Yes, we do indeed have a 'shared responsibility'

To the Editor:

When our Minister of Community Services was finally cornered during the week before Christmas to reflect on why folks throughout the province should support food banks, Judy Streatch had this to say: “It’s a shared responsibility.”

When pushed to comment on the role her department plays in helping Nova Scotians maintain food security she said: “It’s a shared responsibility.”

When the reporter noted that many individuals and families forced to turn to food banks are actually clients of her own department, Ms. Streatch, ignoring the question, said, “It’s a shared responsibility.”

I suppose she didn’t intend to irritate her listeners, but that emphasis on ‘shared responsibility’ angered me. Oh, I know that Ms. Streatch was making the point that service clubs, churches, businesses, employee associations and unions all chip in to supplement government assistance. But that’s the point.

Food banks exist because government is not doing its job. All that ‘shared responsibility’ the Minister harped on about is what we’re forced to do because Ms. Streatch has shirked her responsibility. While Ms. Streatch, her boss Premier Rodney MacDonald and my own MLA, Mark Parent, wouldn’t agree, I’ve always believed that democracy and government are about finding better ways to share the resources we all require to meet our basic needs as human beings.

The proliferation and growth of food banks, like the canary in the coal mine, is a signal that this government is failing us and certainly failing citizens who need additional support.

For those of us who want to reduce poverty in Nova Scotia, having a Conservative government guide policy is like having a fox in the henhouse. In situations like that there is only one thing to do; get rid of the fox. And the fine thing about our democracy is we have just the way to do it.

In the next election, probably not all that far away, we can chuck the Tories out. We can demand a government that cares about all Nova Scotians, including those children and men and women who don’t have enough to eat. To that end, we could turn Judy Streatch’s words to advantage and accept that pushing this government to the sidelines is a ‘shared responsibility’.

Yours truly,

Jim Morton

Kentville