”
What?!

Cut all grad scholarships (no need for phds or women in engineering) also cut support for the Transition Year Program at Dal and programs
support for Acadian health & African NS health. M’ikmaq friendship centre & cultural activities.
Result: reverse inclusion gains & break community connections

The breadth of sectors & cuts, to arts & culture, family resource centres do so much with so little, now with much less; cutting support for bus passes & transit. Index IA but cut other support; cut community rec. & sports;

Here's the full list of the Houston government's grant cuts to organizations. Tell us what you think. - Halifax Examiner The Houston government has cut $309 million from grants it gives to community organizations and universities. You can read the entire 13-page list of cuts here. The Halifax Examiner would like to hear...

Here’s the full list of the Houston government’s grant cuts to organizations. Tell us what you think.

'We're not giving up. We're not backing down': Let's stand together against the greed - Halifax Examiner "Together, let's tell Tim Houston to stop selling our futures, and demand that he respect the Treaties, our democratic rights and our community voices."

‘We’re not giving up. We’re not backing down’: Let’s stand together against the greed
By Sadie Beaton

Government programs and grants slashed for dozens of community groups and arts organizations in N.S. - Halifax Examiner The cuts range in size from 10% to 100%, with funding to most arts and creative industries down by at least 30%.

Government programs and grants slashed for dozens of community groups and arts organizations in N.S.

reported by @dartjenhen.bsky.social

This Friday.

The date changed to Tuesday March 3rd at noon. The NSGEU has a rally tmrw (wed Feb 25) at noon at Province House.

📣 Shoulder to Shoulder Rally - Tuesday March 3, 12 p.m. at the N.S. Legislature! 📣

In Nov, hundreds of people from communities across Mi'kma'ki/NS came out for the Shoulder to Shoulder rally to call on the Houston government to respect Treaty Rights and democratic processes.

Tim Houston's budget reflects an ideological project to remake the economic order - Halifax Examiner Budget discussions are necessarily discussions of values, and of morality.

"He wants to kill any notion that government can be a force for good in addressing the vast disparities of wealth & opportunity in our society by cutting that argument off at the knees: it’s either poverty forever or we give up all our interests to the corporate elite. No other vision is possible."

It reads like it was AI generated. « This budget reflects a clear choice: discipline without retreat. »?
« That is what resilience looks like.
That is what defence means in 2026.
And that is the work this government will continue to do. »
« Defending Nova Scotia » such an odd title

There are some investments. But the amount of privatizing and subsidizing of for-profit companies pales in comparison. The doubling down on the same old neoliberal austerity approach without evidence that it will make life better. For whom?

And their own budget analysis shows this to be true! The economic growth and revenue growth are never coming « online. » They project slow growth 4 years out- made worse by gov cuts but not better by mining. Some people will benefit— too bad they aren’t able to somehow do the analysis or something?

Budget day. Heading out in the snowstorm for the lock up to hear the details.

Advocacy group calls on Nova Scotia government to address child poverty in Monday's budget The director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) is hopeful Monday's provincial budget will help address the critical shortfalls for families dealing with child povert...

Childhood educator and single mom shares the difficulty of making ends meet.
« My wage has increased, but things I was able to receive before, such as child-care subsidies, rent supplement programs, are now not technically offered to me because I am not in that wage bracket. »

What the Budget Means for Nova Scotians
A public forum on poverty, affordability, and the road ahead, co-hosted by CCPA-NS and NSACCW.

Join us Feb 27 at 12PM AST at the CLC Atlantic Regional Office, 1718 Argyle Street, Halifax, Main Floor meeting room, or Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Following the release of our Nova Scotia Report Card on Child and Family Poverty earlier this week, CCPA-NS Director Christine Saulnier has been speaking with media across the province. Here are three highlights, linked below.

#nspoli

This. Child poverty in NS would be 40% higher if not for the supports given currently. We know what works and we know the tremendous positives for those lifted out of poverty. Yet the underlining philosophy is that we must make people’s lives hard to incentivize them to act- despite the evidence…

N.S. politicians prepare for the legislature's spring session — and an opening day budget | CBC News MLAs are scheduled to return to the Nova Scotia Legislature for the spring session on Monday and sources tell CBC News that Finance Minister John Lohr is expected to table his budget that same day.

« There’s no reason to think that transparency is a value for this government. »
NS budget being tabled Monday PM. Speculation that there will be cuts to programs and services. The austerity playbook will hurt those already hurting. Especially if HRM does similar. #nspoli

Today, CCPA-NS released our annual Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia using 2023 data. In 2023, more than 40,000 children in Nova Scotia lived in poverty.

Read the report: www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

#nspoli