Tag: Disability Supports

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, appearing in everything from Atlantic Insight to Atlantic Progress. A lifelong student of Maritime history, Starr is married to playwright and former MP Wendy Lill. They live in Dartmouth.

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