A framework to build Nova Scotia's future together

A report from the Social Policy Committee

During the past three decades, we’ve seen increasing globalization, the rise of neo-liberalism and unprecedented technological change affecting the labour market. Governments have enacted policies that resulted in greater inequity and a general retrenchment of the welfare state, either by explicit austerity measures or by non-decisions and lack of public investment in social infrastructure. These trends have combined to leave the most vulnerable Nova Scotians to carry the greatest burden of these polices. The Social Policy Committee has been busy over the past year building a scoping document and establishing a partnership with the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) to build a social policy framework to address these trends and challenge the current discourse.

Policy frameworks are blueprints for achieving goals for our province; a roadmap to improve quality of life and well-being through policy.

Social policy frameworks are tools that guide complex decision-making, set future positive direction, and identify important intersections that impact intended and unintended outcomes of policy. The creation of this document will allow the NSCSW to utilize the Social Policy Framework to support advocacy efforts to promote health, prevent harm and proactively address government policy. It will act as a living document that serves as a guide to organize and mobilize and ensure all Nova Scotians have opportunities for wellbeing and fulfillment.

Partnering with CCPA-NS has provided the Social Policy Committee with an amazing opportunity to collaborate with the best researchers and progressive thinkers in Nova Scotia. Drawing on their incredible volume of work the Social Policy Framework will consider the causes and consequences of inequality, as well as solutions to address it. It will do so by employing an intersectional feminist lens that disaggregates and analyzes data to consider how systems of discrimination, such as colonialism and neoliberalism, can impact the combination of a person’s social or economic status and by addressing four themes;

1. ADDRESSING THE CULTURE OF AFFLUENCE

The framework will examine how affluence and privilege enhance opportunities for some, discriminate against others and erode community cohesiveness. The researchers will briefly summarize secondary literature about the impacts of inequality on social issues like physical health, mental health, drug use, education, justice, social mobility, trust, community life, violence, senior and child well-being and on democracy. Through this analysis the policy framework will consider how to build a model for wealth distribution that focuses on income security and equity, and examine the role of labour market regulation in relation to income equality.

2. TOWARDS THE PUBLIC GOOD

To address the need to work towards the public good, the social policy framework will consider the state of public services; public infrastructure’s ability to respond to the diverse, cultural and social needs of the people and communities whom these systems serve; and how to fill in identified gaps.

3. PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITIES

The social policy framework will address what instruments and processes can be used to ensure government accountability, increase meaningful citizen participation in government policy, and advance the common good. To do this the framework will demonstrate the importance of democratic control of decision-making and the impact it has on public trust and social policy. It will explore policy approaches that support the need for diverse communities and their ability to connect and enrich well-being for all. It will consider the benefit of inclusion and celebration of the different cultural ways of knowing, and the richness that this brings to healing, wellness and access, focusing on the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in decision making.

4. TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

The social policy framework will address the need for transformational change by critiquing the role of stop gap polices and their negative long-term outcomes. The framework will specifically focus on the effects of devaluing care in our society, and will pay particular attention to the unpaid work that is still predominantly done by women (childcare, senior care, housework) that has filled the gap in a growing crisis of care. It will explore how policy options such as minimal increases to income assistance, support for foodbanks, and investments in P3 models are designed as stop-gap, short-term solutions to larger structural problems. It will critique the role of charity as a model for social service delivery and highlight that charity models are embedded in paternalism and sympathy to relieve the suffering of others rather than agency and addressing the root causes of suffering. It will examine the need for collaborative, inclusive advocacy towards transformational change by addressing the role and impact of advocacy as a central pillar of social service delivery and for making societal change.

The Social Policy Committee is very excited to bring the framework to life in July of this year. We are already busy planning a campaign that will invite social workers and the public to use the social policy framework as tool to assess the capacity of federal candidates to implement policies that lead to greater well-being.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Alicia Nolan, Andre Deszi, Jennifer Van Kessel, Laurette McGaughey, Patricia Auchnie, Cheryl Hebert, Janet Pothier, Micah MacIssac, Alec Stratford (staff)