Thursday, 29 August 2024

Poverty

Deja Vu, only worse – the updated NS Budget 2017

Richard Starr takes a closer look at the updated provincial budget released last week. “As long as a balanced budget remains the political holy grail and the economy produces little revenue growth there will be intense pressure on public spending. Unless the Liberals can pull more accounting tricks out of a hat – or there is an unexpected windfall from the federal government – we are in for a very rough ride over the next four years,” Starr writes.

Applying for welfare will cost you

4 Comments

In Nova Scotia, when you apply for social assistance you had better have some money set aside, because this is going to cost you. It’s a logistical nightmare as well. Brenda Thompson takes a close look at all that is required, and she does the math. Remember, people who apply for social assistance tend to be broke. That’s why they are applying….

Changing the definition of welfare cheats — My Week on Welfare screening in Dartmouth North.

A screening of My Week on Welfare, the no holds barred view into the lives of people caught up in Nova Scotia’s welfare system, will be held October 4 at the Dartmouth North Community Centre. We talk to Tim Blades, who helped organize the event, about why these kinds of meetings are so important and liberating for people on social assistance. Oh, and the screening is sponsored by the Nova Scotia Advocate.

Nothing for people on welfare in Nova Scotia budget

7 Comments

There is no money for people on social assistance in yesterday’s Liberal budget. That kind of a mean spirited attitude doesn’t bode well for the secretive welfare transformation project the department has been working on since 2015.

The day that she goes missing nobody will respond. A poem by El Jones

A new poem by El Jones. TRIGGER WARNING: 80-90 percent of women in prison are victims of physical and sexual assault. Yet because they are “criminals” what happens to them at the hands of the system must be something they deserve. When we talk about injustice to rape victims in Canadian courts where are their stories?

News brief: Anti-poverty organizers get organized

Members of the Benefits Reform Action Group (BRAG), anti-poverty activists with a focus on Nova Scotia’s heartless welfare regime, spent an entire day talking about strategy and big pictures.