HALIFAX — An ambitious target for housing and a replacement for federal carbon pricing are among the major promises contained in the Nova Scotia Liberals' election platform, which commits to $2.3 billion in spending over four years.

Flanked on Monday by 16 of his party’s candidates in the Nov. 26 provincial election, leader Zach Churchill revealed a 31-page plan that he said would amount to a fully costed “contract with Nova Scotians.”

Among the significant measures is a promise to build 80,000 new homes by 2032 in order to help alleviate the province’s housing shortage. “This is a number that can’t just be a goal," Churchill said. "We have to do this if we are going to ensure people have a roof over their heads."

The target could be reached by setting provincewide zoning standards and eliminating red tape, he said. To address the shortage of labour needed to build the housing, the Liberals propose spending $20 million over four years to increase the number of skilled trades opportunities for women, who Churchill said currently comprise less than nine per cent of the province’s skilled labour workforce.

The overall plan for housing also includes $37.5 million a year to build more non-profit housing and $20 million over four years to build and support co-operative housing.

There is also a pledge to replace the federal carbon price with an Atlantic region cap-and-trade model for large industrial greenhouse gas emitters. Churchill said New Brunswick’s new Liberal Premier Susan Holt already agrees with the idea.

“It needs to be regional so it is large enough to meet federal targets,” Churchill said, adding that such a program would reduce gasoline prices by at least 10 cents a litre.

The platform contains previously announced items such as a two-percentage-point reduction in the harmonized sales tax at a cost of $542 million a year, free public transit, and a pledge to build 20 new collaborative health-care clinics and expand 20 existing clinics at a cost of $15.3 million a year.

Churchill said to implement the plan, his party would run budget deficits in the first three years if elected, with a surplus planned for the fourth year.

"We can afford this if we stick to our budget," he said. "It is based on revenue increasing on the economic side, but also decreasing on the population side because we are going to better manage our population growth."

The Liberals are the first of the three main parties to release a full platform, which followed the release Saturday of new polling numbers from Abacus Data showing the party in third place, well behind the Progressive Conservatives.

The Tories registered 45 per cent support with committed eligible voters, the NDP 26 per cent, the Liberals 25 per cent and the Green Party four per cent. The survey was conducted Oct. 28-31 with 600 eligible voters drawn from a random sample of panellists. It cannot be assigned a margin of error, but Abacus says a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Meanwhile, housing was the focus Monday of the Progressive Conservatives and NDP, with both parties making announcements in Halifax.

Tory Leader Tim Houston announced a measure aimed at first-time homebuyers, pledging to reduce the minimum required down payment on a home costing up to $500,000 to two per cent from five per cent under a loan program administered by local credit unions.

“I think there’s lots of young Nova Scotians … in different financial circumstances where a down payment is a challenge,” he told reporters. Real estate firm Royal LePage says the median cost of a single-family home in Halifax is $575,000.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender announced a new affordable homes rebate that she said would help households with incomes of less than $70,000 save an average of $900 per year on rent or mortgage payments. “The price of housing in this province, whether you rent or own, is out of control,” Chender said.

She said the rebate would apply to about half of Nova Scotia households, with households that make between $29,000 and $59,000 expected to receive about $1,000 per year through the rebate, and households making less than $29,000 to receive about $1,500.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

— With files from Lyndsay Armstrong in Halifax

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

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Some people in Halifax say they aren't troubled by having few or no friends, according to a study conducted by Dalhousie and St. Francis Xavier universities.

Laura Eramian, one of the authors of the research and an associate professor of sociology and social anthropology at Dalhousie, said it is commonly held in society that friendship is a major contributor to living well.

"We wanted to also ask the question of what it's like in a moment where friendship is considered so important to be someone who doesn't have any or many friends," Eramian said.

The researchers interviewed 21 people in Halifax who said they have few or no friends.

Eramian said some of those interviewed expressed suffering due to being friendless, but she said it was not the only story they heard.

"What was so striking to us was how people also talked about a kind of countervailing set of meanings that they attached to being friendless," she said. "And that was things like autonomy and self-reliance and independence."

'Sense of personal dignity'

Some of those interviewed said they were also able to find a "sense of personal dignity" in being friendless.

Eramian says building relationships can be a low priority for those struggling in other areas of their life.

"If people are scrambling to make ends meet, and then they say that the directive is to go out and make friends so that you feel better about your life, it isn't necessarily helpful," said Eramian.

"It just becomes another wellness demand that people have to grapple with."

Michael Halpin, a Dalhousie sociology associate professor, says building friendships has also become an expense that some cannot afford.

"We might think that the solution is to just get out there and make friends, but that's … exceptionally difficult," said Halpin. "Going out and doing things that are social has become more expensive."

Concerns about social isolation

Halpin warns that social isolation and loneliness can be detrimental to mental health.

"People are reporting that they feel more lonely, reporting that they feel more isolated," Halpin said. "People in some contexts are saying that their social networks are shrinking.

"So in many ways, we do have a loneliness epidemic."

It can be difficult for some to find value in being friendless.

"I've moved a lot," said Janine McGregor, who established a book club for the Halifax Gals and Pals organization. "I've been lonely a lot. I've been that person and it's not fun. So I like to try to help people not feel that."

The organization hosts numerous events in the city for women and gender-diverse people to get together and socialize.

"People go to these events because they want new friends," said McGregor. "I've had people say the book club is their one social event of the month and they wouldn't miss it."

Tris Healey is the program manager at Hal-Con and is helping facilitate a speed-friending event this Friday that is usually attended by 60 to 80 people.

Healey said the annual event encourages attendees to socialize with new, like-minded people.

"There are a lot of people coming in the geek community who may be struggling with what society sees as the standard way to kind of make friends and communicate," said Healey. "It becomes a welcoming place in that sense."

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An ambitious target for housing and a replacement for federal carbon pricing are among the major promises contained in the Nova Scotia Liberals’ election platform, which commits to $2.3 billion in spending over four years.

Flanked on Monday by 16 of his party’s candidates in the Nov. 26 provincial election, leader Zach Churchill revealed a 31-page plan that he said would amount to a fully costed “contract with Nova Scotians.”

Among the significant measures is a promise to build 80,000 new homes by 2032 in order to help alleviate the province’s housing shortage. “This is a number that can’t just be a goal,” Churchill said. “We have to do this if we are going to ensure people have a roof over their heads.”

The target could be reached by setting provincewide zoning standards and eliminating red tape, he said. To address the shortage of labour needed to build the housing, the Liberals propose spending $20 million over four years to increase the number of skilled trades opportunities for women, who Churchill said currently comprise less than nine per cent of the province’s skilled labour workforce.

2:07

The overall plan for housing also includes $37.5 million a year to build more non-profit housing and $20 million over four years to build and support co-operative housing.

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There is also a pledge to replace the federal carbon price with an Atlantic region cap-and-trade model for large industrial greenhouse gas emitters. Churchill said New Brunswick’s new Liberal Premier Susan Holt already agrees with the idea.

“It needs to be regional so it is large enough to meet federal targets,” Churchill said, adding that such a program would reduce gasoline prices by at least 10 cents a litre.

The platform contains previously announced items such as a two-percentage-point reduction in the harmonized sales tax at a cost of $542 million a year, free public transit, and a pledge to build 20 new collaborative health-care clinics and expand 20 existing clinics at a cost of $15.3 million a year.

Churchill said to implement the plan, his party would run budget deficits in the first three years if elected, with a surplus planned for the fourth year.

“We can afford this if we stick to our budget,” he said. “It is based on revenue increasing on the economic side, but also decreasing on the population side because we are going to better manage our population growth.”

The Liberals are the first of the three main parties to release a full platform, which followed the release Saturday of new polling numbers from Abacus Data showing the party in third place, well behind the Progressive Conservatives.

The Tories registered 45 per cent support with committed eligible voters, the NDP 26 per cent, the Liberals 25 per cent and the Green Party four per cent. The survey was conducted Oct. 28-31 with 600 eligible voters drawn from a random sample of panellists. It cannot be assigned a margin of error, but Abacus says a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

1:44

Meanwhile, housing was the focus Monday of the Progressive Conservatives and NDP, with both parties making announcements in Halifax.

Tory Leader Tim Houston announced a measure aimed at first-time homebuyers, pledging to reduce the minimum required down payment on a home costing up to $500,000 to two per cent from five per cent under a loan program administered by local credit unions.

“I think there’s lots of young Nova Scotians … in different financial circumstances where a down payment is a challenge,” he told reporters. Real estate firm Royal LePage says the median cost of a single-family home in Halifax is $575,000.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender announced a new affordable homes rebate that she said would help households with incomes of less than $70,000 save an average of $900 per year on rent or mortgage payments. “The price of housing in this province, whether you rent or own, is out of control,” Chender said.

She said the rebate would apply to about half of Nova Scotia households, with households that make between $29,000 and $59,000 expected to receive about $1,000 per year through the rebate, and households making less than $29,000 to receive about $1,500.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

— With files from Lyndsay Armstrong in Halifax

A woman who was forced to seek out-of-country treatment that cost more than $100,000 for her agonizing chronic condition said she welcomes a recent apology from Nova Scotia’s premier, but worries for others who are still suffering in pain without adequate care.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston apologized Friday after a court criticized a government process it described as flawed and discriminatory. Two women, Crystal Ellingsen and Jennifer Brady, were rejected for coverage of vital treatments in their home province that they ultimately received in Germany and Japan.

“The injustice is still happening. It’s happening right now for other Nova Scotians,” said Ellingsen, a 46-year-old mother of three who has spent years fighting for in-province lipedema treatment.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Timothy Gabriel overturned Nova Scotia’s “unreasonable” refusals to reimburse Brady, who has lymphedema in her legs, and Ellingsen, who has lipedema in her legs and arms, for their treatments.

Lipedema is a chronic condition that forms a buildup of fat tissue in the legs, arms and lower body. It often causes pain, swelling, heaviness, loose skin, easy bruising, and the feeling of nodules under the skin. Lymphedema, which also results in chronic pain, is localized swelling caused by a compromised lymphatic system.

Ellingsen said the legal win and promise of reimbursement comes as a relief to her and her family. She and her husband took out a loan against their Halifax home in order to pay for four surgeries in Germany after spending thousands of dollars on other treatments over the years. Surgery to reduce lipedema is not currently available in Canada.

“I did feel relief after my surgeries, because I didn’t even realize how much my pain and low mobility was stealing from my life. My kids and my husband would go to the park and I would have to sit in the car and watch them because I couldn’t do it,” she said through tears in a phone interview Sunday.

“And now I get to do those things, and that’s worth a lot. But there’s been a lot I’ve had to give up to try to secure my own health care. And I’m not alone.”

The mother of three says the legal win is bittersweet. She considers herself lucky to have the means of securing the loan to pay for overseas treatment, but she is left thinking about those who are living with lipedema and are unable to access the same life-changing care.

“It goes beyond a gap. There’s a canyon of people falling through, trying to advocate for their own health care. And they can’t because they can’t find somebody to even give them a diagnosis. I was one of the lucky ones,” she said, adding her condition is often misunderstood or misdiagnosed.

In a Friday statement from the premier’s office, Houston said he agrees the women were mistreated. The province will reimburse them both for their medical and legal expenses to date and will fund the further treatment needed to manage Brady’s ongoing condition, he added.

Houston also pledged a review of the out-of-province and out-of-country treatment approval process.

Ellingsen said a review of the “broken” system is not enough, and Nova Scotia must completely overhaul its handling of these conditions so people with lipedema and lymphedema are not left in agony.

She is also calling for the province to invest in its health system so that patients with lipedema can access timely diagnosis and treatment.

In order to deal with the “crippling debt” that has come with paying for her health care, Ellingsen and her family moved to the United States in August for better-paying work.

“If we had just gotten the money we needed at the time, we could have moved on with our lives. But it was time spent trying to figure out this process that was never going to yield any coverage. There’s the stress, the tears. I’ve had to move to another country. I couldn’t work full-time for years,” Ellingsen said.

In June, Brady completed an application for medically assisted death due to the “indescribable” pain caused by her lymphedema.

In an interview Friday, Brady said it’s hard to celebrate the court victory as she still needs to see the premier’s pledges fulfilled, and she will have to see the promised funding to believe it. A provincial election is currently underway and Houston, who is seeking re-election, has pledged to finish the system overhauls he promised during his first campaign as party leader.

“There’s a long road ahead still, and there are still question marks about what this is actually going to mean,” Brady said.

“My concern (is) that these are political promises because (Houston) is running an election campaign premised on fixing health care and listening to Nova Scotians, neither of which he’s done for me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — A group advocating for seniors believes Nova Scotia’s elections agency has made a mistake by opting not to mail out voter information cards in the current provincial campaign, calling the move short-sighted and arguing it risks excluding a key demographic from the voting process.

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons said many seniors don’t use the internet regularly and rely on the postal service for voting information, adding Elections Nova Scotia’s decision leaves older voters at a unique disadvantage.

“(Seniors) don’t do social media, they don’t look on the internet for this kind of information,” spokesman Bill VanGorder said Friday in an interview.

The provincial elections agency announced Thursday it would not send voter information cards in the mail this election due to a potential strike by Canada Post workers. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has announced its rural and urban mail carriers voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if there is no progress in negotiations with the employer. The union will be in a legal strike position as of Sunday, but no notice of strike action has been served so far.

Nova Scotia Liberal Party Leader Zach Churchill also criticized the agency’s decision, saying the lack of mailed cards will make voting difficult for seniors and those with poor or non-existent internet connections. In a Friday email sent to Dorothy Rice, Nova Scotia’s chief electoral officer, Churchill said the move “carries significant negative consequences for voter engagement and our democratic process.”

Seniors have historically engaged well with the political process and are active participants in elections. An Elections Nova Scotia report released after Nova Scotia’s 2021 provincial election estimated there were about 215,000 registered voters who were over 65, making up 28 per cent of electors in the province. The same report said roughly 148,000 people in this group cast a ballot, and accounted for 35 per cent of total voters.

Many of the issues dominating the current campaign include healthcare, housing and the cost of living. All are issues that resonate with older voters.

VanGorder said he’s already heard five complaints from seniors concerned about where to find voting information. While this number seems small at first glance, he said to hear complaints that quickly from a demographic that otherwise doesn’t always notice this kind of news is significant.

Elections Nova Scotia spokesperson Naomi Shelton said the decision not to send voter information cards this year was difficult, but noted there are other ways for voters to find out where to cast their ballots, including finding polling locations via the agency’s website or calling a phone line for polling information. Shelton also said there are usually polls stationed in congregate living settings for seniors to give older Nova Scotians the opportunity to vote.

The elections agency also said it has an awareness campaign in the works to alert “underserved” voters about how they can vote on Nov. 26. Though the details of this campaign are still being finalized, Shelton said the agency will pivot to radio messaging, social media ads and some “traditional” modes of advertising.

While VanGorder said he is glad to hear the elections agency is doing the work to get the message out to seniors, he said any advertising over radio, television or print media must be “fair and strong and regular so people are able to get the message.” He also urged the elections agency to get in touch with major organizations serving seniors in the province and get them involved in circulating information about where to vote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2024.

Cassidy McMackon, The Canadian Press