Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr, left, and Halifax MP Andy Fillmore announce $83 million to create 222 new public housing units at One Government Place, Halifax, September 27. Photo Communications Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is building the first public housing in the province in decades.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr and Member of Parliament for Halifax, Andy Fillmore, announced Wednesday, $83 million will be used to build 222 new public housing units, 80 of which will be fully barrier-free.

These developments are expected to benefit 522 families, individuals, and low-income seniors across both rural and urban communities in Nova Scotia.

The new housing will be built on provincially owned land close to existing public housing developments in several locations, including Bridgewater, Kentville, Truro, Cape Breton (multiple locations), and the Halifax Regional Municipality (multiple locations).

The buildings will be designed to be energy-efficient, sustainable, and affordable for residents. Importantly, rents for these units will be tied to the resident’s ability to pay. Gearing the rent towards income, will make the units accessible to individuals and families with varying financial means. The new units will be operated and managed by the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency.

The funding breakdown for the project includes $58.8 million from the provincial government and an additional $24.4 million from the federal government.

The PC government has long held government shouldn’t be involved in public housing, instead they should provide the means for private developers to create affordable units.

Minister John Lohr said government began shifting their thinking over the summer.“If you look back to my more recent quotes I was softening that position because I realized that this was something that we had been working on as a department over the summer to look at this possibility. And I can tell you that the, what did change, was we do have an agreement and the money from CMHC, the federal partner, $24 million to build 80 accessible barrier free units,” said Lohr. “The way that we were doing that was we were going into 40-year-old buildings and renovating them and my staff pointed out that this was a pretty inefficient way of doing it”

Lohr says the renovated older unit would be tied up for a year during construction and in the end didn’t always result in the best accessible living space.

It was at that point the department decided to build 80 new accessible units and fund the creation of the 222 affordable spaces.

Andy Fillmore, Member of Parliament for Halifax, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the importance of federal-provincial collaboration. He says the solution to the housing crisis won’t come from one level of government or from one organization.

“It has to come from every single person who is involved in every single organization and order of government who is involved in in housing. We all own a piece of it and we all have our own jurisdictional boundaries we need to observe,” said Fillmore. “We are working hard to play within our lines, work with provinces to change some of those lines where we need to, to provide more capital and get more units built”

Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender was in Bridgewater discussing affordable housing prior to this announcement.

She was direct when asked what she hoped to hear from the province and federal government.

“I would expect to see the creation of a significant number of truly affordable housing units across Nova Scotia. That’s what I’m looking for,” said Chender. “And I would further expect that the province comes to the table with significant investment of their own to make that happen because so far the vast majority of the affordable housing units that have been built in Nova Scotia in the past five years have been built with federal dollars and I think it’s time for the province to also take the role that really, they have by legislation and in our constitution”

Chender says the new units are a start but fall far short of meeting the demand for affordable housing across Nova Scotia.

Minister Lohr says construction of the first new units is set to begin in spring 2024 with a goal to have people moving in during fiscal 2024/25.

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NDP Caucus in Mahone Bay. Leader Claudia Chender is fourth from the right. Photo Nova Scotia NDP

NDP Leader Claudia Chender says Nova Scotians want proof that improvements are being made to the healthcare system.

Chender made the comments at the party’s caucus meeting being held in Mahone Bay Monday.

She says every week Nova Scotians hear government is making healthcare better while the number of people without access to primary care keeps growing.

“We just get sort of assurances that things are getting better but no evidence that things are getting better,” said Chender. “If you talk to the average Nova Scotian, I have yet to have a conversation in the last six months with anybody about health care who would argue that anything has improved people are seeing a steady decline and it’s, it’s very concerning.”

Chender sees a need for more long-term care facilities to open more beds in hospitals.

“In Dartmouth for instance, at any given time around half of the inpatient beds at the Dartmouth General Hospital are patients who have been approved for long term care. They don’t need to be there. It is clear that we need more long-term care,” said Chender. “The Liberal government built almost no long-term care beds in over eight years, and we pushed for it that whole time and I think we’re seeing some of the results of that now in the challenges were having in our hospitals.”

Chender says a model based on the collaborative care centres which her party began to implement when they were in power would provide people with access to healthcare professionals.

She says combining multiple ways to access care under one roof would allow a person to come in, be triaged and then directed to the appropriate caregiver.

“We believe that we every Nova Scotia needs to be attached to a single practice. That may not mean that you get to see a doctor all the time. You might see a nurse practitioner, you might see a physician assistant, you might see a pharmacist or social worker depending on what you need, but your file lives in a certain place and your care is coordinated,” said Chender.

The NDP leader says considering the number of baby boomers heading into retirement and needing medical care, it’s widely recognized people will have to adjust to the reality of not having a family doctor, not just in this province but across the country.

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Nova Scotia Legislature. Photo courtesy Communications Nova Scotia

The leader of Nova Scotia’s NDP is warning recently introduced government legislation eliminating several independent agencies is putting too much power in the hands of government departments.

Premier Tim Houston’s PC government announced several pieces of legislation last week that would bring the housing authorities, municipal finance corporation, gaming and Perennia under direct control of the provincial government.

The premier argued that if he is to be accountable for the work of these departments his government should have a direct hand in managing the day-to-day operations.

Leader of the NDP Claudia Chender says that interpretation is too broad.

“Well, it will ultimately make him directly accountable for what goes on, of course, because he is the Premier and Nova Scotians will have a referendum in 2025 on whether he remains the Premier. But in the meantime,” said Chender, “the government should be accountable to the people. And by making these changes it is no longer nearly as accountable as it once was.”

A series of government news releases outlines the new pieces of legislation, saying they will increase accountability and create a new Crown corporation responsible for public housing in Nova Scotia; reduce duplication of roles, improve efficiency and bring Nova Scotia in line with other Atlantic provinces by having the staff who conduct and manage gaming part of government and make Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc. a Crown corporation so it can work more closely with the government, increase public awareness of its services, and be more transparent.

Chender says the PC government has established a troubling pattern of centralizing power around them, starting with the firing of the Nova Scotia Health board, shortly after taking office.

“Made it accountable to a CEO who reported up to the premier. Now we’re seeing that repeated with multiple formally independent agencies and crown [corporations] right across government. I think we lose a level of accountability; I think we lose the benefit of expertise and I think it fundamentally politicizes basic services from housing to finance to a number of other operations of the government,” said Chender.

Following the recent firing of several high-profile CEOs from their positions in crown agencies and corporations, Chender is concerned about the morale of public sector employees.

“I would say that most people who interact with government would agree that there is what I think would best be described as a chill in the public service. People are afraid of making a misstep and losing their job or being reprimanded and my assumption is that that will only intensify.”

Chender says it is arguable that reform was required in some cases but in many, government is doing exactly the opposite of what reviews have indicated is needed.

As an example, Chender says the Affordable Housing Commission recommended establishing an independent, arms-length body to oversee affordable housing and instead Nova Scotians are getting another department of government.

“The rationale for that is that you can make good policy driven decisions that are not subject to political whims. What we’ve seen from Premier Houston’s time in government is that nothing in government is immune to political whims from hiring his friends to firing well-respected civil servants,” said Chender. “Everything seems to go through the Premier’s office, and this will just solidify that pattern.”

Should the legislation pass during this sitting of the house, as expected, the Housing Act and Housing Nova Scotia Act will be repealed and replaced with the Housing Services and Supply Act effective December 1.

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Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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