7.1.09

COMMUNITY SERVICES/

Enclosed will be all the evidence that David Morse and Harold Dillon and the Metro Regional Housing Authority had on the outrageous corruption of Housing staff and did nothing.It is not only the 'what did they know' of these people it is also the 'when'..how long have they known about this corruption pervasive throughout child welfare-children aid society (CAS), social assistance programs, disability services and housing?

How did they justify huge bonuses while killing people in poverty? NDP Kevin Deveaux stated he did not mind the bonuses but how do they arrive at them?....being a white middle class man maybe he did not know: WE, the poor people MIND THEM!

This is the most despicable case of welfare fraud and where is the investigation?

This is such a slap in the face of community voice as they suffer needlessly and daily with poverty issues while their governmental perpetrators not only ignore their calls for assistance but have the audacity to give themselves bonuses!

At a time when Nova Scotia is failing so many measures for the eradication of poverty: provincially, nationally and globally.

Discussion of the continual abuse of policies, procedures and lack thereof, abuse by way of revolving door appeals and abuse and retaliation by case workers on those most vulnerable. 



Honourable Denise Peterson-Rafuse NDP

The Honourable Denise Peterson-Rafuse was first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly as MLA for Chester-St. Margaret’s in 2009.
Before becoming an MLA, she was Program Coordinator for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia in Hants, Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne counties. She has also worked as a mortgage consultant for Premiere Mortgage Centre and she worked for the Halifax Regional Municipality for 10 years.

Cabinet Responsibilities

Recent Bills

View all bills introduced by this member this session.
Photo: Denise Peterson-Rafuse
High Resolution Photograph
Caucus Biography
Constituency Office
213-9977 St. Margaret's Bay Road, RR2 Hubbards, Nova Scotia B0J 1T0
Phone: (902) 857-3378 or 1-877-740-3378 Fax: 857-3386 E-mail: denisepetersmla@bellaliant.com
Constituency History (PDF)
Business Address
Department of Community Services 8th Floor, Nelson Place 5675 Spring Garden Road P.O. Box 696 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2T7
Phone: (902) 424-4304 Fax: (902) 428-0618 E-mail: petersdj@gov.ns.ca
Department of Seniors 4th floor, Dennis Building 1740 Granville Street PO Box 2065 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2Z1
Phone: (902) 424-0065
Fax: (902)424-0561
E-mail: seniors@gov.ns.ca

vision

Social and economic well being for all Nova Scotians.

Our mission

The Department of Community Services is committed to a sustainable social service system that promotes the independence, self-reliance, and security of the people we serve. This will be achieved through excellence in service delivery, leadership and collaboration with our partners.

Goals

  • Self-reliant people, strong families and inclusive communities
  • Strong, responsive and sustainable social service system
  • Integrated, quality service delivery system
  • Strong provider relationships and collaboration
  • Leadership and the continuous pursuit of excellence
  • Skilled, flexible workforce

More about us

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Who Stole Joseph Howe's Nova Scotia?


Joseph Howe, once a premier, is probably one of the few truest Nova Scotians. Ever. Not only did he plant the democratic garden for Responsible Government he had so much confidence in the unique strengths and promise of NS that he fought with passion against Nova Scotia joining the Confederation.

If he seen NS now he would say this is NOT his province. With:
- failed poverty report cards
- failed violent report cards
- high unemployment rates
- high suicide rates
- high chronic illness rates
- penalties for aspiring to higher education
- penalties against those striving for freedom of speech
- corrupt and unethical govt practices
- irresponsible and criminal govt agencies

I venture to say that Mr. Howe would be down right disgusted to call this province Nova Scotia as it in no way resembles what he so proudly wrote about and adamantly fought for in many a political arena here in Canada and in the UK. He would be ashamed at the lack of a humane standard wondering how any one could be proud developing policies and attitudes that made the sick sicker and the Poor Poorer!

He would ask, ‘who stole MY Nova Scotia: a province of proud people, prosperity, productivity and promise’?

Using the lack of humanity and the clear lack of intelligence as a measure, he would say Government has forgotten what it is to be Nova Scotian.

Mr. Howe could not imagine a world where Government would deliberately organize to harm those who are the most vulnerable. He would not know that this mentality thrived from the pain of others and he would not know that this would be called fragging, a word to be invented 70 years after his time.

Fragging is the word that comes from the Vietnam War said to explain the ‘unexplainable’ deaths of people considered to be an annoyance. It is a covered up made to look like friendly fire when in reality it was the deliberate act of injury or murder done to get rid of someone who was considered problematic.

In NS, the Government has created this long standing illusion that people in poverty are problematic when in fact it is the Government who have created this very problem through their classist agenda to punish those who, in another time not so long ago, were considered to be the Deserving Poor. The Government sets up punishments that suffocate the Poor and then blames the Poor for not being able to breath.

Fragging. NS Government harming the Poor by making it look like something is ‘wrong’ with each one of us so they are not held accountable for committing these crimes against humanity as a ruling power.

NO, Mr Howe could not fathom a province whose Government could, with proud maliciousness intend to harm human beings then punish those same people for being injured.

WE live in such a pathetic state of affairs here in this province, maintained by the ruling non-Poor that its very condition is a travesty to all that Joseph Howe fought for and envisioned Nova Scotia to be for its people.

Advocates must remind those responsible for creating and maintaining the suffering in NS, that they are trespassing in this province. They are NOT Nova Scotian by any definition other than being born here and that is not enough.

Joseph Howe would be proud of those fighting for the rights of the vulnerable, the impoverished.. He would say we are true Nova Scotians fighting for democracy and responsibility from a Government that has been neither for a long, long, long time.

So when you advocate for the Poor do it with pride, the pride of knowing that this outrage is not new, it is over a hundred years old from the moment Mr.Howe decided to represent all of Nova Scotia, not just the elite. Advocate with pride knowing that each of you ARE Nova Scotia and that within each of YOU: Joseph Howe would find his responsible Nova Scotia again!!!!
http://www.streetfeat.ns.ca/





Employment Support Services (ESS)

ESS helps people on Income Assistance to become more self-sufficient.
Self-sufficiency means different things to different people. Some people need to work on education, others on job skills. It may mean doing volunteer or part-time work. Self-sufficiency means finding what is right for you at this time, with your background, your family and personal situation, and what jobs are available in your community.
The services depend on your goals and your background. ESS offers some services directly, but also works with other organizations to provide some programs.




Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) 

Policy Manual

If you are looking for general information, see our pages about Income Assistance or Employment Support Services.
This manual contains all of the policies a caseworker uses when making their decisions. It is also the first thing that supervisors and appeal board members look at when deciding if the decision was the correct one. If you have questions about specific services or benefits that are available to you, the information in this manual may be useful.



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http://halifax.metronews.ca/index.cfm?sid=57207&sc=89
Double social-assistance rates: coalition
ROBYN YOUNG

......

Volunteer Gayle McIntyre chatted about why she was yesterday's event.


"I'm a person that does live in poverty and I receive an allotment for disability," she said.

"The public would be morally outraged if they knew how people in poverty actually live."


And the government needs to be accountable for the less fortunate in the city because a healthy community is only as healthy as its most vulnerable person, she said.


"We have a government right now willing to pay $167 a day to keep men and women, mothers and fathers in prison," she said.

"We have them willing to spend $372 a day to keep youths in facilities.


"They're willing to spend that money to keep families separated, rather than taking it and putting it into communities in the first place," she said.

McIntyre hopes to get people who are not living in poverty involved in the cause, saying it should be everybody's issue, not just those on welfare. more in link

ryoung@hfxnews.ca 26/08/07

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WELFARE DISASTERS!  
WSWS : News & Analysis : North America : Canada

Report documents the disastrous plight of Canada’s welfare recipients
By Eric Marquis 12 October

A recent report from the National Council of Welfare, an advisory board to the federal Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, paints a very somber picture of the conditions in which welfare recipients in Canada are forced to live.

Invariably, those receiving welfare or “last resort” benefits have incomes far below the poverty line. Moreover, the real dollar value of the benefits paid welfare recipients has been rapidly shrinking over both the short and long term.

The report sheds light on the degree to which state policy is oriented towards enriching the wealthiest and most privileged sections of society to the detriment of the most vulnerable. Far from coming to the aid of the most destitute, the state is seeking to transform them through punitive regulations and woefully inadequate financial support into a source of cheap labor so as to increase the profitability of Canadian big business.
Entitled “Welfare Incomes 2005,” the report describes in detail the welfare benefits received by families across Canada.
In 2005, 1.7 million Canadians, roughly 5 percent of the total population, including nearly half a million children, were dependent on welfare for their livelihood.

Although the federal government helps fund welfare through transfers to the provinces, it is the provinces that administer welfare in Canada.
“Welfare Incomes 2005” found that in 20 of the 52 categories of welfare recipients the Council has been tracking across Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories for the past 20 years, welfare incomes are now at their lowest point ever.

The report further found that in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia—five provinces representing close to two thirds of Canada’s total population and currently ruled, respectively by Liberal, New Democratic Party (NDP), NDP, Conservative and Liberal governments—the incomes of welfare recipients in all categories declined in 2005 to their lowest point since at least since 2000.

The Canadian government has defined the poverty threshold for a single person at C$19,795.
Yet in New Brunswick, a single person on welfare received just C$3,427 in 2005, and a four-person family (a couple with two children) only C$17,567.

Alberta, which due to its oil and gas reserves is far and away the country’s richest province, has dramatically slashed the values of welfare benefits since the early 1990s. Last year a two-person family (one parent and one child) in Alberta received just C$12,326 in welfare benefits. And the income of a single person on welfare in Alberta, when adjusted for inflation, has been nearly halved since 1986, falling from C$9,881 two decades ago to C$5,050 in 2005.

In Ontario, the real dollar value of welfare benefits for a single person has fallen nearly 35 percent since 1992, going from C$10,700 to C$7,000, while the value of welfare benefits for an Ontario family comprising two children and two adults has been reduced from C$28,000 to C$19,300 during the same period.

In 51 of the 52 categories designated by the National Council on Welfare, including those covering persons receiving disability benefits, the income of welfare recipients was less than two thirds, and in many cases far less than two thirds, of the poverty threshold. (The lone exception was single-parent families in Newfoundland.)

The incomes of welfare families with children were generally between 55 and 60 percent of the poverty threshold. The incomes of single people living alone were nearer to one third of the poverty line.

According to the report, people who depend on welfare to survive must go through a “complex, onerous and humbling” experience—that is, a maze of time-consuming and demeaning administrative hoops—to obtain or retain their eligibility for welfare benefits, benefits that are too meager to satisfy their most basic needs.
This shows one thing: Canada’s governments—federal and provincial and of every political stripe, Liberal, Conservative, Parti Québécois (PQ), and social-democratic (NDP)—long ago abandoned any pretence of providing for the basic needs of their most deprived citizens. The days of the welfare state, when governments redistributed a portion of wealth to the poorer sections of society and ensured a minimum living standard for all, are long gone. It has been replaced by a deliberate drive to render the jobless destitute, so that they can be dragooned into accepting the most degrading and underpaid jobs and, thereby, downward pressure exerted on wages as a whole.

In some provinces, after having endured administrative harassment, including flagrant intrusions into their private lives, welfare recipients are steered into programs aimed at “re-integrating” them into the job market.

This is true in Quebec where the program of welfare aid is bluntly called an “employment assistance program.” After having undergone an intrusive detailed study of their material conditions and their needs, welfare applicants in Quebec who have been deemed apt for work must meet with a job-agency representative whose role is to press them to accept the first job available. Welfare recipients cannot refuse a job judged to be “appropriate” by a job-agency representative without having their benefits reduced or stopped. Single persons deemed “apt for work” in Quebec receive a welfare stipend of C$533 per month, or C$6578 per year, just 34 percent of the so-called poverty threshold—that is, if their benefits haven’t been reduced because they refused to accept an “appropriate” job.

In most provinces, welfare recipients must regularly demonstrate that their financial and professional situation remains the same—i.e., desperate—if they want to continue to receive welfare benefits, and, if they have a disability or other condition that prevents them from working, they must regularly prove that their health still prevents them from seeking employment.

Despite the meagerness of the stipends paid under welfare, the provinces have developed a whole series of restrictive regulations to further reduce welfare eligibility and rates. For example, for nearly 10 years, successive Quebec governments, Liberal and Parti Québécois (PQ), have cut the stipend paid a young welfare recipient by C$100, if he or she lives with a parent not receiving welfare. This measure has allowed the Quebec government to save C$44 million on the backs of some of the province’s poorest residents.

In considering the plight of Canada’s welfare recipients, it is also necessary to consider what is happening at the other extreme of the social ladder.

For the year 1999 (and contemporary figures would certainly be even more skewed in favor of the privileged), the richest 27 percent of all Quebecers owned 80 percent of all the wealth, while the poorest 36 percent owned just 1.4 percent. In Alberta, the poorest 30 percent shared between them a little more than 0.8 percent of the total wealth while the top 24 percent possessed 75 percent. In Ontario, the lowest 25 percent in terms of revenue possessed an infinitesimal 0.1%, and the richest 27 percent had 77 percent.

Equally striking are the obscene incomes earned by the richest Canadians in 2004. Robert Gratton, CEO of Power Corp., earned C$173.2 million, while Bernard Isautler received C$93 million. Frank Stronach of Magna International pocketed C$52 million, and John Hunkin of the CIBC bank earned C$13 million. And this is only a tiny part of the total wealth siphoned off by the tiny, but economically and politically dominant, capitalist elite.

This is an international process. In the US, for example, salaries now make up the tiniest part of the gross domestic product since 1947, while profits have not been so high since the 1960s. As one banker remarked, “It is the reduction in the share of the national revenue going to the workforce which has contributed the most to the increase in profit margins over the last 5 years.”
All these figures show to what degree the gap in income and wealth between the working class and the ruling classes is immense and continues to widen. This situation is the direct and sought-after consequence of a policy that aims to impoverish the working class majority to enrich the owners of capital

The WSWS invites your comments.
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