Finance committee  Yes, we probably all agree that every little bit helps. These are all steps in the right direction. But it is also important to keep listening, to follow up to see how those changes and the new programs are affecting people and whether they are actually contributing to a decrease

Finance committee  Again, there are lots of good examples to look to now for poverty reduction strategies that are in place that seem to be working quite well. I've discovered recently that the National Anti-Poverty Organization is actually going to be directing a lot of its efforts towards working

Finance committee  Do you mean in terms of people paying it, or what you do with the revenues from it?

Finance committee  I think that's correct, because when you purchase anything on which the GST is charged, you pay the amount, whatever it is. It gets reduced a little, and that's a small help, but across the board it's much more difficult for people living in poverty. The tax they pay is a much gr

Finance committee  I think, rather than mentioning all the specific ideas that people come up with for reducing poverty--and there are many--we would join those who are asking for a national strategy and provincial strategies for reducing poverty. Certainly, we hear all the time that we need more h

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee today on your pre-budget consultations. The Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers is the professional association for 1,600 social workers in the province. We regulate and strengthen the profess

Finance committee  Well, again, I think there's a blending...or there are different responsibilities for each level of government. We think the federal government actually does have jurisdiction over some of the areas that we need for poverty reduction. Also, we think any level of government, inclu

Finance committee  I think there is definitely a need for direct funding and not doing everything through the tax system. I'm just sitting here thinking that last week the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty had an action in which one of their demands was that the social assistance rates here in No

Finance committee  I would just like to add that in terms of employment insurance, we're seeing a really big increase in precarious employment—part-time jobs, term employment, and low-paying jobs—which certainly means that even people in business for themselves aren't eligible for employment insura

Finance committee  Since the GST is a proportion of what a thing actually costs, and the people who live in poverty have so much less available to begin with, any small-percentage cut doesn't amount to that much for them. Again, I'm not an economist, and I can't make these economic arguments, but

Finance committee  Thank you. We are very happy for the opportunity to come here and present to you today. The Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers is the professional association for 1,600 social workers in the province. We regulate and strengthen the profession, and we have a mandate to pur

Human Resources committee  Again, not being an economist, I don't know the financial details about how that might work, but I think often tax breaks and tax credits tend to benefit the higher-income earners rather than the low-income earners. We feel that there must be some way to work within the tax syste

Human Resources committee  I'm not an economist, so I don't know how to make it happen. But the minimum wage being so low means that people earning the minimum wage are living in poverty in our country. So that means that even the people who are working and meeting that sometimes unspoken standard of our s

Human Resources committee  This isn't a particularly concrete idea, but I think that the language we use is incredibly important. Several of us here this morning have talked about investment, and you used the word in your question as well. I think that what happens often is employers and others think of

Human Resources committee  I think it's true that women are vastly over-represented in the precarious employment field for a variety of reasons, often because of competing family responsibilities, both with children and with aging parents. If they can enter the labour market—and that's difficult for many