{"id":62646,"date":"2026-02-25T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=62646"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:30:00","slug":"frontline-to-pay-for-premiers-fiscal-mismanagement-nsgeu-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=62646","title":{"rendered":"Frontline to pay for Premier’s fiscal mismanagement, NSGEU says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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HALIFAX:<\/strong> Core public services that people rely on are\u00a0being threatened\u00a0as part of\u00a0Premier Tim Houston\u2019s\u00a0short-sighted, slash\u00a0and burn\u00a0budget that was released on Monday, February\u00a023.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor someone who\u00a0sold\u00a0himself\u00a0as\u00a0a \u2018solutionist,\u2019 the Premier\u2019s budget shows his so-called solutions have failed, producing little results, racking up enormous debt,\u00a0and putting people\u2019s jobs on the line\u00a0with\u00a0no\u00a0plan for the future,\u201d said NSGEU President Sandra Mullen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPremier Houston\u2019s accounting skills have\u00a0generated job cuts,\u00a0over a\u00a0billion-dollar\u00a0deficit, and at this pace,\u00a0in four years,\u00a0debt servicing costs will be the second biggest\u00a0provincial\u00a0cost,\u00a0coming in just behind the entire health budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\u00a0Premier has no one to blame but himself, yet its working families that are left to pay the price.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While government is claiming\u00a0that the size of bureaucracy has grown,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0clear from this budget that any bloat is at the top.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that the\u00a0unionized\u00a0civil service has grown by approximately 4 per cent since 2018, while our population has grown by 14 per cent\u00a0over that same\u00a0eight-year\u00a0period: an effective cut,\u201d Mullen points out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf he cuts another five per cent per year for four years, the public services we all rely on will be devastated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government\u2019s\u00a0planned\u00a0reduction in grant spending\u00a0of $130 million\u00a0is also extremely concerning: many\u00a0NSGEU\u00a0members work in grant-funded positions either within the civil service or community-based organizations that support the most vulnerable Nova Scotians\u00a0(such as Laing House, Veith House, and Pheonix House).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese organizations already operate on shoestring budgets, and when that shoestring gets severed, people fall through the cracks,\u201d said Mullen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Houston government\u00a0is framing\u00a0these\u00a0as cuts to\u00a0\u2018discretionary\u2019\u00a0funding,\u00a0which\u00a0shows\u00a0how out of\u00a0touch\u00a0they\u00a0really\u00a0are\u00a0given how\u00a0badly\u00a0people are struggling right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the same time, they are budgeting plenty of money\u00a0to support private industry to exploit\u00a0the\u00a0province\u2019s\u00a0natural resources, while\u00a0cutting\u00a0climate change\u00a0resources,\u00a0sustainability and applied sciences,\u00a0and introducing a new tax\u00a0for hybrid and electric vehicle users.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union is still waiting to learn which members will be directly impacted by these cuts, but so far, it appears the following departments that will be hardest hit in terms of loss in Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Opportunities & Social Development: -112.0\u00a0FTE\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Justice: -109.1\u00a0FTE\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Service NS: -68.0\u00a0FTE\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Environment\/Climate Change: -56.5\u00a0FTE\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Natural Resources: -52.0\u00a0FTE\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    NSGEU was scheduled to hold a rally outside the Nova Scotia legislature on Wednesday at 12-1 p.m. Mullen was to be in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    HALIFAX: Core public services that people rely on are\u00a0being threatened\u00a0as part of\u00a0Premier Tim Houston\u2019s\u00a0short-sighted, slash\u00a0and burn\u00a0budget that was released on Monday, February\u00a023.\u00a0 \u201cFor someone who\u00a0sold\u00a0himself\u00a0as\u00a0a \u2018solutionist,\u2019 the Premier\u2019s budget shows his so-called solutions have failed, producing little results, racking up enormous debt,\u00a0and putting people\u2019s jobs on the line\u00a0with\u00a0no\u00a0plan for the future,\u201d said NSGEU President Sandra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[185,196,50,10389,1077,2295,2517,2518,25,10438],"class_list":["post-62646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-dartmouth","tag-east-hants","tag-halifax","tag-job-cuts","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nsgeu","tag-premier-tim-houston","tag-public-service","tag-sackville","tag-sandra-mullen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}