Universality should be the guiding principle for all municipal services. This means ensuring all residents have comparatively equal access to the services they need on similar terms and conditions. In communities across Nova Scotia today, this is not the case—instead of a universal approach, there are often multiple tiers of access to municipal services, fostering exclusion, inequality, and disharmony as opposed to inclusive citizenship, equality, and social and economic solidarity.
Candidates in the Halifax Regional Municipality election, which will take place on October 19, have the chance to begin the process of righting historic wrongs, and proposing a bold plan for the future of our region. If they are serious about doing so, here are some starting points.
Promoting Free and Universal Public Transportation: Public transit—through buses, trains and ferries—must be expanded in communities across Nova Scotia, providing universal access for residents to move around and between cities and communities across our province. Provincial and federal governments must step up to ensure we have an effective public transit system everywhere it is needed. While providing public transit free of charge is by far the most progressive option to address both traffic and equity issues in transportation, this must be accompanied by adequate financing to ensure transit authorities can sustain transit options in the years to come. Proper funding is essential, as the current public transportation systems are less than ideal. Many routes don’t make sense or take too long, and many communities still do not have any bus routes. Additionally, there are staffing challenges as bus and ferry workers continue to face difficult working conditions, harassment, and staffing shortages.
Assuring the Right to Housing: Nova Scotia is currently in the midst of a housing crisis. Too many people are experiencing homelessness in our communities—an issue that represents a fundamental break in the social contract in this country. Too many pay too much for the basic right to have a roof over their heads. It is critical to consider how the housing crisis affects populations differently to develop responsive policies and ensure universal access. It is also essential to take urgent action to address the lack of housing options for people with disabilities whose rights are too often violated when they have no choice but to live in institutions. Municipalities have a key role to play in ensuring provinces invest sufficiently to address this issue and use legislative powers to address the housing and affordability crises. Critical changes are needed to provincial legislation, including, for example, transforming the current rent cap into a vacancy control system, ending fixed-term leases, and creating a landlord licensing system where none already exists while ensuring annual inspections.
Supporting Public Libraries: Libraries represent one of the most vital elements of social inclusion infrastructure within any community, providing a free, safe social space for all ages. Most libraries provide public computer and internet access to those who would otherwise not be able to access these, as well as a breadth of programming responsive to distinct community needs. More than 5 million visits are made to the over 80 libraries around the province each year. In Nova Scotia, Halifax Public Libraries is the best-funded library system and, by far, the most utilized in the province. Half the population of HRM has a library card; in other municipalities, under a third of the population regularly use their local libraries. While some provincial funding is earmarked for libraries in Canada, most funding comes from municipal budgets. With increased budgets for outreach and programming, libraries outside HRM should be able to attain similar usage numbers, providing the critical services and spaces libraries offer to their residents.
Supporting Decent Work and Well-Being
Municipal councils must think beyond planning based on a neighbourhood or community's physical requirements—accessible sidewalks, roads, parks, trails, and other infrastructure—to supporting residents’ sense of belonging and engagement in the development of their community, ensuring they are optimized for their health and well-being.
Investing in Community Economic Development: The quality and accessibility of services depend upon the working conditions of those employed within them, with cascading impacts on families, communities, and users. Contracting out has been shown to worsen working conditions and is “a powerful driver of precarious work;” as a result, the remunicipalization of these services represents a straightforward means to strengthen services offered by local governments. In addition to de-privatization or (re)municipalization, municipalities must improve their in-house working conditions, ensuring any procurement supports both worker and community well-being.
Developing Social Procurement Policies: In 2020, the Halifax Regional Council passed a Social Procurement Policy that included paying a living wage as part of the criteria for evaluating bids—a crucial step forward for low-wage workers in the municipality. Though HRM’s 2020 Social Procurement Policy required some private contractors to pay a living wage, there were many gaps, and some exemptions. Paying a living wage is essential to level the playing field by ensuring companies do not just bid based on which contractors can pay the lowest, but at least partially consider working conditions.
Ensuring Municipalities are Living Wage Employers: Municipalities should pay all their employees a living wage, including part-time, casual, and seasonal workers. There is mounting international evidence of the benefits to employers, such as higher retention rates, fewer sick days, better work quality, and productivity increases. Nova Scotia’s municipalities would show tremendous leadership by making this investment, providing a model for other municipalities nationwide to follow suit. Another way to improve procurement is to support local businesses through import replacement and buy-local provisions, instituting community benefits agreements, and encouraging diversifying suppliers.
