here<\/strong><\/a> Liberal leader Zach Churchill ventured into tricky territory when he put out an op-ed blaming the Premier\u2019s quest to double Nova Scotia\u2019s population by 2060 for homelessness, high rents and over-stretched health and education resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\nChurchill, self-described as a descendent of Lebanese immigrants, insisted he is not opposed to immigration, just concerned that Tim Houston\u2019s population \u201cplan\u201d is responsible for our current undeniable growing pains. He continued to make that argument during question period throughout the just-completed session of the legislature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Had he chosen to, the Premier could have challenged Churchill\u2019s claim that he\u2019s not anti-immigrant. He could have pointed out that with deaths continuing to exceed births and interprovincial migration slowing down, nearly 90 per cent of Nova Scotia\u2019s population growth over the past year has come from international immigration, including more than 12,000 non-permanent holders of work or study permits. Ergo, complaining about population growth is, admit it or not, complaining about international immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for good measure, Houston could also assert that expansion of non-permanent residents is the result of federal policies that have vastly increased the number of temporary foreign workers and student visa holders coming in, mainly to serve the economic interests of small business and post-secondary institutions like Cape Breton University (ex-Liberal heavyweight David Dingwall, proprietor). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But instead of doing that, our Premier drowned out Churchill\u2019s anti-immigrant dog whistle, blasting out the same message with a megaphone. He went ballistic in response to the notion that if asylum claimants were distributed to provinces on an equal per-capita basis – like we do with, say, health dollars – Nova Scotia would have 6,000 more than the small handful now settled here. That alarm bell had about as much validity to it as Trump\u2019s infamous slander against Haitian immigrants in Spingfield, Ohio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the federal immigration minister, Marc Miller, the 6,000 number emerged from a federal-provincial working group exploring whether some provinces could take more asylum seekers to ease pressure on Quebec and Ontario which have accepted much more than their per-capita share. The estimate was the product of some simple math – applying Nova Scotia\u2019s 2.6 percent share of the population to the 235,825 human beings recorded as seeking asylum in this country at some point in the recent past. But to Houston, always keen for a fight with the Trudeau government, the apparent \u201cwhat if\u201d became a call to arms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houston vs. the facts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLate last week the Premier used the government\u2019s communications apparatus to issue a statement claiming that \u201cthe federal government wants to send nearly 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia. This is simply unacceptable.\u201d The release went on to say that Nova Scotia lacks the capacity to accept thousands of asylum seekers, and that doing so would \u201cderail our plan for strategic population growth,\u201d and warned that \u201cany attempt to ship asylum seekers to Nova Scotia would be challenged.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To show it wasn\u2019t just a temporary lapse of judgment, Houston followed up the statement with a resolution in the legislature this week, citing his \u201cstrategic plan\u201d focused on health care and building trades. The resolution called on MLAs to condemn Marc Miller \u201cfor trying to take advantage of the kindness and compassion of Nova Scotians, and attempting to disrupt Nova Scotia\u2019s responsible, strategic plan to attract the professionals like the doctors and nurses our province needs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately for this Province\u2019s reputation, unanimous consent was denied in a voice vote, without debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is much to decry in Houston\u2019s performance. Even if 6,000 asylum seekers were on their way to Nova Scotia – which they never were – Houston\u2019s assumption that Nova Scotia should avoid taking on its share of the load is hardly evidence of a province full of \u201ckindness and compassion.\u201d His claim that asylum seekers would somehow \u201cderail\u201d Nova Scotia\u2019s \u201cstrategic plan\u201d is arrogant and degrading. And the idea that Ottawa is capable of \u201cshipping\u201d people to Nova Scotia is dehumanizing. As federal government immigration spokesperson explained to the Chronicle-Herald, <\/em>any movement of asylum seekers would require both their consent and the agreement – along with federal cash – of the receiving province or territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEven more damaging to Houston\u2019s credibility is the fact that the working group initiative against which he rails originated in Halifax, at the July meeting of Canada\u2019s Premiers (formerly known as the Council of the Federation). The annual gathering of provincial and territorial leaders, chaired at the time by the Nova Scotia premier, called on the federal government to work with them to \u201cdetermine the appropriate number of accepted asylum seekers,\u201d adding that \u201cPremiers support a fair distribution of asylum seekers across Canada corresponding to provincial and territorial capacity to provide housing and other supports and services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houston, along with Blain Higgs in New Brunswick and Danielle Smith in Alberta, must have had their fingers crossed when that resolution went through. All three are now mounting the barricades against any notion of \u201cfair distribution\u201d – unless they think it\u2019s fair that Quebec and Ontario, with 61 percent of the population, should house 91 percent of asylum seekers while Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with 4.7 percent of the population, provide home for only 0.12 percent. Alberta is somewhat better in terms of doing its bit\u00a0 – 11.8 percent of the population, 3.1 percent of asylum claimants. But finishing well back of Danielle Smith in the \u201ckindness and compassion\u201d department is not a good look for anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Election strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are valid criticisms to be levied against the Trudeau government\u2019s post-pandemic expansion of immigration quotas. But it is sad to see the extent to which those failings have led to immigrants and vulnerable asylum seekers being used as pawns in political games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houston initially embarked on the same expansionist route as Trudeau with the wide-eyed \u201cdouble-the-population\u201d promise in the PC party\u2019s 2021 platform. When it started to look like that promise may be fulfilled, adding to a range of capacity issues around housing, health care and education, Zach Churchill heard the anti-immigration rumblings and mounted the soap box. Churchill ignored responsibility for the problems created by the Trudeau government\u2019s over-expansion and the lack of preparation for growth by the provincial Liberal government he had been part of. To him, it was all the fault of Houston\u2019s pledge to add one million to the population by 2060.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That left Houston in a tough spot – having to defend the same expansionist immigration policy as Trudeau or go with the anti-immigrant undercurrents Churchill was riding. But by creating the fiction that Ottawa is poised to ship 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia he is able to have his cake (a growing population) and eat it too (attack the federal Liberals on immigration). And in the run-up to the provincial election, attacking the Trudeau Liberals is what it\u2019s all about – whether the subject is cost-sharing of work on the Isthmus of Chignecto, the carbon tax or asylum seekers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of running for re-election on his government\u2019s performance, Houston would rather run against Trudeau\u2019s record while doing his best to establish the Churchill-led provincial Liberals\u2019 guilt by association. He made that much very clear in answer to one of Churchill\u2019s questions this week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026we have the Leader of the Opposition supporting the federal carbon tax, then he supported the federal government on asylum seekers, then he sided with the Liberals on the Isthmus yesterday. He continues that. I just have one question for the member: Is there one single issue he would stand with Nova Scotians on as opposed to the Liberal Party?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Expect to hear much more of the same in the weeks and months ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An observer of Nova Scotia\u2019s recent political discourse could conclude that the Province is experiencing a wave of xenophobia – \u201ca deep dislike of foreigners\u201d according to the Oxford English dictionary. A couple of months ago, as discussed here Liberal leader Zach Churchill ventured into tricky territory when he put out an op-ed blaming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nova-scotia-politics","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3436,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions\/3436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}