Halifax Politics dot ca

Honourable Judy Streatch
Minister of Community Services

Minister,

I was very concerned to read today about the family in Chester Grant who have had their social assistance support stopped because of the money they were paid on an insurance claim.

The core arguement of your staff seems to be that the family had to prove they spent all the money they received for their belongings and provide receipts.

I understand your department has a heavy duty in ensuring that no one benefits unfairly while being supported by the Province. This being said, surely, when the capital assets accumulated over a lifetime are destroyed, if a family is driven out of their home, it cannot be said they are benefiting unfairly.

In business terms, their accumulated capital assets were converted into cash at no profit, in fact, at a loss. It is incredible that their day to day stipend would be affected by this tragedy, when again, in business terms, they are surely running a net loss, having been compensated at or less than replacement value by insurance.

I believe the intent of the regulations your staff are enforcing could be described as wishing to ensure people do not continue to benefit from assistance when they are selling something they own at a profit, otherwise known as making money under the table, the classic baking pies and selling them at the flea market. These are totally different circumstances.

In human terms, this family sounds like they are a classic rural, low income household. They should have been able to hold the money from insurance as long as possible, wait for the best bargains, go to flea markets and the Sally Anne, maybe wait until the summer and hit the yard sales. These people are not going to Sears and Walmart to buy a new living room set. They are barely getting buy, and the policies of the Department could be forcing them to make unwise decisions,

I urge you to intervene to protect this family, and to change the regulations so that insurance pay outs that result in no net gain do not result in a change in social assistance status.

Yours,

Waye Mason

I am honored to be one of two culture people on tomorrow (edit – THURSDAY, not Friday) CBC’s Information Morning talking about the future of the city post Commonwealth 2014.

Us culture folks are going to cap off a morning of talk about Halifax entitled “Winners or Whiners.” (?) My segment is on between 8-8:30 am.

To listen online check out CBC Nova Scotia

Some people, especially young people from here who moved to Calgary, are upset with the website the NS government put up:

http://delusionalcalgaria.ca/

I love it. Most of the complaints though are around this idea that “everything is really expensive in Halifax” and “there are no jobs” and “the only reason the job stats are doing better now is because ‘everyone’ moved to Alberta”.

In central Halifax there is a lack of decent low wage jobs, mostly due to the student population sucking up all the good ones. There is also a lack of good urban artsy jobs in the core. People tend to grab on to good culture sector jobs with both hands and ride them to retirement. However, there are lots of jobs. Just they are all in Burnside. I am sick to death of people my age and younger complaining they “cannot get a good job” and “Halifax is so expensive” when what they mean is “I cannot get a high paying cool job in the heart of down town, and own a house on the peninsula I can afford.”

I have no interest in moving to Toronto so I can live up in Major MacKenzie and 16th street and commute an hour a day to an industrial park. If my option is live in Enfield or Timberlea and commute to Burnside i will take it in a heartbeat.

I posted these facts:

Employment rates Feb 2007 (statscan)
Halifax 4.3%
Toronto 6.4%
Vancouver 4.8%
Calgary 2.6%

Median Family income, 2006 (stats can)
Halifax $61,400
Toronto $60,100
Vancouver $56,200
Calgary $71,100

Incidents of Low Income In Private Households 2001 (stats can):
Halifax 15.5%
Toronto 16.7%
Vancouver 20.8%
Calgary 14.1%

NOVA SCOTIA HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2006 CENSUS OF CANADA

Results from the May 16, 2006 Census showed the population of Nova Scotia grew 0.6% since 2001 to 913,462, while Canada’s population of 31,612,897 represented growth of 5.4% over the same period.

Only Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan had population declines.

Fourteen of the province’s eighteen counties showed population declines.
Guysborough County had the largest decline at 7.8% while Halifax County exhibited the strongest growth at 3.8%. Counties with growth are all in the central region of Nova Scotia

Berwick was the fastest growing town in the province with an increase of 7.5% to 2,454 residents.

Of Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas, Halifax Metro maintained its thirteenth position based on population size. In 2006 there were 372,679 people, 40.8% of the total population of the province, residing in Halifax Metro

And then today I found this:
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX Feb 2007 (1986 = 100)

Halifax 131.7
Toronto – 131.7
Vancouver 129.6
Calgary – 145.4

Remember this:

The people behind the Stones are also behind the Commonwealth games bid. Using the same math, maybe our $750 million dollar games might balloon to $1.8 billion. We have every reason to be concerned.

That was me Sept 25 06. And people said I was mad, mad I tell you! Can I call them or what?

In other bragging material:

Schools are important not just to rural communities – as we discovered in my constituency of Halifax Citadel, the threatened closure of those three school galvanized the community. I should say at this point that I want to commend the members of my community, especially the Citadel Schools Group that organized so quickly and so effectively to bring their voices to bear on this issue and, with your indulgence, I would like to name them: Waye Mason, Mike Kilfoil, Aubrey Fricker, Doug Clapp, and my own constituency assistant who helped to organize that group in very short order.

My MLA Leonard Preyra giving me a shout out in Hansard from the floor of the House of Assembly. Awwww yeah.

So I was driving down Sackville today and this quote was on the Herald buildings billboard:

My public life is before you; and I know you will believe me when I say, that when I sit down in solitude to the labours of my profession, the only questions I ask myself are, What is right ? What is just? What is for the public good?
Joseph Howe

Wow, right? Wow. So here are some more.

Such a prostitution of judicial power can never occur again under the shadow of the British law, for no jury within the wide circle of the empire would submit to such an infraction of their privilege, even if a judge could be found daring enough to attempt it.
Joseph Howe

They have shrunk from inquiry, though they have strained after punishment. I have in every shape dared the one, that I might, so far as lay in my power, be able to secure the other.
Joseph Howe

Will you permit the sacred fire of liberty, brought by your fathers from the venerable temples of Britain, to be quenched and trodden out on the simple altars they have raised?
Joseph Howe

Will you, my countrymen, the descendants of these men, warmed by their blood, inheriting their language, and having the principles for which they struggled confided to your care, allow them to be violated in your hands?
Joseph Howe