I gave the following members statement in the Nova Scotia Legislature on March 20 to draw attention to the high number of addiction applications in Dartmouth North: Madame Speaker, on February 27th I co-hosted a tenants’ rights information session with Dalhousie Legal Aid and ACORN at the Dartmouth North Public Library. This was our second well-attended tenants’ rights event since the Summer of 2023. At the event, Dalhousie Legal Aid community legal worker Mark Culligan presented some shocking but not surprising stats about eviction applications in Dartmouth North. After FOIPOPing landlord eviction applications between 2018 and 2021, Dal Legal Aid sorted them by postal code. The B3A region, Dartmouth North, consistently had more eviction applications than any other. In 2018, B3A applications made up approximately 12 per cent of all eviction applications; in 2019, 16 per cent; in 2020, 17 per cent; and in 2021, 12.5 per cent. The next-highest percentages range from 5 to 7 per cent. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell how many of the evictions went through. In my office, we help many tenants fight unjust evictions, as do Nova Scotia and Dalhousie Legal Aids. These numbers only confirm that this Legislature must do more to protect people in Dartmouth North and across the province from unjust evictions.
Pandemic Eviction Ban Statement in the Legislature
March 24, 2021
SUSAN LEBLANC: Mr. Speaker, nearly a year ago during the first wave of the pandemic, the Province brought in a temporary eviction ban for those who have lost income due to COVID‑19. This ban made sense. No one should be evicted due to a loss of income during a global pandemic. In fact, no one should be evicted during a pandemic at all. After all, one cannot stay home if one doesn’t have a home to stay in. The eviction ban was lifted at the end of June. Since then, my office has been supporting several people who are being evicted during the second wave of the pandemic due to an inability to pay rent. In some cases, they cannot pay rent because their work hours have been cut or they have been laid off due to the pandemic. Time and time again, the people who have stepped up to help these folks raise the money to stay in their homes are churches, benevolent funds, and not‑for‑profits. Folks scramble to these organizations and if they are lucky, each one helps with a few hundred dollars and, of course, we know that not everyone is getting the help they need. In HRM alone, right now there are 200 homeless people at least. The government should not be reliant on charitable gifts to keep their citizens housed during a pandemic. A full eviction ban needs to be a part of this government’s response to COVID‑19.