Tag: Disability Supports

Disabled population gets its pandemic moment – as a political football

Disabled population gets its pandemic moment – as a political football

Posted by | Jun 14, 2020 | |

For a brief but far from shining moment this past week, Canadians with disabilities were in the political spotlight in Ottawa. At issue was the wrangling about a modest gesture by the Liberal government to recognize the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on disabled people. The proposal is to send a one-time payment of up to $600 to about one million Canadians eligible for the disability tax credit. Within that group, seniors would get only $100 to $300, presumably because they’re already benefitting from a pension top-up announced several weeks ago. At most, the initiative would cost half...

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On social policy promises Nova Scotia budget rings a familiar bell

On social policy promises Nova Scotia budget rings a familiar bell

Posted by | Mar 6, 2020 | |

Last week’s Nova Scotia budget, the eighth from the McNeil Liberals, was greeted by most as a pre-election offering. That may yet turn out to be the case, but to my eye, the 2020 budget more closely resembled the one brought in a year before the last provincial election. That 2016 offering, coming only a few months after Justin Trudeau and his sunny ways temporarily captured the hearts of Nova Scotians, tried to put a smiley face on a provincial Liberal government that had spent the previous two-plus years preaching austerity. Dubbed “Working Together for a Stronger Nova Scotia”...

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2017 Budget— going backwards on social initiatives

2017 Budget— going backwards on social initiatives

Posted by | May 7, 2017 | |

The 2016 Liberal budget was quite a different beast from the 2017 budget on which the Liberals are running for re-election. Sure, it shared with the current version the obsession with achieving balance at the expense of public sector wages. But aside from that, it was leftish, featuring new spending on income assistance, childcare and disability supports. The Liberals seemed proud of those initiatives, too. Childcare was such a big deal the Premier announced it at the Liberal annual general meeting. In 2016 the increase in assistance rates was declared “historic,” and the modest increase in spending on disability...

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N.S. budget: token gestures or welcome first steps?

N.S. budget: token gestures or welcome first steps?

Posted by | Apr 29, 2016 | |

A headline on the website of Local Xpress, the excellent local news service maintained by locked-out Chronicle-Herald reporters, aptly described one aspect of the Nova Scotia government’s 2016 budget brought down last week. “N.S. Liberals release election-friendly budget.” Precipitously balanced, with bits of new spending sprinkled about, the budget can easily be boiled down for election campaign purposes. Just putting Stephen McNeil’s mug on the first fold of the eight-by-eleven Highlights document that was part of the budget package would give the Liberals a handy campaign leaflet. With the media quickly losing interest in the budget, the challenge for...

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Richard Starr, The man behind the Point

About Richard

RICHARD STARR has had careers as a journalist, public servant, broadcaster, political staffer and freelance policy adviser. He is author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, a former radio and TV producer and weekly newspaper editor, and the author of three non-fiction books. Starr has lived in Dartmouth for more than 30 years.

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