Community Services Minister Brendan Maguire at his swearing-in ceremony in February with Lt.-Gov. Arthur LeBlanc and Premier Tim Houston. (Communications Nova Scotia)

The Nova Scotia government will index social assistance payments after all.

The province announced Wednesday that it would index all income assistance payments annually based on the consumer price index. In 2024-25, rates will be indexed by 2.5 per cent.

The Progressive Conservative government was criticized earlier in March after it unveiled its budget, with no provision for indexing income assistance.

Community Services Minister Brendan Maguire pushed for indexing the rates when he was a Liberal opposition member. But he told reporters in early March that it wasn’t on the table right now.

On Wednesday, though, Maguire said it’s “another action being taken by government to help vulnerable Nova Scotians find success.”

The change will be implemented on July 1, with retroactive payments to April 1. Almost 24,000 Nova Scotians were collecting assistance as of Feb. 1. Indexing will cost about $7 million in 2024/25.

Region of Queens administration building. Photo Ed Halverson

Non-unionized staff at the Region of Queens will see a significant pay hike this year.

At their September 14 meeting, council voted to increase wages to that group by four percent.

Mayor Darlene Norman says yearly cost of living increases are normally tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The provincial index sits at 4.6 percent for 2021 while the Canadian CPI is 3.7 so council decided to split the difference and arrived at the four percent increase.

Norman says the Region works to be fair to all their staff.

“As an operation, which has union and non-unionized employees, we try to keep things pretty well equal,” said Norman.

During the 2020 pandemic, the CPI stayed flat and non-unionized employees didn’t receive a pay bump, while, because of the terms of their contract, unionized employees added two percent.

Norman says union members will receive another two percent increase this year and the four percent non-unionized workers are getting will put them back on equal footing again.

The municipality will pay an extra $52,000 this year for the cost of living increases.

The new wages go into effect October 1.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
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