By Hon. Lena Metlege Diab, Member of Parliament
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you’re coming into 2024 feeling refreshed and ready for a promising year ahead. I’m looking forward to a busy month of community engagements before my return to Parliament. There’s a lot of news to share with you since my last column, and I want to give you some important updates below:
HEALTH CARE
2023 was a big year for health care. Our government reached an agreement in principle with Nova Scotia on historic new funding for the health services people rely on, and we made the biggest expansion of public health care in a generation by launching the Canadian Dental Care Plan. The plan will provide access to dental care for all uninsured Canadians with family incomes under $90,000 per year. Applications are already open for older seniors, and this month they will open to those aged 77- 86. In the coming months, all seniors, people with disabilities, and Canadians under 18 will become eligible. You can get all the details you need at canada.ca/dental.
But new funding and dental coverage isn’t all we’ve been working on. Our government recently launched a national 9-8-8 suicide crisis hotline and removed the GST/HST from psychotherapy and counselling to make mental health care more accessible. We also created the Canadian Drug Agency to lay the groundwork for national pharmacare. Finally, I proudly joined the announcement of federal support for critical projects to address the recruitment and retention of health care workers in our system by tackling burnout and removing barriers to practice.
CHILD CARE
Last month, I announced funding to deliver another wage increase for our hardworking Early Childhood Educators and pensions and benefits to all employees in our licensed child-care centres. This will help us recruit, retain, and reward the dedicated professionals we need to ensure the $10/day child care system we’re building will benefit families all across the province.
ENDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
Gender-based violence is a scourge, and one that we all must play a role in ending. Community-level organizations have been doing invaluable work on education and prevention, but they need more support to succeed in their missions. Our government has stepped up with a National Action Plan to End GenderBased Violence, and I’m proud to share that Nova Scotia has signed on— unlocking over $18 million in federal funding to increase awareness and prevention efforts, and enhance services and supports for victims, survivors, and at-risk groups. With the recent passage of Bill C-21, we’ve also enacted new “red flag” laws to help prevent firearms from being used to commit intimate partner violence.
Wishing you all peace and prosperity in 2024!
