The removal of “homeless encampments” from municipal parks is a human rights violation 

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA – The Dalhousie Legal Aid Service condemns yesterdays’ efforts by  the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to remove 40 occupants of tents and temporary  shelters from public parks across the city. From media reports, it appears that the HRM’s  actions constitute multiple human rights violations. We take issue both with HRM’s decision  to evict and with the city’s failure to adequately consult with community stakeholders  before taking action on this decision. 

The right to adequate housing is firmly entrenched in Canadian and international human  rights law as well as in the HRM’s own policies. This right includes protection against eviction into homelessness. Despite Mayor Savage’s claims, several people have told reporters that  they received no adequate offers of alternative accommodation prior to their eviction.  

The evictions raise very serious constitutional issues, including the right to non discrimination for persons with disabilities. The Mental Health Commission of Canada  estimates that up to half of the 150,000 to 300,000 Canadians experiencing homelessness  have serious mental health problems. By evicting and ticketing those who have nowhere  else to go, the HRM is criminalizing some of the most vulnerable people in our society.  

Mayor Savage says that all 40 evictions were needed to protect the health and safety of  both occupants and the public. The Mayor is painting with a broad brush. Public safety  issues should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and not by punishing an entire class of  people. To do so is to victim blame those who are suffering most from the very housing  crisis that those same politicians have failed to address.  

Homelessness costs Canada $1.4 billion per year in emergency services, shelters, and criminal  justice expenses. It does not make moral or economic sense for the city to play a game of  whack-a-mole with homeless encampments. It is already well-established that the best way  to both reduce the financial cost of homelessness and to treat mental health conditions is to  take a housing first approach to homelessness.  

We call upon the Mayor and Council to halt the evictions until they sit down with all  stakeholders to draw up a housing transition plan that is lawful, orderly, and humane. We  also call on the new Premier to act by building new affordable housing units and by funding  new housing-first projects.  

###

The post Media advisory: HRM is criminalizing homelessness appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – This year’s provincial budget delivered a little bit of good news for people on income assistance. 

An additional $100 across the board for income assistance recipients is the largest increase we have seen in a very long time. Many folks told reporter Kendall Worth, who receives income assistance himself,that they are pleased, and they call it a step in the right direction. 

But it is still only a drop in the bucket, they tell him.

With ever increasing rents, like one bedroom apartment rents as high as $900 to $1000 or more that $100 increase really isn’t very much at all, they say.

That $100 increase is not going to stop them from having to use the foodbank services or stop them from depending on places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage, etc to get the free meals they offer, is what Kendall is hearing.

They’re correct.

Human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead pulled out his calculator and what he found is not nearly as positive as Community Services bureaucrats suggest.

Calderhead calculated the new yearly incomes for each scenario (single adult, able bodied), single adult with a disability, boarding/owning/renting, single parent with one/two children, family etc.). 

In these calculations Calderhead includes not only the income assistance payments, but also any tax credits and child benefits that may apply.

What he finds is that income assistance recipients in Nova Scotia remain desperately poor. Still starving, but slightly less so. 

For instance, whereas in 2020 a single adult without disabilities renting in Halifax would have received $594 per month, in 2021 this individual will receive $696 per month. That means they will find themselves living 60% below the poverty line, compared to last year’s 65%. 

Similarly, a single adult with disabilities, again renting in Halifax, in 2021 will receive $1038 per month. That will put them 46% below the poverty line, rather than the 2020 rate of 51%. 

A single parent with one child will receive $20,372, or $1697 per month. That will put the family 37% below the poverty line for Halifax. And by the way, that makes this family still worse off than their counterpart in any other province in Canada.   

You can find Calderhead’s calculations for all scenarios here.

Dalhousie Legal Aid did similar calculations and turned them into a useful graphic.  It also mentions the ever rising rents in Halifax, an issue in rural Nova Scotia as well.

The red parts of the pie chart show what you should be getting on top of the current payments to live above the poverty line.

The other thing we shouldn’t forget is that people on welfare have been getting poorer and poorer over the last few decades. $100 doesn’t even begin to address that.

“We have our job cut out for us”

That $100 increase happened for a reason.

There was a lot of pressure on the government to do something. Child poverty rates were among the highest in Canada, while income assistance rates were among the lowest. It’s embarrassing for the government and makes you look heartless, which is something politicians don’t like come election time.

The government hopes that now some of these criticisms will go away. And it may well happen.

After all, A $100 increase sounds pretty good. Most financially well off people, and we include journalists, just don’t know a whole lot about the desperate situation people on income assistance find themselves in.  

We have our job cut out for us.

See also: Welfare in Canada: Nova Scotia sucks big time

The post Nova Scotia Budget 2021: ‘Historic’ increase promises slightly less starving for income assistance recipients appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA – After 50 years of being located in the North End of Halifax, the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service (DLAS) will leave its current office at 2209 Gottingen Street on September 10, 2020. Staff members have been told that this move is due to building safety concerns. The DLAS will relocate to 2900 Agricola Street for two years pending the development of plans to return to the Gottingen Street neighbourhood. 

The DLAS was founded in 1970 as a community legal clinic with the three-part mandate of providing legal services for low income Nova Scotians, advocating for law reform, and providing an educational experience for law students studying at Dalhousie University. 

For over 50 years, the clinic has served local residents with their legal issues, fought precedent setting test cases, and organized for racial and social justice. In the course of these struggles, the clinic has developed a deep connection with the communities and residents of the Gottingen Street neighbourhood. 

DLAS operated out of several different rented offices in the North End until 1998, when the Royal Bank of Canada approached DLAS and offered to create an enduring home for the clinic by ‘donating’ their building, in the interest of making a long term commitment to the advocacy, anti- poverty and access to justice services offered by DLAS in this neighbourhood. The building is now aging and requires renovations to meet current fire and building safety standards. 

The Board and Staff of the DLAS profoundly regret the move out of the Gottingen Street neighbourhood as we understand that many residents and community partners rely heavily on our services. We want to reassure our community that we remain committed to pursuing their fights for justice and that we expect to return to the neighbourhood as soon as the current building is renovated. 

The DLAS will close its doors to the Gottingen Street building on September 10, 2020 and will reopen in our new location at 2900 Agricola on September 14, 2020. Clients and public will be still be able to reach us via our current phone numbers and email addresses. However, the clinic’s legal information line will be closed the week of September 7 to 11 to accommodate the move.

The post Media advisory: Relocation of Dalhousie Legal Aid Service from the Gottingen Street neighborhood due to building safety concerns appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – One day before the COVID-19 eviction moratorium is set to end some twenty to thirty protesters gathered at Province House in downtown Halifax to call for extended protections for vulnerable renters in Nova Scotia. Protesters drew and wrote slogans on the sidewalk with chalk.

Several thousand households, and many more individuals including countless children, face evictions as the ban expires. The province so far has been silent on what if anything it will do once the moratorium ends tomorrow. 

The rally was organized by ACORN Nova Scotia, an organization of low and moderate income people fighting for affordable housing, a living wage, and related issues.

“We have been speaking with people who are having to make tough choices when it comes to rent,” said ACORN member Mila McKay. 

“One of our members is a single mother who has diabetes, and her child is sick as well. Between the two of them they spend nearly $1500 a month on medication. She lost both of her jobs when COVID-19 hit and had to go on CERB, which meant a dramatic cut to her income. Now she’s being forced to choose between rent, her medication and food on the table. Stephen McNeil, I’d like to ask you, what would you do if you had to choose between your child’s medication and your rent?” McKay asked.

“I am basically living from hand to mouth, and I lost some 80% of my income when COVID-19 arrived. I am carrying a heavy debt load. I will be facing the same challenge if I find out that I have to repay my CERB supports,” Vince, another protester told me. “If it weren’t for a strong support network of family and friends I would be out on the street for sure.”

Gary Burrill, leader of the Nova Scotia NDP, was among the speakers at the rally.

We live in a world where there are lots of problems where there aren’t obvious solutions. However, the problems of evictions and skyrocketing rent have 100% solutions,” Burrill told the crowd in a rousing speech. 

“One solution is rent control, landlords may not increase the rent by more than the cost of living except in exceptional circumstances for which they have to provide documentation and proof. And the solution to the problem of evictions in the middle of a pandemic is to ban them,” Burrill said.

“What kind of government would see people about to face eviction, right in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic in a very tight rental market, and offer nothing in the way of an orderly repayment of debts program, nothing in the way of an eviction ban?” Burrill asked to great applause.

Also in the crowd was Fiona Traynor of Dalhousie Legal Aid. Traynor’s organization has been pivotal in building a coalition of individuals and organizations, ACORN Nova Scotia among them, to raise the alarm about the current housing situation in Nova Scotia.

“We knew that Access Nova Scotia (which houses the Residential Tenancies Program that adjudicates evictions) was going to open up again. And we were very concerned that there would be many landlords who would apply to have their tenants whose income was affected by COVID-19 evicted. and quickly,” Traynor said. 

That’s why Dal Legal Aid proposed what we call the eviction prevention plan. We’re calling on the government to extend the moratorium on evictions related to COVID-19. And we’re also calling on the government to create regulations to institute oversight over landlord and tenant repayment plans. And one of the key factors is that we’re asking the government to ensure that monthly repayments can’t be more than 5% of the total amount that’s owing, Traynor explained.

Some 70 individuals and organizations have signed off on the plan, Traynor told me. Email mark.culligan@dal.ca if you want to add your or your organization’s name to the proposal.

Contact ACORN Nova Scotia at halifax1@AcornCanada.org.

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post “What would you do if you had to choose between your child’s medication and your rent?” Protesters want eviction ban extended appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – With the eviction moratorium widely expected to end on July 1st, as many as 2,000 Nova Scotia households may face eviction for rent arrears or other reasons.

That at least is the number mentioned by Kevin Russell, Executive Director of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia in an article by Lindsay Armstrong for All Nova Scotia. Some housing activists believe that number could be as high as 6,000.

The moratorium was put in place by the provincial government to protect tenants from evictions because of circumstances directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The lifting of that moratorium, and the resumption of Tenancy Board hearings could have devastating consequences for many tenants who were unable to pay their full rent because of financial pressures.  

Two organizations are fighting back.

This Friday June 26 ACORN Nova Scotia is organizing a phone zap at noon, demanding a full ban on evictions because of COVID19 and a rent grant program to help tenants pay off arrears. And on Tuesday June 30 at 1 PM the organization for low income people will hold a rally at Province House.

Meanwhile, Dalhousie Legal Aid, is asking people and organizations to sign a letter that seeks adoption by the province of its Eviction Prevention Plan for Nova Scotia. This initiative calls on the government to put in place protective measures for renters during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, especially around evictions. 

“The economic impacts of the pandemic have fallen hardest on low-wage workers in the service sector, a workforce composed disproportionately of women, immigrants, and racialized persons. Half of those Canadians who earned $16 or less lost their job or the majority of their hours between February and April.2 The Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) has softened the blow but with monthly payments amounting to only $12 per hour, the CERB has failed to fully replace lost incomes. Further exacerbating this financial hardship is the fact the some 16% of unemployed workers remain ineligible for the CERB,” the Dalhousie Legal Aid document states.

“6,000 tenants on the street, that’s a pretty staggering number. It’s a real  concern to see these numbers, knowing that there is the potential of a second COVID-19 wave, and a second lockdown,” says Mila  McKay, an ACORN Nova Scotia spokesperson.

ACORN is demanding a full ban on evictions due to rental arrears because of COVID-19 related financial hardship. It also, much like Dalhousie Legal Aid, wants the government to set up a payment program through the residential tenancies board. It is also lobbying for a provincial rent grant program to help low income tenants pay back rental arrears due to COVID-19.

“First and foremost, for us housing is a human right,” says McKay. “But consider also the tremendous pressure on shelters. If there’s anything we’ve learned from the first COVID-19 wave is that you don’t want people in shelters, and you also don’t want people couchsurfing for that matter.”

“Quite a few of our members have received eviction notices, others have received very large rent increases. We already live in a province and in a city with high rents, and we continue to hear about predatory behavior by some landlords who are increasing rents to extreme levels.”

Contact ACORN Nova Scotia at halifax1@AcornCanada.org. To sign off on the Dalhousie Legal Aid proposal email mark.culligan@dal.ca

See also: News brief: Rent poor in Nova Scotia

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post Housing advocates worry that end of eviction moratorium will render thousands homeless appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Published on June 8, 2020

All staff and law students at Dalhousie Legal Aid Service are speaking out against the violent loss and continued oppression of Black lives in both Canada and the United States. It is important that institutions show their solidarity with local, national and international groups who are working to end anti-Black racism. 

As a community legal service that for the past 50 years has been rooted in the Northend of Halifax, we are committed to the people and communities we serve. We will continue to address and expose the issues of systemic anti-Black racism in Nova Scotia. 

While the racist and criminal actions that lead to George Floyd’s death have sparked outrage and solidarity between people and groups committed to standing with Black people everywhere, we know that his death is one of many. The systems that support racism and anti-Black hatred must be dismantled. We stand with Black communities who demand no more racism, no more violence and no more oppression. 

In accordance with our commitments to human rights and social justice, we express our concern with the growing militarization of the police both in Canada and the United States. We call on the Halifax Regional Council to cancel the purchase of an armoured vehicle for the Halifax Regional Police. Increased police violence and militarization must be prohibited as they pose a serious threat to civil liberties and public safety. 

Dalhousie Legal Aid Service acknowledges the existence of systemic anti-Black racism in the justice system and throughout Nova Scotian society. We stand against white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia and violence against BIPOC, and all other forms of oppression. We stand against hatred and anti-Black racism. 

We believe all Black lives matter.

We respectfully acknowledge that we work in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. 

Dalhousie Legal Aid Service A Community Service of Dalhousie University 

The post PSA: Dalhousie Legal Aid Service: Statement against anti-Black racism appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – I have been watching the press briefings on social media where  both the premier and Dr. Robert Strang have done an excellent job keeping all Nova Scotians informed of what is happening with COVID-19. 

On Wednesday May 27^th they announced that they are planning to reopen the economy. 

This made me wonder when will the various places the poor depend on, not only for meals but also for getting out and socializing, reopen?

As my stories in the Nova Scotia Advocate illustrate, COVID-19 has not been easy on the people I advocate for. In normal times some 80% of the people I advocate for already live a life of loneliness and social isolation. 

I understand it is not up to the Premier and Dr.Strang to make the decision on reopening these places.

Just to name a few places, these places include:

• The public libraries
• Souls Harbour
• Brunswick Street Mission
• Food banks
• The CMHA social clubs: the Sharing and Caring in Halifax and the Among Friends Club in Dartmouth.
• And on a related note, when will the work of the social worker at North End Community Health Center and the staff at Dal Legal Aid Services be back in their offices?

Anyway, the places I mentioned here are just a few examples of things that people living in poverty were not able to access while the public health warnings were in place. Souls Harbour was doing take-out meals, but people who live in poverty depend on Souls Harbour for socializing with people as well.

When will all of the above become available again, is the hot question on the minds of people living in poverty these days.

And how are these people going to adjust to the new normal experts are predicting? 

One suggestion I would make is maybe someone in government could visit the places I mentioned above and put on workshops teaching people living in poverty what the new normal is, and how important is it going to be for them to have to follow the new normal as restriction gets lifted. 

The feeling in the air is that financially better off people are going to have no problem adjusting to this new normal.

Income Assistance recipients are concerned about adjusting to this new normal  because they, as my stories in the Advocate illustrate, do not have the same social resources that financially better off people have. 

I have talked to people who are regular users of Souls Harbour who actually told me,  “Kendall, the take out meal meal was great but sitting within the four walls of my apartment eating that take out alone by-myself was no fun and felt socially isolating.”

While COVID-19 was happening people living in poverty who in normal times already live a life of social isolation felt even more socially isolated.

And yes, there were some income assistance recipients volunteering while the public health warnings were in place. However, volunteering in these projects is not always ideal for those who live with physical disabilities.

But many others, especially the ones with disabilities who cannot get out as much, these public health warnings really took a toll on them.

Of course the one time $50.00 that income assistance received helped a little, but that $50 was only a drop in the bucket for what they really needed during this time. Receiving that extra $50.00 certainly did not replace the social contacts and talking when attending the drop-ins and soup kitchens.

They need emotional support as well as financial support during this time. These public health warnings took a major toll on their mental health and well being. 

Moving forward, let’s hope things get better for all!

Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post Kendall Worth: The new normal and income assistance recipients appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Last month the department of Community Services told Income Assistance recipients who qualify that they must apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

We are hearing that this decision has raised many questions and quite a bit of anxiety.   

The federal government will pay those people on Income Assistance who lost earned income as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and who made more than $5000 over the last year $500 per week for a maximum of 16 weeks. During that time they will not receive income assistance. 

You have to apply for CERB if you qualify, it’s not like you have a choice. And while on CERB you will lose your income assistance support. But for the time being you will be much better off. $500 a week is a lot more than the measly $508 to $862 per month Community Services forks out for an able-bodied individual. 

Meanwhile Community Services stands to save money.

Many questions, few answers

Some of the questions people raise deal with income taxes owed on the CERB payments, others are about how much money you are allowed to save to pay for the tax. 

Right from the start Community Services has not been very helpful as people try to understand the change. 

As my colleague Kendall Worth reported, people who potentially qualify for CERB started receiving calls from caseworkers who told them to apply for CERB in early April. But they were not told whether the benefit would be clawed back partially or even entirely, or what would happen when the CERB ends. This caused a lot of needless anxiety and confusion.

See also: Some social assistance recipients qualify for CERB payments

We now know that you do get to keep the full amount, but other questions remain.

Don’t bother looking for answers on the Community Services web page, there is nothing.

Thankfully, one really good place to look for answers is in a brochure put together by Dalhousie Legal Aid. It contains a lot of very useful basic information tailor made for Income Assistance recipients.

Taxes and assets

Kendall reports that something that concerns income assistance recipients who qualify for CERB is how much tax they are going to owe on the CERB payments. Rumors like “you better put $300 to $600 out of every check away” are making the rounds, he notes. 

You do have to pay tax on any amount above the first $12,000 you earn, and CERB, unlike Income Assistance, is considered income. How much you end up paying will differ from person to person. 

What makes things harder, Kendall suggests, is that advocates who support low income people in more normal times are much harder to reach, given social distancing and so on. The same applies to people who help you with your income tax and understand those things.

“Many income assistance recipients who qualify for CERB are saying “Paying a large amount back in taxes at tax time or whenever it happens is going to be all new to us,” writes Kendall. “Rumours circulating in the community has them scared.    

The other big question among people he talks with is what will happen when CERB ends and people need to return to Income Assistance. What will happen with the money they may have saved?

“You are required, as part of what happens at your annual review, to show your bank statements and prove that you do not have over a certain amount of money put away in an asset,” Kendall writes.

“When CERB ends or their situation changes, we’ll ensure a smooth transition back onto IA for those clients who need it, a Community Services spokesperson told us when we asked in April. 

But when we followed up earlier this week DCS confirmed that does not include a change in the amount of money you are allowed to have saved. 

“Clients can have allowable assets, including savings, of up to $2,000 for an individual, or $4,000 for a family, before income assistance is impacted,” writes Lynette MacLeod on behalf of the department. That’s the same amount as always.  

When your income doubles, and you know it’s only for a short time, of course you want to try to put away as much as possible, especially when you know you will have to pay income tax on that amount. However, as far as DCS is concerned there are limits to what you are allowed to save.

So now we have people trying to put some money away, not just for rainy days but also for possible income tax payments, but that same money would be considered an asset that is taken into account when you apply for a return to Income Assistance! 

It’s all very confusing.

Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post CERB rules leave income assistance recipients confused and worried appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

This encompasses the rights of low-income individuals and can include family law, income assistance, residential tenancies, the court process as a whole, and a multitude of other things.

To decide which legal issues our training will focus on we have reached out to several advocacy groups to better understand the issues they are facing, including youth and women’s shelters, Indigenous and African Nova Scotian Cultural Centres, and family/criminal law advocacy groups.

In an effort to gain a better view of the whole picture, we would like to reach out to the general community to figure out what legal issues people believe need to be addressed most with advocacy staff.

These issues can be about anything regarding poverty law and should hopefully be something that can be addressed with greater knowledge of the subject matter.

Leave your comments here (note, it may take a while to show up, since comments are moderated).  You can also leave a message or comment on the Nova Scotia Advocate Facebook page.
Finally, if you wish you can email me, Robert Devet, rdevet@gmail.com, and I will make sure the Dalhousie Legal Aid folks get to read it.

The post PSA: Dalhousie Legal Aid wants your feedback on proposed poverty law course appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has ruled that Community Services cannot refuse to pay a welfare recipient for suitable housing just because the rent exceeds the shelter allowance.

The person central to the case, identified only as G. in the decision, suffers from severe chemical sensitivities. G could not find an apartment that accommodated these sensitivities within her approved shelter allowance of $535 per month, the maximum amount allocated to single individuals who live with disabilities.

After finding a suitable apartment, G. requested that her shelter allowance increase to $800 per month, which her caseworker denied.

That decision worked its way through the Assistance Appeal Board, a judicial review, and now the unanimous decision in favour of G. by the three judges on the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

“The decision covers everything to do with basic needs. The judges said that the department can override these regulatory limits to what it can provide when a person’s health or safety is in jeopardy. So it is much broader than the facts of this particular case,” says Claire McNeil, the Dalhousie Legal Aid lawyer who argued the case on behalf of G.

“It’s a big step in the right direction,” McNeil says.

This is the second time the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled against Community Services in its interpretation of the regulations within the last year. In November 2017 the court decided that it is unjust to deprive an entire family of social assistance benefits just because the so called head of that family did something wrong.  McNeil was one of the lawyers there as well.

However, in that case the policy manual has not yet been changed to reflect the Court’s decision, says McNeil, and that is reason for concern.

“You depend on the department to implement such a change. All their workers province-wide go to the policy manual to decide what to do. In that manual it still says that if one person does something wrong the entire family is punished,” McNeil says.

“Community Services flouts the law, all the time,”  says Fiona Traynor, a community legal worker with Dalhousie Legal Aid. “What the decision shows is that Community Services contravenes the actual laws that govern the administration of the Income Assistance program.”

“Not only are they denying people what has been found to be fair at the Appeal Board level, they pay lawyers to battle people who live in deep poverty and with serious disabilities at all levels. How much of our tax money do you think that costs,” Traynor wonders.

All this continues to be a source of great frustration, says Traynor, who is one of the spokespersons for the Community Agenda for Social Assistance Reform (CASAR), a group that has been asking for meaningful input in the secretive welfare transformation project that is reshaping how Community Services delivers income assistance. The group represents over 30 anti-poverty groups province-wide.

“CASAR has called on the government of Nova Scotia and Community Services to hold a substantive consultation on the changes that need to be made. CASAR believes that the current transformation is not responsive to the needs of people on Income Assistance, not inclusive and not transparent,” Traynor says.

“The current Court of Appeal decision illustrates once again that they aren’t listening. That has to change.”

See also: Community Services saves millions on social assistance payments

The post Community Services trounced once again in Nova Scotia Court of Appeal appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.