Budget 2011Making Life Better for Families

jobsHere

Budget 2011 builds on the province’s plan for change by investing in the jobsHere plan to create good jobs and grow the economy.

Improved productivity and competitiveness are key to growing Nova Scotia’s economy. jobsHere makes the most of our province’s advantages—our people, resources, and geography—through three priorities to improve growth:

• Helping businesses be more competitive globally
• Learning the right skills for good jobs
• Growing the economy through innovation

This government will invest more than $200 million in jobsHere.

Helping businesses be more competitive globally—$2.15 million

Nova Scotia businesses have unique strategic advantages, which can be leveraged to compete and succeed globally.

jobsHere will

• Position small businesses to be more competitive by reducing the Small Business Tax Rate from 4.5 per cent to 4.0 per cent.
• Coordinate commercial activities, including exchanges in investment, technology, and people, as well as international trade in goods and services.
• Increase capacity to gather intelligence on sectors that hold potential to attract, create, and grow high-value jobs.
• Improve conditions and protections for foreign workers.

Learning the right skills for good jobs—$28 million

The size and skills of the labour force are key drivers of economic growth. Budget 2011–2012 will invest in areas that help businesses be more productive, innovative, and globally competitive.

Through the Productivity Investment Program, jobsHere will

• Contribute 20 per cent, up to a maximum of $1 million, toward the cost of technologically advanced machinery, clean technology, equipment, software, and hardware, with preference given to exporters.
• Provide funding to companies to encourage investment in skills development and certification, and to adapt to new technology and innovative processes.
• Double the capacity of the Workplace Education Initiative to support employers in providing skills training in the workplace, including literacy, communications, and supervisory skills.
• Grow the number of work placement opportunities available to university and community college students enrolled in cooperative education programs.

jobsHere will also

• Strengthen apprenticeships by modernizing the curriculum, particularly in skilled trades with rapidly evolving technology.
• Invest in the Nova Scotia School for Adult Learning, to help approximately 500 more learners over the next three years.
• Expand recognition of prior learning.
• Help the voluntary sector to support planning and management, and build human- resource capacity.

Growing the economy through innovation—$22.9 million

Innovation breeds success. The budget will encourage more investment in research, new processes, equipment, and ideas, while improving productivity.

jobsHere will

• Address the economic impacts of new forestry policies through a reinvestment in the forest industry, which includes added silviculture and outreach funding.
• Create business opportunities in high-value agricultural areas.
• Introduce a new Innovation and Competitiveness fund that will support technology transfer and adoption, commercialization, mentoring, and entrepreneurship.
• Pursue Nova Scotia’s proposal for a new, privately operated regional venture capital fund to improve access to capital for companies that want to innovate.

Read the jobsHere Plan

Emergency room closures and long waits have plagued Nova Scotia’s health care system for years. It’s a problem that has led to frustrated emergency room doctors, nurses and paramedics, inadequate treatment of the frail elderly, and a public that has lost confidence in the system.

This budget builds on the province’s plan to keep emergency rooms open, reduce waits for patients, and provide better care for Nova Scotia families by investing in the Better Care Sooner plan.

Investing in Collaborative Emergency Centres

In smaller communities, people wait too long to access primary care, such as a family physician. By improving access to primary care we can also relieve pressure on emergency rooms.

The Better Care Sooner plan calls for the implementation of Collaborative Emergency Centres (CECs) to address this problem. CECs will ensure same-day or next-day appointments. They provide communities with collaborative-care teams involving a mix of professionals and 24/7 access to emergency care.

This government will

• Open Collaborative Emergency Centres in at least four Nova Scotia communities this year. This includes investing up to $800,000 for salaries for paramedics and other health care providers.
• Provide $3 million protection fund to help keep emergency rooms open.

Better Care for Seniors

The budget builds on the plan to improve health care for seniors. This government will

• Hire four new nurse practitioners for nursing homes in Cumberland, South Shore, South West, and Cape Breton district health authorities, at a cost of $568,000.
• Recruit additional nurse practitioners and other health-care providers to work in primary care settings and collaborative practices, including Collaborative Emergency Centres, at a cost of $1.5 million.
• Add 169 new and 593 replacement nursing home beds, at a cost of $21 million.
• Expand the Caregiver Benefit, at a cost of $1.8 million, helping seniors to remain at home in the communities they helped to build.

Better Hospitals and Community Facilities

Budget 2011 contains $72 million to support major hospital and community health care projects across the province. This includes money for the following:

• $2.6 million to build a modern, cost-effective and efficient emergency department at the Aberdeen Hospital.
• construction of the new Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro
• purchase and install three new radiation therapy units for the Capital Health District
• improvements to the nursing home and hospital in Inverness
• construction of community living units to provide more appropriate housing options for people with mental illness

Better Care Closer to Home

People are traveling too far for renal dialysis—a life-saving treatment often required several times a week. Budget 2011 invests $988,000 to expand renal dialysis services in the province. The funding will be used in part to hire 12 nurses to provide renal dialysis closer to home.

Shorter Wait Times, Better Care for Orthopedic Patients

The province will invest $616,000 to support pre-hab teams in the four district health authorities that perform hip and knee surgeries: Capital, Pictou, Cape Breton, and Annapolis Valley. The clinics also provide patients with tools and information they need to prepare for surgery and to support a successful surgery and quicker recovery.

Advice You Can Trust: 811 nurse line

The number of people dialing the 811 nurse line increased by more than 30 per cent since December 2010, as a result of Better Care Sooner’s public awareness campaign. Government will invest $466,400 as the demand for this important health care service rises.

Improving the Health of Nova Scotians

This budget contains $500,000 to combat acute and chronic diseases, keeping Nova Scotians healthier in the long term.

Read the Better Care Sooner Plan

Budget 2011 builds on the province’s plan for change by helping families, students, and seniors make ends meet.

Helping Families and Seniors Make Ends Meet

Government will provide targeted support to help approximately 75,000 Nova Scotia seniors, and others who live with low incomes, make ends meet.

In the past two years, government created the Affordable Living Tax Credit and the Poverty Reduction Tax Credit, removed the provincial portion of the HST from home energy, children’s clothing and footwear, diapers, and feminine hygiene products, and increased the seniors’ property tax credit from $400 to $600.

Last year government committed to refund the full amount of provincial income tax to 18,000 seniors who received the Guaranteed Income Supplement. This year government will put $9.2 million back into the hands of seniors.

Budget 2011 goes even further. Through investments made in this budget, government will do the following:

• The personal allowance for people receiving income assistance will increase by $15 per month on July 1, 2011. This $5.65 million investment will help more than 31,000 low-income Nova Scotians.
• For the first time in 10 years, the Nova Scotia Child Benefit will increase by 22% per month, per child, effective July 1, 2011. This $4.8 million investment will help tens of thousands of families provide healthy food and other essentials for their families.
• Foster care rates will increase by more than 10%, or about $50 per child, per month, and help hundreds of foster families care for the children entrusted to them. This is an investment of $1.2 million.
• As promised, government will invest $1.3 million to add 250 child care subsidies to help more families access affordable child care.
• Cut to personal income tax for every Nova Scotia taxpayer totaling $11 million.
• Support people to enter and stay in the workforce, by
  • investing $3.7 million annually so people on income assistance, including people with disabilities, will keep more of their earned income
  • allowing income assistance recipients to keep $150 per month of employment income, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
  • doubling the flat-rate income exemption for persons with disabilities to $300, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
• Increase income assistance personal allowances by $15 per month as of July 1, 2011, enabling approximately 31,000 adults to better provide for themselves and their families.
• Introduce fair drug pricing legislation to help reduce drug costs for Nova Scotians who depend on Pharmacare, and provide an additional $3 million in Pharmacare funding.
• Government will index the Affordable Living Tax Credit and Poverty Reduction Credit to keep pace with inflation. This $1.6 million investment is in addition to the $72 million spent last year to introduce these credits that help protect nearly 240,000 families with little room in their budgets against the impact of rising prices.

This government will undertake additional measures to make life better for families, and to help them make ends meet.

Fixing Canada’s Weakest Student Assistance System

Making post-secondary education more affordable is one of the most effective ways to support students and their families. By investing $42.5 million this year to fix our student assistance system, the government will

• Keep Nova Scotians’ tuition below the national average by investing $30 million in student bursaries to replace the expired Nova Scotia University Student Bursary Trust. This new, provincially funded commitment will provide a tuition reduction of $1,283 for Nova Scotia students studying in the province.
• Create the first “debt cap” in the province’s history, providing Nova Scotia students with a reduction of up to 36 per cent in total debt under the new $28,560 maximum debt cap. For students and parents, that means a drop of up to $16,320 in the maximum amount of debt a student may carry.
• Offer up to $612 per year in additional grants, through an increase in the loan-to-grant ratio from 20 to 30 per cent.
• Double the in-study earnings exemption on student loans—from $50 per week to $100 per week.
• Increase the amount allowed for the purchase of books by 50 per cent, from $1,000 to $1,500.
• Protect students by capping tuition increases at 3 per cent.
• Continue the successful Graduate Retention Rebate, which provides a tax credit of up to $15,000 to university graduates, and $7,500 for community college graduates, over six years.

Helping Families and Seniors Make Ends Meet

Government will provide targeted support to help approximately 75,000 Nova Scotia seniors, and others who live with low incomes, make ends meet.

In the past two years, government increased the seniors’ property tax credit from $400 to $600, created the Affordable Living Tax Credit and the Poverty Reduction Tax Credit and removed the provincial portion of the HST from home energy.

Last year government committed to refund the full amount of provincial income tax to 18,000 seniors who received the Guaranteed Income Supplement. This year government will put $9.2 million back into the hands of seniors.

Budget 2011 goes even further. Through investments made in this budget, government will do the following:

• Better Care for Seniors
  • Hire four new nurse practitioners for nursing homes in Cumberland, South Shore, South West, and Cape Breton district health authorities, at a cost of $568,000.
  • Recruit additional nurse practitioners and other health-care providers to work in primary care settings and collaborative practices, including Collaborative Emergency Centres, at a cost of $1.5 million.
  • Add 169 new and 593 replacement nursing home beds, at a cost of $21 million.
  • Expand the Caregiver Benefit, at a cost of $1.8 million, helping seniors to remain at home in the communities they helped to build.
• Cut to personal income tax for every Nova Scotia taxpayer totaling $11 million.
• Increase income assistance personal allowances by $15 per month as of July 1, 2011, enabling approximately 31,000 adults to better provide for themselves and their families.
• Introduce fair drug pricing legislation to help reduce drug costs for Nova Scotians who depend on Pharmacare, and provide an additional $3 million in Pharmacare funding.
• Support people to enter and stay in the workforce, by
  • investing $3.7 million annually so people on income assistance, including people with disabilities, will keep more of their earned income
  • allowing income assistance recipients to keep $150 per month of employment income, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
  • doubling the flat-rate income exemption for persons with disabilities to $300, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
• Index the new Affordable Living and Poverty Reduction tax credits to help low-income Nova Scotians make ends meet.

This government will undertake additional measures to make life better for families, and to help them make ends meet.

Fixing Canada’s Weakest Student Assistance System

Making post-secondary education more affordable is one of the most effective ways to support students and their families. By investing $42.5 million this year to fix our student assistance system, the government will

• Keep Nova Scotians’ tuition below the national average by investing $30 million in student bursaries to replace the expired Nova Scotia University Student Bursary Trust. This new, provincially funded commitment will provide a tuition reduction of $1,283 for Nova Scotia students studying in the province.
• Create the first “debt cap” in the province’s history, providing Nova Scotia students with a reduction of up to 36 per cent in total debt under the new $28,560 maximum debt cap. For students and parents, that means a drop of up to $16,320 in the maximum amount of debt a student may carry.
• Offer up to $612 per year in additional grants, through an increase in the loan-to-grant ratio from 20 to 30 per cent.
• Double the in-study earnings exemption on student loans—from $50 per week to $100 per week.
• Increase the amount allowed for the purchase of books by 50 per cent, from $1,000 to $1,500.
• Protect students by capping tuition increases at 3 per cent.
• Continue the successful Graduate Retention Rebate, which provides a tax credit of up to $15,000 to university graduates, and $7,500 for community college graduates, over six years.

Helping Families and Seniors Make Ends Meet

Government will provide targeted support to help approximately 75,000 Nova Scotia seniors, and others who live with low incomes, make ends meet.

In the past two years, government created the Affordable Living Tax Credit and the Poverty Reduction Tax Credit, removed the provincial portion of the HST from home energy, children’s clothing and footwear, diapers, and feminine hygiene products, and increased the seniors’ property tax credit from $400 to $600.

Last year government committed to refund the full amount of provincial income tax to 18,000 seniors who received the Guaranteed Income Supplement. This year government will put $9.2 million back into the hands of seniors.

Budget 2011 goes even further. Through investments made in this budget, government will do the following:

• The personal allowance for people receiving income assistance will increase by $15 per month on July 1, 2011. This $5.65 million investment will help more than 31,000 low-income Nova Scotians.
• For the first time in 10 years, the Nova Scotia Child Benefit will increase by 22% per month, per child, effective July 1, 2011. This $4.8 million investment will help tens of thousands of families provide healthy food and other essentials for their families.
• Foster care rates will increase by more than 10%, or about $50 per child, per month, and help hundreds of foster families care for the children entrusted to them. This is an investment of $1.2 million.
• As promised, government will invest $1.3 million to add 250 child care subsidies to help more families access affordable child care.
• Cut to personal income tax for every Nova Scotia taxpayer totaling $11 million.
• Support people to enter and stay in the workforce, by
  • investing $3.7 million annually so people on income assistance, including people with disabilities, will keep more of their earned income
  • allowing income assistance recipients to keep $150 per month of employment income, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
  • doubling the flat-rate income exemption for persons with disabilities to $300, in addition to the 30 per cent income exemption already in place
• Increase income assistance personal allowances by $15 per month as of July 1, 2011, enabling approximately 31,000 adults to better provide for themselves and their families.
• Introduce fair drug pricing legislation to help reduce drug costs for Nova Scotians who depend on Pharmacare, and provide an additional $3 million in Pharmacare funding.
• Government will index the Affordable Living Tax Credit and Poverty Reduction Credit to keep pace with inflation. This $1.6 million investment is in addition to the $72 million spent last year to introduce these credits that help protect nearly 240,000 families with little room in their budgets against the impact of rising prices.

This government will undertake additional measures to make life better for families, and to help them make ends meet.

jobsHere

Budget 2011 builds on the province’s plan for change by investing in the jobsHere plan to create good jobs and grow the economy.

Improved productivity and competitiveness are key to growing Nova Scotia’s economy. jobsHere makes the most of our province’s advantages—our people, resources, and geography—through three priorities to improve growth:

• Helping businesses be more competitive globally
• Learning the right skills for good jobs
• Growing the economy through innovation

This government will invest more than $200 million in jobsHere.

Helping businesses be more competitive globally—$2.15 million

Nova Scotia businesses have unique strategic advantages, which can be leveraged to compete and succeed globally.

jobsHere will

• Position small businesses to be more competitive by reducing the Small Business Tax Rate from 4.5 per cent to 4.0 per cent.
• Coordinate commercial activities, including exchanges in investment, technology, and people, as well as international trade in goods and services.
• Increase capacity to gather intelligence on sectors that hold potential to attract, create, and grow high-value jobs.
• Improve conditions and protections for foreign workers.

Learning the right skills for good jobs—$28 million

The size and skills of the labour force are key drivers of economic growth. Budget 2011–2012 will invest in areas that help businesses be more productive, innovative, and globally competitive.

Through the Productivity Investment Program, jobsHere will

• Contribute 20 per cent, up to a maximum of $1 million, toward the cost of technologically advanced machinery, clean technology, equipment, software, and hardware, with preference given to exporters.
• Provide funding to companies to encourage investment in skills development and certification, and to adapt to new technology and innovative processes.
• Double the capacity of the Workplace Education Initiative to support employers in providing skills training in the workplace, including literacy, communications, and supervisory skills.
• Grow the number of work placement opportunities available to university and community college students enrolled in cooperative education programs.

jobsHere will also

• Strengthen apprenticeships by modernizing the curriculum, particularly in skilled trades with rapidly evolving technology.
• Invest in the Nova Scotia School for Adult Learning, to help approximately 500 more learners over the next three years.
• Expand recognition of prior learning.
• Help the voluntary sector to support planning and management, and build human- resource capacity.

Growing the economy through innovation—$22.9 million

Innovation breeds success. The budget will encourage more investment in research, new processes, equipment, and ideas, while improving productivity.

jobsHere will

• Address the economic impacts of new forestry policies through a reinvestment in the forest industry, which includes added silviculture and outreach funding.
• Create business opportunities in high-value agricultural areas.
• Introduce a new Innovation and Competitiveness fund that will support technology transfer and adoption, commercialization, mentoring, and entrepreneurship.
• Pursue Nova Scotia’s proposal for a new, privately operated regional venture capital fund to improve access to capital for companies that want to innovate.