Nova Scotia

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Province-wide Opinion Section.

Your Free Speech letters will appear here.

Time to phase out the CAP

Nova Scotia’s Capped Assessment Program is contributing to social inequity and the housing crisis. And the longer it stays in place as property values continue to rise, the wider the gap in equity becomes. Over the last couple of decades municipalities have advocated to repeal the CAP. The provincial government hasn’t listened despite strong evidence demonstrating that those who benefit the most are wealthy, long time property owners who see the highest increase in their home’s value. One property on the Northwest Arm has an annual tax savings of over $43,000, and another nearly $32,000. Every dollar they save is subsidized by someone else as the tax burden is shifted. Meanwhile, their homes have increased in value by millions. In Nova Scotia, eligible properties are taxed not on their assessed value, but on their capped value which only increases by the CPI every year. Because this reduces the total taxable value, the tax rate is artificially inflated in every municipality. Evidence shows that without the CAP, tax rates would be lowered and the tax burden would be spread more proportionally. A study commissioned by the NSFM in 2020 showed that around 60% of properties were overpaying under the CAP. Much of the inequity arises from the CAP eligibility criteria itself. Most apartments aren’t eligible and neither are recent home buyers. These are two factors impacting our housing crisis – rent prices are driven up as renters indirectly pay the landlord’s higher property tax, and buying a home means higher property taxes. A recent purchase means the capped assessment value is reset to its market value – so recent home buyers are disproportionately taxed much more. A look at a duplex can quickly demonstrate the program’s inequity. Home A and B are identical units in a duplex in Lower Sackville, with Home A paying $1910 per year and Home B paying $3558. There couldn’t be a better time to phase out the CAP. The inflated cost of home ownership for recent home buyers and rent costs are two important drivers of social inequity that our province has the power to influence. Alli Riedstra-Handley

Ukrainians welcome

Ukrainians are coming to Canada so should citizens be concerned of their relocating and existence in this country. They are relocating to mainly Alberta but if you were unaware, most of the people of Ukraine were grain and vegetable farmers….but they are diverse in countless other occupations as well. Chrystia Freeland will likely be heard from on this subject but with her track record it’s not conducive to getting anything done except a lot of idle chatter. You can’t buy your way out of impending crises such as immigration resettling as has been tried before and failed and still remains idle. I’m from the government and here to help you is frightening… sound familiar? Canada should be willing and able to welcome hard working, educated, proud Ukrainian refugees who are resourceful and would perform their due diligence living peacefully in Canada. Ukrainians have helped build part of our fabric of society over the decades and should not be shunned in their time of need. They would not present any burden to our way of life and would be highly successful because of their efficacious work ethic. Jewish and Ukrainian people are morally, economically, and responsible people of this world. Canada won’t regret rendering room for them. J Yaschuk

Swords into plowshares

Dear Editor, Subject: Israel – Hamas War…. “Stop the war before it’s too late.” I fully respect Israel’s right to defend itself and seek retribution for the horrendous and heinous actions of Hamas on Oct. 7 , 2023. However, you cannot destroy Hamas. You cannot bomb a terrorist organization to extinction. At present, and in the court of public opinion Israel is losing. The optics are bad, and if the war continues, perceptions will only get worse. Between the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, Israel may be accused of, and be held accountable for: a system of apartheid; war crimes; crimes against humanity; ethnic cleansing; or even genocide. The process toward the later has already begun and some countries may be accused of complicity for supporting Israel. Most importantly, if the citizens of Israel think they can bomb and otherwise ruin the lives of 2.3 million Palestinians by death, injury, famine, disease, and psychological trauma without backlash from the Palestinian people and their supporters, their mistaken. There is a way out. If Israel recognizes the futility of this war and exchanges mutual vindictiveness for a mutual peace effort, a two-state solution may be found. Before it’s too late, Israel should stop the war, cut all loses , and seek a peaceful solution to what may escalate into a worldwide crisis. Ron Walsh St. John’s NL

Open mouth…..insert foot.

Political Suicide! Dear Mr. Houston, I sincerely hope you are not planning on running in the next election…..cause due to your insensitivity, you don’t stand a chance of winning! To have made a comment regarding to state of emergency declared due to the recent massive snow fall in Cape Breton and implying it was inappropriate was: 1. Insensitive 2. Rude 3. Demeaning to the residents of Cape Breton 4. Condescending I would start looking for a job now, but don’t bother applying in Cape Breton……no one would hire you ! Dawn Wride Former resident of Cape Breton

Reckless Immigration

Decarbonization is everything. So, say’s our glorious leader and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland who is also touted as Canada’s Finance Minister. Both undertakings are highly debatable for her to manage either position responsibly which has not been validated to date. Meanwhile in Nunavut, the king of carbon Prime Minister Trudeau managed to take some time to admonish Pierre Poilievre of wanting to take Canada backwards. Since 2015 is it even possible for Canada to become anymore backward than with Justin Trudeau at the helm? The damage from terrible political mishandling of Canada was almost non-existent 8 years ago but Justin Trudeau’s idea of moving forward has decimated us to a virtual third country. Reckless immigration policies playing on our streets where migrant citizens have brought their problems with them are not helpful. The road to success is to change the way Canada progresses not regresses by this PM who appears to be the only one that would rather see Canada move backwards. This PM stays true to form where his arrogance is outmatched by his incompetence and stupidity. I digress. Ronald J Yaschuk CD

Gouged for Housing?

I am finding myself more and more disturbed with housing and accommodation costs these days. Although I fully support people’s right to make money, I also feel housing is becoming unattainable. I don’t feel government should be responsible to provide or subsidize housing for all, but I do feel a dollar should be worth a dollar. Apartments should be priced according to amenities and condition, not what the property owner can possibly charge potential renters. As we have home appraisals, rentals should also be appraised for what it is. Gone are the days when people had to rent because they couldn’t afford to buy; typical family rents for 3 bedroom apartment is $2000/month (and that’s kind). $2000/ month for a mortgage gives you $300000 mortgage (25 years, more for longer amortization). How can a family be expected to pay that kind of rent but not qualify for a mortgage? On top of this, are the costs for accommodations. If I have to travel for any reason a hotel room at a mediocre hotel (few amenities and no recent updates) it’s usually more than $200/night, and if the hotel is filling up they can increase nightly charges? Why, why is a room that cost $149/night one day (and that’s pushing it) suddenly worth $235/night because they only have 5 rooms not booked? I’m just frustrated to see the values of such things able to change by the day but the item itself is unchanged. I get how demand works, but we’re talking about essential things not special coffee and brand name clothes. Angela Clark

Brick wall at The Brick?

I’d like the residents of Pictou county to be aware of my experience while trying to purchase a refrigerator from The Brick in New Glasgow. I rented a truck and drove 60 kms only to be informed that I’d have to pay an extra fee of $41 to have the door directional swing changed. The Manufacturer knows these doors can be installed in either direction as does The Brick. One point I’d like to make is why doesn’t The Brick bring in at least a few fridges of each kind. I posed this question to the local Bricks Customer Service only to receive every excuse in the book, none of which held any water with me. Apparently it’s easier to order whatever and let the customer pay for the change, a change that takes minutes; do you think the person doing the work gets that $41, I doubt that!! Another money grab by The Brick. My reason for writing this letter is to hopefully help your readers to beware of such unfair charges when making their purchasing plans. Thank You. Allan MacLellan

Grateful for the Nova Scotia health system

A Small Engine for my Heart A few days ago, I underwent surgery for the insertion of a pacemaker. The operation went well, but the recovery is slower than I expected. I was sore afterwards and still am. Plus I can’t drive for another week. A friend has been my guardian angel and is presently putting me up for a few days. This small engine for the heart is a brilliant invention which could perhaps have extended my mother’s life and many others’ as well, back in the days when heart failure was still considered a men’s disease, before scientists realized all experiments had so far been based on the male anatomy. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to probably extend my life because of this small electrical device which is now in the process of becoming part of my body. I am also very grateful for the health system we have here, in Nova Scotia. Over the last 10 days, in three Cape Breton hospitals (Inverness, Chéticamp and Sydney), I have met only competent and friendly staff, from nurses and doctors to service personnel, and that includes the paramedics who transported me between these establishments. My son, when I talked to him over the phone actually said he was glad I had changed province as the Quebec system is getting less and less efficient. And the same could probably be said of most other Canadian provinces, including B.C. and Ontario. The visionaries who worked so hard to create a public health system must be turning over in their graves. Present-day Canada is eroding our social safety nets, which is a pity. Hopefully a new generation will see to making sure this tendency is reversed soon. Louise Delisle, Fordview, Cape Breton

Feeling overwhelmed by unbalanced education system

Recently, our society has witnessed how children with special needs are experiencing our education system. Addressing ongoing support for vulnerable people is something I had assumed was important. As a mother to a child with a permanent disability, in rural Nova Scotia, I’d like to share our ongoing efforts. Despite supplying health documents, and medical physician requests, we are still asking for support for an educational assistant. The first few years in an education system I had assumed, would be a wonderful experience. It has proven, in our opinion, to be the exact opposite. Each day, I send my little girl to school in fear of how injured she could become. Conversations are often “do not use playground for you could fall, don’t use the washroom because you cannot access the space alone, don’t use stairs unless you have a handrail”. I say this to a 7-year-old every day in hopes she will remember. This has caused me to feel disparity and a sense of hopelessness. My daughter has been diagnosed with a permanent disability before the age of two due to having: a rare genetic syndrome, weak muscles, autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, gross/fine motor & speech delay. It’s only a matter of time before I believe, my child may become injured. I doubt we’re the only family to feel this way, and I’d like to state, how sorry we are for those families that share our experiences. We’ve removed my child from school property at lunchtime to ensure her needs are being met. How can our education system better address those with disabilities to ensure ALL will have a safe and prosperous educational experience? Action and dedication for children with disabilities is important. -A very concerned & overwhelmed mother, Brittany Currie New Glasgow, NS

Disability support workers are vital

Everyone benefits from inclusive education, not just those with disabilities. Nova Scotian children with special needs are currently being denied their right to education while their able-bodied and neurotypical peers continue to attend classes. This is wrong. As a former occupational therapist, I’ve had the privilege of working with people with disabilities for many years. Despite advocating for and learning from them, I never fully understood their lived experience until special needs touched my own family. It’s one thing to provide supportive services to those in need; it is completely different to be dependent on others for them. In my career I created care plans to support clients with various needs. Yet support workers were always the backbone of carrying out those plans. They are the ones who make the biggest day-to-day difference. Under our current system, Educational Program Assistants and School Support workers are incredibly undervalued and taken for granted. Their work is integral and irreplaceable, yet they are paid the least of all their colleagues. Inclusive education is a right, not a lofty, unreachable or idealistic goal. The HRCE and the Government of Nova Scotia have taken an incredibly ableist and discriminatory position by unnecessarily keeping children with disabilities from accessing the support they need to be in school. It is unjust that the HRCE and government refuse to adequately compensate those who provide the services these children require. Our kids deserve motivated, properly trained, appropriately paid people to work with them on a daily basis. Keeping children with disabilities out of school is a human rights violation – one that the HRCE and the Nova Scotia Government have the power to collectively resolve. Return our kids to the classroom by recognizing and fairly remunerating the priceless work our school support workers do. Michelynne Gomez

Putting the Caring in Health Care

Health Care. I believe that we need to look at the bigger picture of the problem…all we hear is about money needed to fix our problem. My recent experience was not just one hospital but 4 hospitals. I am a cancer survivor and unfortunately I developed a problem with my bladder and had to have a supra-pubic catheter put in. I would invite people to YouTube “how to change a supra-public catheter” and see that changing is not a big issue. It almost 3 years with this device and thank goodness the VON can change them in well less then 10 minutes. But here is my concern…. after 20 hours of a blocked catheter and 3 different hospitals, I was able to get it changed last Saturday. One week later I went to another hospital with a blocked catheter and the Doctor informed me he called a hospital in NB and was told that to put in a catheter was a surgical procedure to be done by a urologist and takes about 1.5 hours. He is correct, however all I need is a change because I already have one. I have been told a RN is not trained to do this and it needs to be a doctor who wanted to send me to Halifax via ambulance for a blocked catheter. I refused as being a tax payer I’m not into wasting money. My suggestion ..put more money into VON. An LPN can do the care but hospitals cannot. I was told VON receive special training. Lets get some special training in the hospitals then! Grant Milley

Sitting ducks?

Please take a look at the statistics on cybercrime in Nova Scotia in comparison to the other provinces. It is alarming! With the NS rates of cybercrime the highest in Canada, you would think that the number of cases investigated would have climbed. Nope. Only 10% of cybercrimes are reported apparently. The number investigated is not known. Anyone who has experienced cybercrime here in NS may not know this but the RCMP here must outsource to another province for a cybersecurity department to investigate, that’s if you can get past dispatch or communications to speak to an officer at all. At which point the issue of jurisdiction is raised and the victim sent in all directions to other police forces as well, to try and determine who has jurisdiction. The Cybersecurity Covenant treaty that Canada has signed, indicates that jurisdiction is dependent on details of the crime not just location of when you think your devices or routers were compromised. Many NS might be alarmed to know that although it looks like they are connected to their Wifi network, a hacker can make it look like your network but it not be at all. Also alarming is that courthouses in Canada have been hacked. Also alarming? Lawyers in Canada hiring investigators to hack computers and emails. What is our government doing for Nova Scotians who seem to be sitting ducks with no where to turn to. Julie Bridgen

Say one thing….mean another?

COAL-FIRED CONTRADICTION A few weeks ago, I listened to Peter Gregg, President of Nova Scotia Power attempt to rationalize an 11.6 % hike in power rates. His main argument was the federal/provincial mandate to transform the grid by 2030; to decarbonize the grid, or in plain language, to “get off coal” in just 8 years. A week later I listened to the Nova Scotia Government announcing the immediate reopening of the Donkin coal mine here in Cape Breton. What logic presides when Nova Scotians are asked to pay higher power rates (11.6% higher) because we need to get off fossil fuels, particularly coal, and invest in green energy, while at the same time a mining company is permitted to reopen a coal mine? Nova Scotians are intelligent people, and we understand the urgency of moving towards a net zero carbon economy. We understand that coal combustion is the largest methane emitter, and that coal should not be extracted for fuel. We are aware of the toxic legacy of coal mining in Cape Breton and the ensuing costs of cleanups and health care to Nova Scotia tax payers. We know that green jobs are more long term and sustainable than the short-term jobs at the Donkin coal mine. The Tim Houston Government, like most governments preceding them is demonstrating its failure to think long term, is making really dumb decisions, and sabotaging its own efforts to move toward a sustainable, healthy, green economy. MARIA COADY N.E. MARGAREE

The NS Environment and Climate Change has approved the aerial spraying of 2,306 ha with glyphosate by ARF Enterprises, JD Irving Ltd. and Wagner Forest NS. Hmm… this sentence seems contradictory to me. Glyphosate in soil takes 140 days to break down to half it’s toxicity and will continue to be taken up by plants from the soil for two years and longer. There are studies out of McGill University that have found glyphosate puts freshwater ecosystems at risk even when application meets approved guidelines. The use of this product makes no sense. And yet, hardware stores here in Nova Scotia continue to sell products containing glyphosate. Glyphosate kills broad leaf (deciduous) plants and trees to allow for easier clear cutting of pine trees. This substance is banned in some districts, but still used in NS. All the habitat where living species thrive will be altered, and what becomes of these species? Pet owners are advised to keep their pets away from Glyphosate. And yet, this will be sprayed directly on top of all forest creatures. Animals and insects that feed off deciduous plants will be left searching for food. Just imagine, as you read this article, glyphosate is currently falling onto all living creatures in some NS forests (Aug. 15 – Sept. 30), and it will be going into nearby waterways. Not only is it harmful to the forest ecosystem, but the removal of all deciduous trees makes the forest more flammable. With global warming upon us, what is to become of NS forests? So much for your logs…. Cheryl Banks

Coping with greed?

The “system” needs to be rebuilt. The current structure, where 1% of the population of the world controls around 70% of the wealth is destroying the economy and is not sustainable. A goodly part of the dramatic rise in food and gas prices is unnecessary: First quarter of 2022, Exxon’s profit was more than $16,000,000,000 – that’s BILLONS, while A food vendor like Sobey’s had record high profits. See anything wrong with this picture? Dave Fraser

Coping with gas

Bruce MacKinnon CARTOON: Coping mechanisms at the gas pump Loved the Bruce MacKinnon cartoon in your June 16, 2022 edition of The Chronicle Herald, although I want to point out some inaccuracies; what is the strange caricature holding a squeegee? Nova Scotia is the only Province in Canada where the gasoline regulators set the MINIMUM price/litre, and gasoline purveyors (can’t call them SERVICE stations) charge for air to top up your tires and the strange person holding a squeegee in the cartoon has disappeared from Nova Scotia gas purveyors. In most other jurisdictions in North America, gas stations are obliged to provide free air to its customers. Here, in Nova Scotia, on top of the customer filling their own vehicle and paying an ever-increasing MINIMUM price for gasoline to gas stations operators who provide absolutely no service of any kind. Gerard Gagnon East Chester N.S.

Look after Canadians first

“Charity du Jour” While I support any group that donate to charities, the “charity du jour” seems to be the “Ukrainian cause”. There are many Canadian causes that should take preference to the support of foreign charities. Its more appropriate for the European countries to donate to charities supporting a neighbouring country; so should the United States, which is involved up to its neck in the Ukrainian war. Canadians are already paying through their taxes for our government’s donations of funds and military equipment to Ukraine. There are numerous Canadian veterans, through no fault of their own, who are homeless; seniors and families unable to pay for lodging, food and medicine, even though some get a paltry government allowance; children going hungry; ALL OF THEM CANADIANS. If Ukrainian Canadians want to support their cause, that is up to them; but I don’t agree with the recruitment of Canadians to donate to foreign causes. We have more than enough need here in Canada. Gerard Gagnon East Chester N.S.