{"id":6910,"date":"2026-09-29T23:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T02:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centreforlocalprosperity.ca\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T02:41:07","slug":"the-choices-nova-scotias-new-build-your-own-budget-tool-wont-let-us-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforlocalprosperity.ca\/fr\/the-choices-nova-scotias-new-build-your-own-budget-tool-wont-let-us-make\/","title":{"rendered":"The Choices Nova Scotia\u2019s New \u201cBuild Your Own Budget\u201d Tool Won\u2019t Let Us Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 30, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Cantafio, directeur des politiques<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nova Scotia\u2019s recent \u201cBuild Your Own Budget\u201d<\/a> tool invites residents to help shape the next provincial budget. The invitation is a welcome opportunity for consultation, and the tool offers useful information about revenues, expenses, and departmental spending. It also acknowledges that deficits aren\u2019t automatically irresponsible and that public investment can create long term benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the online process narrows the conversation before participants reach the tool\u2019s spending sliders. It compares the province\u2019s finances to a household\u2019s, takes tax increases off the table, and presents attracting business and investment as the strongest long term way to grow revenue. That\u2019s a very particular view of how budgets and economies work, presented as the starting point for everyone else\u2019s choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Nova Scotians are asked to make difficult choices, some of the most consequential ones have already been set aside. Participants can move sliders and rank priorities, but the exercise gives them little room to consider how tax policy, corporate concentration, ownership, and procurement shape the province\u2019s finances. Who owns productive assets? Where do public contracts go? How could more wealth stay in Nova Scotia? If the goal is a stronger economy and sustainable public services, those questions belong in the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the time Nova Scotians are asked to make difficult choices, some of the most consequential ones have already been set aside.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A budget can change the economy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The tool\u2019s household budget analogy is useful only up to a point. Provincial governments can raise revenue, borrow, regulate markets, own assets, and influence how billions of dollars circulate. They also have responsibilities that households don\u2019t, including redistributing income and investing in services whose benefits may take years to appear.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget tradeoffs include more than deciding which department gains or loses a few percentage points. They include who pays taxes, who receives public contracts, who owns productive assets, and how much value remains in Nova Scotia.

The Province has said that raising taxes isn\u2019t an option it\u2019s exploring because affordability is already stretched. We understand the concern. But tax reform doesn\u2019t have to mean asking struggling households to pay more.<\/strong> A serious consultation could distinguish an HST increase from reviewing corporate tax preferences, taxes on very high income earners, subsidies, tax compliance, and the public return from natural resources. Treating all taxes as equivalent leaves the fairness of the system itself off the table. That\u2019s a huge miss.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Asking residents to choose between needed services while excluding those revenue choices makes scarcity look inevitable. It\u2019s a political choice to leave some sources of wealth untouched.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Growth should leave wealth here<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The tool presents attracting more business and investment as a leading way to grow future revenue. Investment can create jobs and useful infrastructure. But we should also ask where its returns go. Profits can leave through non local ownership; firms can buy inputs elsewhere, process resources outside the region, or create few lasting jobs. A rising investment total doesn\u2019t tell us whether communities gain productive capacity or control over their economic future.<\/strong>

Local ownership isn\u2019t automatically equitable, and outside investment isn\u2019t inherently harmful, so we suggest asking practical questions: Who makes decisions? Where is value added? What work is created, and what does it pay? Where do profits go? How will public support change those answers?

These questions are important in concentrated markets. Public money shouldn\u2019t subsidize further corporate concentration.<\/strong> If incentives help dominant firms expand without creating room for independent and community-owned alternatives, we can end up with more \u201coutput\u201d yet fewer choices for workers, suppliers, and communities. Every proposal seeking public support should answer a basic question: will it give workers, suppliers, and communities more options, ownership, and bargaining power, or strengthen the firms that already dominate the market?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our 2018 import replacement study<\/a>, based on 2012 economic data, estimated that $4 out of every $10 spent in Atlantic Canada left the region. Nova Scotia\u2019s estimated leakage rate was 35%. The study modelled that a 10% shift in regional demand toward goods and services produced in Atlantic Canada could support more than 43,000 jobs, $2.6 billion in wages, and $219 million in additional tax revenue. Those are historical modelled figures, not a forecast for today, but they show why economic leakage deserves a place in any conversation about the budget.

At the Centre for Local Prosperity, we believe Nova Scotia can grow more of its prosperity from within.<\/strong> Import replacement can build local production and processing capacity in the places where gaps exist. Community investment funds, credit unions, cooperatives, worker-owned enterprises, Indigenous-owned businesses, community land trusts, and public ownership can help keep assets and decisions rooted here and wealth circulating locally. If attracting investment is offered as a way to grow the budget, community investment and regional finance deserve a place in that discussion too. <\/strong>Community wealth building gives Nova Scotians more ways to own what we build, meet our needs, and keep the returns here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public spending can build local capacity<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The tool asks where government should spend money. It should also ask where that money goes after it\u2019s spent. Hospitals, schools, universities, municipalities, Crown corporations, and departments are major purchasers. Their contracts can help local producers and service providers grow, or they can flow quickly to suppliers with little connection to the province.

Our 2021 procurement study<\/a> found substantial leakage among participating Atlantic institutions. Responses from local vendors indicated that $0.40 from each contract dollar was re-spent within their county and another $0.38 elsewhere in their province. A modest shift in existing purchases could strengthen regional supply chains without necessarily increasing total spending.

Government can give local businesses advance notice of upcoming contracts, break suitable contracts into accessible lots, help smaller suppliers meet institutional needs, and assess community benefit where trade rules allow. Public procurement is an economic development tool. It can also help build the processing, distribution, and other shared infrastructure that local enterprises need to compete. In this context, the lowest bid isn\u2019t always the best value for Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let people name their priorities<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Consultation works best when people can question the assumptions behind those choices, including whether a proposed project will strengthen local ownership and create good jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The online tool asks participants to rank healthcare, affordability, education, and economic development. Those are crucial concerns, but they aren\u2019t separate from housing security, climate adaptation, food sovereignty, racial justice, Indigenous self-determination, and regional resilience. The tool gives people 100 characters to name another priority, then asks them to rank only its four choices. That leaves little room to explain how these priorities connect.

Its spending sliders and preset growth sectors further narrow the exercise. Clean and conventional energy are grouped together despite different implications for emissions and ownership. Forestry and mining are grouped, as are seafood and agri-food. Participants can rank the selected sectors, but they can\u2019t make economic relocalization, community-owned infrastructure, care work, import replacement, or regional processing a growth priority in its own right. Nor can they assess a sector against job quality, corporate concentration, ecological impacts, or local wealth retention.

The government is accepting ideas through meetings and other channels, which gives Nova Scotians room to say more. The online tool still tells participants what counts as a budget choice. Consultation works best when people can question the assumptions behind those choices, including whether a proposed project will strengthen local ownership and create good jobs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make the next conversation wider<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nova Scotia has invited residents to help build its next budget. We\u2019d like to see that invitation go further. Let participants compare revenue options according to who pays, propose priorities the tool hasn\u2019t named, and consider the role of public and community ownership. Show how local procurement, local finance, and import replacement could build the economy from within. Measure decent work, household security, resilience, and locally retained wealth alongside growth and provincial revenue.

Nova Scotians are ready to discuss difficult choices. Give us a chance to discuss the choices that shape the economy beneath the budget, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 30, 2026 Justin Cantafio, Director of Policy Nova Scotia\u2019s recent \u201cBuild Your Own Budget\u201d tool invites residents to help shape the next provincial budget. The invitation is a welcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":6912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[137],"external-org-category":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-6910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-wealth-building"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/centreforlocalprosperity.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/The-Choices-Nova-Scotias-New-Build-Your-Own-Budget-Tool-Wont-Let-Us-Make.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/centreforlocalprosperity.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/The-Choices-Nova-Scotias-New-Build-Your-Own-Budget-Tool-Wont-Let-Us-Make.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/centreforlocalprosperity.ca\/fr\/feed\/podcast\/centre-for-local-prosperity","embedCode":"

The Choices Nova Scotia\u2019s New \u201cBuild Your Own Budget\u201d Tool Won\u2019t Let Us Make<\/a><\/blockquote>