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The Liberal government plans to continue its austerity agenda
in the coming provincial budget. Austerity is the ruling class
solution to the Great Recession of 2008. Instead of reining in
the big banks and corporations, the ruling class seeks to
blame working people for this economic crisis.
according to Genesage,
it was finance capital, not nurses, teachers and bus drivers
who crashed the economy. We didn’t cause this crisis, and we
won’t pay for it.
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While full details of the budget will not be available until
April 9th it is clear from statements the Premier
and his Ministers have made, that they intend to inflict pain
on the working class in Nova Scotia. This will likely include
privatization of public services, rising tuition fees, ongoing
freezes to income assistance rates, ongoing corporate welfare
and the possibility of a health levy.
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The privatization agenda includes outsourcing maintenance of
basic public documents like vehicle registration, land
registration and more to private, for-profit companies. These
are services that should be run in the public interest and not
to generate profits for corporations. Even more worrying is
the possibility that these services, which contain personal
information about Nova Scotians, could be turned over to an
American corporation and subject to the Patriot Act in the US.
This is on top of cuts already made to public services in
tourism and child welfare.
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On health care, the government is moving forward with plans to
privatize home care services across Nova Scotia. This will be
done through a process called ‘competitive bidding’. What this
means is thousands of health care workers, mostly older women,
will be fired and forced to reapply for their jobs at a much
lower wage rates and with few or no benefits. This was done in
Ontario and Alberta with disastrous results. Patient care will
suffer. The Liberals are also talking about the possibility of
a health levy. This would be a flat fee, of several hundred
dollars, everyone would have to pay each year to access the
public health care system.
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The Liberals continue to starve the post-secondary education
system of the resources it needs. The government will allow
tuition fees to increase again at our universities and
college, while class sizes get bigger and administration
salaries continue to grow.
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In the election the Liberals campaigned on a promise to
reinvest money that had been cut from P-12 education under the
previous government. Instead, however, they have announced
education “reform” initiatives that do not provide
any new funding, and tried to pit teachers against parents on
issues such as snow days. Meanwhile, many Nova Scotian
students are in junior high and high school classes of 30-38,
and special needs continue to go unaddressed.
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When it comes to social assistance, the Liberals began their
mandate by freezing personal allowance payments last year and
are now having a Montreal-based corporation review the entire
system. Social assistance payments remain well below the
poverty line, damning tens of thousands of Nova Scotians to
poverty. The Liberals have also begun closing rural income
assistance offices. With the cuts that have been made to
Employment Insurance by the federal Conservatives, more Nova
Scotians will be forced to look at income assistance for
survival.
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The Liberals continue the failed economic development policy
of corporate welfare, which has been done by political parties
of all stripes for decades. Recently, they gave $22 million to
the Royal Bank, one of the most profitable corporations in the
country. Corporate welfare will never develop our economy.
Corporations come here, get the subsidies, and then leave when
the subsidies run out.
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There are alternatives to austerity capitalism. Life doesn’t
have to be like this. Through of a mix of public ownership,
workers cooperatives, and non-profit enterprise, we can build
a sustainable economy and keep more of our wealth here in Nova
Scotia, instead of sending it to corporate shareholders in
Toronto and New York. The Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives – Nova Scotia Office has also published
progressive budgets for the past 15 years. These budgets
demonstrate that we can afford to invest in health care,
education and eliminating poverty.
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We need a government willing to break with austerity
capitalism and begin building a real future in Nova Scotia. If
you are interested in building alternatives to capitalism,
contact Solidarity Halifax and get involved in the struggle
for justice. Another world is possible.
