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WENDY ELLIOTT: Houston’s budget cuts both dramatic and devastating

More than a few Nova Scotians were feeling a bit flayed after last week’s provincial budget revelations. How could our government whip the skin off so many valued assets?

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The slashing started with public libraries back in November. Having worked in three different libraries years ago, I was shocked to learn that while inflation has increased 43 per cent since 2009, sustainable funding to libraries has only gone up by 10 per cent. As one of over 25,000 active Annapolis Valley library members, the thought of fewer hours, fewer books or even outright branch closures felt painful.

Next, the slash came for those who help preserve our natural world. On Feb. 19, Joan Baxter, writing in the Halifax Examiner, detailed staffing cuts related to biodiversity, ecosystems and habitats. The head of the wildlife division was sacked.

Retired wildlife biologist and president of Nature Nova Scotia Bob Bancroft, who once worked in Department of Natural Resource’s wildlife division, described the elimination of the division and changes to the department as “absolutely disgusting.”

Obviously, the view of the government is that the natural world is solely meant to be extracted. Last year’s nasty venture into the potential of uranium mining showed that penchant.

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Now, fracking is a focus and who’s going to look into the health implications? Not the premier, who promised over four years ago to proclaim the Coastal Protection Act and hasn’t done so.

The Feb. 23 budget, ironically entitled Defending Nova Scotia, got into the weeds.

Significant cuts were made to Environment and Climate Change, particularly in the areas of sustainability, applied science, and the Climate Change Fund.

I am glad the government has increased funding for affordable housing and is investing more in the school food program (up to $100.4 million in 2026-27, compared to $64.5 million last year). But why make cuts to clean energy funding? With $8.1 million slated for this year, it’s down from $36.9 million last year.

My neighbour Sadie Beaton sees both the federal and provincial governments pushing austerity agendas while hyping ever-more extractive projects.

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“They tout gas plants, uranium mines, fracking, and ‘high production forestry,’ while ignoring commitments to rising climate and biodiversity crises, evidenced by disappearing wildlife along with semi-annual droughts, floods, and devastating wildfires.”

Meanwhile, Nova Scotia has breached the conditions of a $28.5-million nature agreement with Ottawa. In 2021, the province renewed its commitment to the natural world with a promise to protect a total of 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s public lands by 2030. What about the Lahey Report? A new $30-million contract with Dalhousie University will see the majority of the funds going to offshore natural gas developers.

Some say Premier Tim Houston broke his promise to keep to a five-year election cycle, took advantage of popular dissatisfaction with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, bluffed his way into a majority government and then threw out all his campaign positions.

Cuts to tourist centres and closures in the provincewide museum complex do not bode well for tourism in rural Nova Scotia.

First, it was three museums, then 12 were mothballed. Do we go along with a rural/urban divide fuelled by tourism reductions and the cessation of bridge tolls in the Halifax Regional Municipality?

I must say it was surprising that farmer John Lohr allowed Prescott House to be included. As Kings North MLA, he’s got to be aware of the agricultural legacy entailed in that beautiful property.

Blows to the arts and culture sector are going to be painful too. So will 20 per cent grant reductions facing the small community museums in the Annapolis Valley.

With a $1.2-billion deficit under his belt and a capitalist background, Houston appears to be looking for quick fixes at the expense of this province’s environment, culture and its future.

In a CBC interview, Houston said the province is running a deficit because in tough times, you defend people first.

“Our natural resources are key to our path to prosperity. They give us advantages that we haven’t always utilized,” Houston said. “But now, today, we know that we must maximize this opportunity and the opportunities that they create.”

As interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin told the national news network: “I think (the change) reveals a bias towards heavy industry without checks and balances.”

Just as Robert Edwards once said, too many men salt away money in the brine of other people’s tears.

Since we’re living through Donald Trump’s second four-year term in power honestly, nothing should surprise us anymore. But seeing the provincial government demonstrate such blatant disregard for a meaningful and sustainable future is frankly shocking.

With that drastic budget primed for the opening day of legislative business, Houston has once again proved what Carleton Stanley said way back in 1922: “There is no God but money, and Canada, with its unparalleled natural resources, is the most God-fearing country in the world.”

Although most things politically right now are looking kind of bleak, try to keep your head up. Keep complaining, writing rafts of letters, and pressuring the people in power to enact changes that will benefit the many, not the few.

Wendy Elliott is a former reporter for the Kentville Advertiser and Hants Journal. She lives in Wolfville.

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