N.S. defends $1.3-million affordable housing program that resulted in 60 leases
Global News
The Nova Scotia government is defending a $1.35-million housing program that resulted in 60 leases over roughly two years.
The Nova Scotia government is defending a $1.35-million housing program that resulted in 60 leases over roughly two years.
A spokesperson with the Department of Growth and Development says the contract with the non-profit home-sharing platform Happipad was a success for the people who found a home.
Initial results show the program wound up costing more than $22,000 per lease, prompting criticism from opposition parties who said the government has failed to help Nova Scotians find affordable homes.
Department spokesperson Chrissy Matheson said in a statement Happipad is one of many options the province has explored while it works to connect people with safe and affordable places to live.
“The platform was successful in connecting people, some at risk of homelessness, with safe and affordable housing. For those 60 people who found a home through the platform, it has been a success,” Matheson said.
The purpose of Happipad is to bring together renters seeking affordable, month-to-month accommodation with residents who have rooms to rent in their homes. When it launched the program in 2023, the government said there were about 130,000 vacant bedrooms in the province.
Matheson said that while the department knows of 60 formal leases made through the service, data from Happipad suggests 400 people “possibly made connections” outside the platform.
Over the course of the nearly two-year program, about 1,850 renters and 950 hosts signed up to use Happipad.
Nova Scotia’s largest utility is responding to a stinging letter from Premier Tim Houston by insisting it hasn't broken any laws.
A British Columbia Liberal MP said Prime Minister Mark Carney "will have to answer" questions on why he reversed a budget commitment on tax credits in Alberta energy deal.
AFN Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said Budget 2025 failed First Nations because it did not include more infrastructure funding and educational resources for their communities.
Conservation officers in B.C. say they've captured four more grizzly bears that are being tested to determine if they were involved in an attack on a school group last month.
Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was "incredible," the largest he'd ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.
Canadians could face grocery bills up to $1,000 higher in 2026 as food prices rise 4-6 per cent, with restaurants and meat seeing the biggest jumps.
Despite a growing homelessness problem in the South Okanagan city, council voted 4-2 against the project and the millions of provincial dollars that would come along with it.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a House of Commons committee the updated strategy will come next year, after saying in the fall it would come this year.
Reports emerged this week of U.S. government procurement plans to order 20 Senator vehicles for its ICE officers, a move worth roughly $10 million.
The 16-year-old was arrested in April after police said a credible threat was made against students at Citadel High School.
A committee meeting also heard an extra $194 million is needed to pay for carbon price fuel charges that the provincial government didn't collect.
The premier of Nova Scotia is calling for an investigation into how a major power utility has handled a cyberattack.
Toronto's fire chief says work on extinguishing a fire at two highrise buildings will continue 'into next week,' meaning those evacuated won't be returning home yet.