Good morning! Well, we are 2 weeks into the election, and things are really moving fast with the Women and Girls Matter campaign. This weekend Nova Scotia Green Party leader Ryan Watson told us that he, and other members of the Green Party, will support better funding for women's centres. The response, which has been posted to the N.S. Green Party Website (http://www.greenparty.ns.ca/content/2009womens-centres), states that:
If elected, the Green Party will support Women’s Centres’ request for fair, competitive salaries.
The Green Party of Nova Scotia supports a fair and adequate wage for Support Workers in Women's Centres so that they can attract and retain qualified staff to build healthier and more viable communities in Nova Scotia.
We agree with the Women Centres Connect that staff at the Centres have to deal with complex issues, including referrals from Mental Health. The support workers need to be at a comparable skill level, as they are part of the fabric of the community.
In order to keep staff, we would support an increase in salaries and an annual cost of living increase.
This means that as of today, three provincial party leaders have expressed their support for women's services, and two parties (the NDP and Green Party) have committed to increasing funding to women's centres.
This leaves only Rodney MacDonald's Progressive Conservatives. While we have received some positive responses from individual members, we are still waiting to hear from the Premier himself on this issue.
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