VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

NEW RENTERS SLAMMED

As a mother of two young people who are renters in Halifax, I am appalled at the situation renters are facing. In a city with relatively few high-paying jobs, rents are being raised drastically.

I was shocked to find that landlords can raise rents any amount when a lease is terminated and new renters come into the same apartment. When rent controls were announced last November, I was relieved. The legislation covered people already in apartments, limiting increases to two per cent, and it ensured that renters entering a new lease would not be facing much higher jumps in rents being asked for the same apartments.

Amazingly, two days after the announcement, the government quietly removed the protection for new renters on Nov. 27. I do not remember any attention being drawn to that, and I check the news every day.

In some cases, landlords are raising rents by 30 per cent to 46 per cent, with little to no improvement to the units. I realize that costs have risen, but not by that percentage! The secrecy surrounding the regulation change seems deliberate.

It is not just low-wage earners, students and people on social assistance who are affected by such rampant inflation. People helping their children through university are finding housing costs a huge expense. Retired people on fixed incomes, with modest pensions or savings, are also affected. People with better-paying jobs hoping to buy a home eventually will be unable to save much toward that goal. Many people will be confined to a lifetime of renting, contributing to landlords’ rental income rather than building equity in their own homes.

This election is a chance for renters, and their families and friends, to make their voices heard.

Ruth Faulkner, Truro

HEALTH CARE TRUMPS ALL

I am writing in hopes that this letter may reach people, empower them, and help them to understand that as we continue to sit idly by, quietly wringing in our hands in despair, people are suffering and dying due to the lack of timely health and mental health care right here in Nova Scotia.

This is not acceptable in Canada. The primary objective of Canadian healthcare policy is to “protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.” This is not happening in our province.

I do not discount the importance of environmental or economic issues, but funding improvements in those areas while disregarding the health and wellbeing of the population is a critical error in judgment. Without people, no matter what economic or environmental incentives you create, there will be no change. The people are at the heart of every issue — those very people that our politicians have sworn to serve.

The very first issue to be addressed by any political party in this provincial election should be health care. Nothing else should happen until they have ensured that every single Nova Scotian has the care they need. No more empty promises. No more talk. It is time for action. It doesn’t matter how they do it, whether they create community clinics that run five days a week and six to eight hours per day or take the money planned for electric buses and hire 100 doctors or provide incentives and higher pay to work in Nova Scotia and even more for rural areas. Either way, we are in a critical state and this is the time to address it — to stand up and say that we will no longer be silent.

C. Cote, Bridgewater

HEALTHY FOOD A RIGHT

Food is the fuel that sustains human life, and with your nickel only going so far, one wonders how much rising prices affect our health as more and more people cannot afford healthy nutrition.

I am a young adult and I don’t have a grudge against any political party. Rather, my perspective is that of a university student who has come to observe just how expensive — and well, in many cases, completely unaffordable — it is to provide healthy food for the vast majority of households. Also, why do grocery stores offer so much healthy produce that simply will not sell due to its high price, only to be forced to throw it out later? The United Nations reports that one-third of all our food is wasted!

OK, so maybe I do have an issue with the government in terms of how the economy is structured around food. Shouldn’t there be some financial support for people to help them afford such necessities? Should food be provided as a right?

Food fuels our bodies and helps us contribute to society through a strong work ethic; it also determines the quality of care we can put into our family. Without healthy, affordable food available, we cannot maintain our own health, let alone support our family. This should not be such a costly, uphill struggle!

With a basic monthly family food grant, working families could better afford other necessities like shelter, heat, water, electricity, clothes, and/or transportation. This would be a big help to many families who struggle here in my community and all across Canada.

Families with young children must also buy school supplies, lunch, shoes and warm outside gear or sports gear. (We are not talking here about tennis lessons or new super-expensive sneakers.) Nowadays, providing these things can mean cutting back on basic, healthy food. This should not be necessary in a country as rich as Canada!

And what about future generations? Isn’t it right to provide them with the nutritious foundation that helps them develop into healthy, contributing members of society?

My intent is not to attack the government; it is to express my concern about the attainability of healthy food. I hope you will raise awareness and support the change I want to inspire, so that someday soon nutritious food will be a right, not a privilege.

I hope this issue receives some government recognition because this article is aimed as well at those government members who can influence and bring about change.

I once read on a reusable Sobeys bag: “Good food is not a luxury; it’s a right.” If this is true, and not just an advertising slogan, we need big changes in how we offer food for families.