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This opinion piece first appeared in Saltwire Media on April 1, 2022
In 2014, then-Premier Stephen McNeil’s throne speech set the tone for what would be his eight-year term as leader of the province — and the tone was decidedly aggressive, anti-worker and specifically anti-union.
The Liberal leader was no friend of public sector unions, delivered a knockout blow to the province’s film sector, and eliminated the Graduate Retention Rebate, making it harder for young workers to remain in the province.
Now, following two years of the pandemic and seeing the effects of stripping our public services and neglecting workers in vivid detail, it seems safe to say Premier Tim Houston wants to set a very different tone for his fledgling Progressive Conservative government.
With Tuesday’s provincial budget, I was pleased to see the government follow through on important promises — including desperately needed investments in the health-care sector.
One major highlight was the announcement of $66.3 million for wage increases for continuing care assistants (CCAs) in long-term care and home care. The raise was announced earlier this year, but seeing the money in the budget provides additional confidence that the increases are permanent and that the government will follow through. Our union and many other organizations and advocates have become hoarse from years of repeating the need for increased CCA wages in order to address urgent recruitment and retention issues in the field.
We hope this marks a real turnaround in how long-term care is treated in this province and further investments and improvements are made.
Another bright spot in the budget is the $25 million in additional funding to establish 4.1 hours of direct care for long-term care residents, which is a step in the right direction. This investment will significantly improve care for residents and quality of work for carers who will have more time to provide the quality care they are so capable of delivering.
It is certainly a huge step in the right direction to see the Houston government acknowledge that the current hours of care in long-term care facilities was not sufficient.
It’s important to celebrate when we win. Thousands of people spent years advocating for these improvements. It is wonderful to finally have a government in power that listened and made change.
At the same time, there’s a number of line items in this budget that are lacking.
For example, the budget for the Department of Environment and Climate change was cut by 15 per cent. In the budget documents, environment is listed as one of several top priorities, but a cut this significant indicates the opposite.
The items the document does highlight include federal money for infrastructure programs, money for electric charging stations and an expense to conduct energy audits on provincially owned buildings.
Each of these are important actions that the government needs to take, but together they encompass a bare minimum of what is required, not a fulsome environmental plan.
Our members in the forestry sector have been advocating for clear and defined environmental standards in the industry. It remains to be seen if this budget cut will hurt the department’s ability to provide the necessary frameworks for industry and retain the confidence of Nova Scotians in progressing toward a greener economy.
Overall, this is a budget for the history books. The efforts to improve job quality and improve care for Nova Scotians is long overdue and will benefit all of us.
I’ll be watching closely to see how Premier Houston fulfils his promises. The approval of Nova Scotians is his to lose.
