It was frustrating to read Derrick Kimball’s opinion piece about the public holiday marking the death of Her Majesty The Queen. Firstly, Canada and the other Commonwealth realms have had well laid plans for national mourning of the sovereign for decades. The plans were not public and whilst it may seem like an ‘emotional response’, the announcement of a public holiday is not surprising to anyone who bothers to consult a history book (or one of several articles published over the years about ‘Operation London Bridge’).
Monarchy aside, my main point of contention with Mr Kimball’s arguments centre on the idea that because Nova Scotia is a ‘have-not’ province, there should not be an additional public holiday. Apparently, the failure of economic policy by successive governments in this province means that workers should suffer. What a slippery slope! One could, by extension, infer that Nova Scotia should also have even laxer labour laws because protecting workers is something that we cannot afford to do in our ‘have-not’ province.
This line of argument is not only false, but also insulting to the hard-working people of Nova Scotia. It could lead to a very dangerous and slippery slope. Workers should not be disadvantaged because they happen to live in Nova Scotia and if such a policy were pursued, it would only lead to increased out-migration as workers seek a better (or at least tolerable) labour market elsewhere. There is a reason our provincial song is called ‘Farewell to Nova Scotia.’
I, myself, left Nova Scotia seeking greener pastures and I cannot see myself returning given I now have four weeks of paid annual leave and eleven paid sick days each year, and three months of paid leave every ten years (this is the law here – it’s not specific to my workplace). I am not trying to say Nova Scotia is inferior because it does not have these things, rather I am trying to illustrate that you can have both strong labour laws with good worker protections and benefits whilst at the same time develop a strong economy. Nova Scotians deserve better than the current status quo.
The race to the bottom needs to end and Nova Scotia needs to be courageous and make itself an attractive place to live and work – build it and they will come. At the very least, Nova Scotia cannot deprive its workers of the bare minimum that workers receive elsewhere on the basis that Nova Scotia is unable to govern its economic policy sufficiently. That path leads only to further economic pain, societal breakdown, and vast out-migrations of young and working-age people. We live in a globalised world and Nova Scotia needs to compete, especially in the post-pandemic period where workers are in very short supply.
This piece was originally published in the Cape Breton Post on 21 September 2022.
