Too much double-speak for my taste

The general public could be in for a rude shock later this week if unionized health care workers opt to go out on a legal strike.

Provincial Health Department staff has tended to speak as if life will go on practically as normal since nurses and physicians are not implicated, so I don't think people understand that surgery could be delayed because bloodwork is not available.

There is a lot of important staff in a hospital other than the obvious front line workers. There are lab technicians and pharmacists, dietary staff and maintenance workers. They all have vital jobs in the health care team and standards to maintain. A handful of managers will not be able to keep facilities operating as we might expect.

If the strike takes place, and many in the field expect it will, Nova Scotians have to understand that the quality of patient care that we have come to expect could be compromised if genuine emergencies only are treated.



Career seek

The provincial Community Services Department turned a kind of about face last week. Seven or eight years ago, the department stopped paying social assistance to single mothers who attended university. Now it says a brighter future is on the horizon.

Minister Judy Streatch announced last week a so-called new pilot program called Career Seek, which will allow income assistance clients to attend university or a post-secondary education program of more than two years and still receive benefits. She talked about investing in individuals and that’s fine and good.

I'm glad the Tories have finally realized they made a mistake. Over the next four years, 50 individuals each year will have an opportunity to participate in this program. I can’t imagine that more than 50 will take on the kind of debtload this program will entail, but it’s better than entirely limiting the future of the young.

I must confess the tone of the Community Services release got my back up, crowing about educational services that single moms have told me are all but impossible to obtain. We know that skilled workers are called for and degree-holders earn more, but then the release went on to boast that since 1998-99, the number of people receiving income assistance has declined from 42,000 to about 30,000.

Each year, it indicated, up to 10,000 individuals participate in employment support programs. Last year, Community Services helped about 3,100 income assistance recipients return to the work force. Blah, blah, blah.

Declining numbers tell me precious little apart from statistics. The question I’d ask is whether numbers declined due to the kind of hardline ‘Work Fare’ approach that New Brunswick launched? Forcing women to take on part-time, low-wage jobs with no benefits is hardly worth boasting about, in my opinion.



Arts funding

Our fiddle-playing premier’s culture honchos also made some pronouncements last week in a province still rankled from the loss five years ago of the independent arts council. Working artists will tell you they comply with the Tory regime because they have to, not because they like it.

Now Nova Scotia's arts and culture sector is to get an additional $45,000 in awards funding and the support of “a new committee that will help provide a coordinated approach to cultural development and spending across government.�

This time the press release crowed about coordination. I've still no confidence that culture spending will be free of arbitrary political influence. Last June, I requested details from the department on arts funding to theatre groups in the Annapolis Valley. Since then, I've repeated my requests politely on at least two occasions to no avail and various excuses have been offered around the "coordination" issue. My conclusion has to be that the culture honchos might want to hide some favouritism behind one department or another.

Increased amounts of money are all well and good in a province that has slid from seventh in terms of arts spending to ninth nationally. Of course, increased transparency and accountability would be good, too, since Nova Scotia does dish out close to $8 million each year in this area.

“Culture impacts all areas of our lives -- from health to education, from justice to economic development,� Culture Minister Len Goucher opined recently. “By working together with other government departments, we can better strengthen and develop the arts and culture sector and increase its contribution to our economy and quality of life.�

For taxpayers and voters in this province, I think it was a wearying week of bafflegab and double-speak from Halifax.