Kendall Worth interviews Janice, a long time Nova Scotia ACORN member who lives on income assistance. Janice describes her experiences of being an ACORN member as nothing but positive.
That ‘historic’ increase in income assistance really doesn’t amount to much, write journalists Kendall Worth and Robert Devet. Here’s why.
Some 50 people rallied at Province House this morning to remind government MLAs that everyone has a right to a decent place to live and enough money to make ends meet.
Last Saturday the hardworking people at ACORN Nova Scotia launched a list of demands that they hope anti-austerity activists and organizations in the province can sign off on.
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: 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.
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.
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: 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.
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.