Nova Scotia Budget 2021: ‘Historic’ increase promises slightly less starving for income assistance recipients
That ‘historic’ increase in income assistance really doesn’t amount to much, write journalists Kendall Worth and Robert Devet. Here’s why.
Community Services
Kendall Worth: Open letter to Iain Rankin, the new premier of Nova Scotia
Kendall Worth: “There need to be further increases in the income assistance allowances. Everyone, including income assistance recipients, should be able to shop in grocery stores rather than rely on the food banks.”
Kendall Worth: Waiting for the money to run out
Kendall Worth: Earlier in the year I had the opportunity to interview Mariana. She did not want me to use her real name because she fears that she will be applying for welfare within the next couple of years.
CERB repayments may devastate some of Nova Scotia’s most marginalized
Among the people who applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) while being ineligible are some of the most poor and marginalized people in Nova Scotia. Now the federal government is considering demanding that money paid to ineligible applicants be returned, and poverty advocates fear this will push many into an even more dire financial situation.
News brief: ACORN Nova Scotia rallies ahead of next week’s Liberal leadership convention
A small ACORN Nova Scotia rally and press conference in downtown Halifax served to remind the three Liberal MLAs running to become the new premier of Nova Scotia that as far as low income Nova Scotians are concerned the current premier left the province in a terrible mess.
Kendall Worth: Income Assistance transformation delivered next to nothing of what it promised
Kendall Worth: It is safe to say that the ESIA transformation is a major broken promise by our current Liberal government because even though some change has happened, the change that happened was very little.
Florida swampland for sale at great discounts: Liberal leadership candidates talk poverty
The three Liberal leadership candidates recently talked about poverty. After 7+ years in government their promises to tackle poverty in this province are simply not credible.
“They don’t feel valued as humans” – Covid, mental health and the very poor in Nova Scotia
COVID-19 has hit the very poor in Nova Scotia hard and left many of those living with mental health issues in a very precarious place. That was the urgent message delivered by staff members of the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Mental Health Association to the Community Services Standing Committee.
One in three kids under six: After 30 years there is hardly a dent in Nova Scotia child poverty
We have been reporting on the release of the Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia for many years now. And year after year the news is grim.
41,370 children, one in four, live in poverty in Nova Scotia. For children under six that number is actually almost one in three!
It’s hard to fathom how politicians can shrug off these horrendous numbers, especially given that we know that solutions exist, and all it takes is political will.
Kendall Worth: A change of scenery will do you good
Moving away from a place where you weren’t happy, and to a place that is pleasant, where you live near a friend and where the caseworkers are more helpful makes a big difference to our old friend Daryl. His friend and roommate Darlene is equally doing well, Kendall Worth reports.