"Set a goal of building 80,000 new homes by 2032 to eliminate the housing shortfall, aiming for a rate of 11,000 new homes per year—enough to accommodate Nova Scotia’s growth" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Establish increased minimum density standards across our province that take into account proximity to transportation and services" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Ensure appropriate zoning to encourage density near our province’s universities so students have a place to live" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"A Nova Scotia Liberal government will work to accelerate the homebuilding innovation happening here in Nova Scotia. We’ll invest in new ways of building, like tilt-up construction, modular housing, mass timber, factory built housing, and other innovations that will enable our province to build more homes, reduce prices, and improve our province’s climate resilience." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"The current government is playing favourites by choosing where new homes can go. We can’t afford that. We need a rules-based system across the province that will encourage new housing. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will modernize housing legislation to encourage broader and more innovative housing solutions." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

1. "Streamline construction of condo developments,
2. Encourage more innovative housing solutions such as building rent communities that allow for a mix of ownership and rental units within the same developments
3. Establish a fast track approval process for developments that build rental communities."

— Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Invest $20M in additional grant funding streams to build new co-ops, expand existing co-ops, and fund co-op repairs." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"As of 2022, less than 9% of trades apprentices in Nova Scotia were women. We will never overcome our province’s labour shortage and get more housing built if we are only training half of the available workforce. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will invest $10M to increase training for women at NSCC in trades directly related to housing, with a goal to double the number of women being trained over five years. We will:

ʘ Increase the number of spots available for women to study a trade at NSCC,

ʘ Invest to develop programming for all ages to show young women that careers in the trades are dynamic, high-paying jobs that help our communities, and

ʘ Expand NSCC’s Women Unlimited program, which has already helped 1,000 women explore trades and technology education and find meaningful careers."

— Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Lower property taxes, especially in highly-taxed areas like the CBRM" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Remove arbitrary and unfair penalties from our property tax system, like the drastic increase in taxes Hammonds Plains residents experienced after they lost their houses to wildfires" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Ensure our property tax system incentivizes housing being built, which currently isn’t always the case. Currently, if you add more housing to your property whether by building or renovating, your assessment goes up and so do your taxes. For the next five years we’ll reduce or eliminate tax increases on properties that build more housing. This will incentivize more housing where it’s needed in Nova Scotia, and help bring down housing prices." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Increase taxes on large vacant lots in our urban areas so that it is not profitable for developers to hold onto large, empty lots that are zoned for housing without building" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Eliminate the residential deed transfer tax (except for the 5% provincial out-of-province tax) to help downsizing seniors, growing families, and those looking to buy their first home by lowering costs and easing bottlenecks in the housing market." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"A re-elected PC Government will enter into a new agreement with participating credit unions to expand this program to first-time home buyers purchasing a home up to $500,000 in value. Whereas today these prospective homebuyers must provide a 5% down payment, they would only have to pay a 2% down payment under the PC Plan. Participating credit unions would assess the applicants to ensure their income is satisfactory to support the mortgage they want, and the provincial government would provide a loan guarantee to participating credit unions for any deficiencies in the event of a default." — pcpartyns.ca, retrieved 2024-11-10

"Providing $900 housing rebates for low-income renters and homeowners by bringing in a new rent and mortgage tax rebate for low- and middle-income households. The Affordable Homes Rebate will help hundreds of thousands of renters and homeowners by providing an average annual rebate of $900 when their household incomes are under $70,000 a year - so it will benefit approximately half of all Nova Scotia households." — Leadership You Can Believe In, retrieved 2024-11-16

"Creating a path to home ownership through a new Rent-to-Own Starter Homes Program that combines more home construction with lower up-front costs for first-time buyers. We'll work with the growing factory-built home construction industry to deliver high quality, energy efficient, affordable homes to first-time home buyers with a household income of less than $100,000 per year. Rents will be used to build equity in the home for the new owner." — Leadership You Can Believe In, retrieved 2024-11-16

"We’ll begin by directly replacing the approximately $4M that the federal government is no longer providing to women’s shelters in Nova Scotia. This is money that saves lives and provides housing and opportunities to women and children fleeing domestic violence. We have a moral obligation to restore that funding." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

I will support initiatives to quickly establish low-cost, energy-efficient, well-sited housing options to support green transitions in Nova Scotia.

"A Nova Scotia Liberal government will release the Student Housing Strategy that Tim Houston has been sitting on." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Ensure appropriate zoning to encourage density near our province’s universities so students have a place to live" — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

Life has become too expensive for too many Nova Scotians, and communities are suffering. It is the responsibility of every MLA to work toward innovative ways to tackle issues like poverty, food insecurity, and housing.

Solutions will focus on the cost of living, poverty elimination, food security, housing, supports for homelessness, and job security, alongside the transition to a Green economy.

Green MLAs won;; work with other MLAs and all Nova Scotians to:

1. Work with the federal government and other provinces to develop and implement a Guaranteed Liveable Income plan for Nova Scotia, which is universal, unconditional, complementary to other programs, provides for basic needs, and respects human dignity.
2. Ensure that measures of liveable income account for food, clothing, shelter, and other resources that facilitate social engagement, such as access to travel and means of communication.
3. Reduce the number of hours before workers are guaranteed overtime pay from 48 to 42 hours.
4. Require that all owed vacation time and overtime be paid out when an employee quits, is laid off, or is terminated.

"Our current social safety net is trapping Nova Scotians in intergenerational poverty, requires significant bureaucratic overhead, and often disincentivizes working. Together, we can transform the various social assistance programs to ensure that people who are struggling can afford the basic necessities and not find themselves on the streets. We will reform these systems so they work for everyone. To do that, we will spearhead an all-party committee to overhaul our social assistance model and examine alternatives, including a guaranteed basic income." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"A Nova Scotia Liberal government would recognize the link between poverty, housing, and healthcare, and focus on anti-poverty and housing-first policies as a way to keep people out of the emergency room." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"The province is currently a funding partner for 110 organisations that control over 3,000 housing units. We will build more units in order to more than double the existing stock, building 4,000 additional units by 2032, being sure to include wraparound supports for residents. We’ll do this by investing in non-profit organizations, and creating a trusted non-profit developer program that will fast track applications from organizations who have experience building housing. The non-profit sector has the capacity and the knowledge to manage deeply affordable housing properly, and the government can assist by building new units and acquiring underutilized housing." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Current rent protections are hurting those they’re supposed to help. Right now, Tim Houston can change the rent cap on a whim—and that’s bad for everyone. We will implement a fairer system where the cap is based on inflation, market conditions, and vacancy rates on a regional basis until adequate housing supply is reached and there is a healthy vacancy rate of 3%. This will provide much needed consistency, stability, and predictability to our rental market." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Everyone experiences emergencies—and that shouldn’t cause you to worry about losing your home. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will establish a Rent Bank, a low-cost, high-value program that can provide quick turnaround, zero- interest loans to renters that find themselves stuck." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"We will end fixed-term lease abuse by ensuring that landlords cannot offer tenants fixed term leases longer than one year. Extensions beyond the fixed term would automatically transition the lease to month-to-month." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"The Rental Supplement provides support to low-income Nova Scotians who pay more than 40% of their income on rent. In 2023, Tim Houston’s government raised the cut-off from the 30% it was under the previous Liberal government to 50%, before lowering it back to 40% earlier this year. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will lower the cut- off back to 30%." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"Despite recommendations to establish a Residential Tenancies Enforcement Unit to deal with especially egregious and time-sensitive disputes—and support from both landlords and tenants to do so—Tim Houston’s government decided not to implement one, and tried to mislead Nova Scotians about it. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will implement a Residential Tenancies Enforcement Unit." — Better Deal for Nova Scotians, retrieved 2024-11-09

"We'll also close the Houston fixed-term lease loophole that has allowed landlords to exploit Nova Scotia's tight rental market and charge double-digit rent increases." — Leadership You Can Believe In, retrieved 2024-11-16

"Providing $900 housing rebates for low-income renters and homeowners by bringing in a new rent and mortgage tax rebate for low- and middle-income households. The Affordable Homes Rebate will help hundreds of thousands of renters and homeowners by providing an average annual rebate of $900 when their household incomes are under $70,000 a year - so it will benefit approximately half of all Nova Scotia households." — Leadership You Can Believe In, retrieved 2024-11-16