Midnight musings

Some recent pics. Last w/e's trip to Cape Breton plus life in Hali. And again, the blessing of friends and Dyl-dog.

Indeed, while it took a bit of rebounding, it seems we're back in the swing of a swinging door of friends chez nous. I love it and how our small family finds its rhythm again in the company of good people. Tremendous. It feels like such a blessing to have my life so intertwined with so many others.

I've also been doing a bit of work for work, including a presentation on social sustainability at a conference as well as being part of a roundtable on social housing issues w Jack Layton, our MP Megan Leslie and the social housing community of Hali (i.e. other non-profits working to shelter and house the marginalized and poor).

The backdrop was that the Federal Conservatives have announced $7.8B for the housing sector as part of their "economic stimulus" package. It is disheartening to note that of this, more than half ($3.715B) is for home owners while a much smaller amount is earmarked for renovating existing social housing and creating housing for low-income seniors, people with disabilities, those on First Nations' reserves and in Canada's North.

Three billion dollars is to be returned to home owners who do renovations on their houses of up to $10,000. So, basically, if you have enough money to put $10k into your new home, like building a new deck, the government will give you a break of $1,350 on your taxes.

The hard part is that this totally misses low income households, those living in poor housing that isn't social housing, urban Aboriginals and, of course, the youth I work with. Although investment in housing is to be lauded, what a sad set of priorities when we have such a serious shortage of affordable housing and where the existing stock is out of date and badly in need of repair.

Check out Michael Shapcott's blog (he's a housing guy) where he talks about this issue.

A high level Nova Scotian policy bureaucrat used the word "heartbreaking." I prefer "infuriating" for it is not by accident but by design.

Miia