The Atlantic Economic Panel released its latest economic report, Bolder Ambitions, last week. It joins a long line of reports that have reviewed Nova Scotia’s economy and called for urgent action.
In 2012, the RDA Review Panel gave us Renewing Regional Economic Development in Nova Scotia. In 2014 came the Ivany Commission’s Now or Never and Laurel Broten’s Charting a Path for Growth. In 2015, we got We Choose Now and A Generation of Change. Since then, we’ve seen reports on clean growth, population growth and the digital economy. The titles change, but the promise stays the same: prosperity is just around the corner. For too many Nova Scotians, that corner keeps getting farther away and harder to see. We do not need to stop asking hard questions about Nova Scotia’s economy. We need to stop treating another report as the answer.
When the Ivany Commission was announced, its budget was reported to be around $800,000. The Broten tax review cost about $150,000. Another $400,000 was committed to Engage Nova Scotia for follow-up work. That adds up to more than $1.3 million in reported budgets and commitments, though it is not a final bill for all the reports. Many don’t have a clear price tag. It seems to me the bigger cost is the time spent talking about change. We have been hearing calls for action for years. Too often, the action never seems to come, at least for most Nova Scotians. Ask a Nova Scotian worker trying to find a good job or pay the rent. Ask a young family searching for a home. Ask someone who needs a doctor. They don’t need another promise that growth will make life better someday. They need to know why, after all these reports, the basics remain so hard to afford or find. They need to ask why things are getting worse. Nova Scotians are still waiting for prosperity to show up in their paycheques and communities.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives offered an answer worth hearing. Its 2016 study, Growth, Austerity and the Future of Nova Scotian Prosperity, argued that cutting public spending can worsen our economic problems. That’s worth repeating: Cutting public spending can make our economic problems worse. In other words, we cannot cut our way to prosperity. A province cannot build a strong workforce while cutting jobs and leaving people without the housing, health care and services they need to stay here.
Yet we keep hearing that prosperity starts with attracting investment. Fine. But prosperity for whom? A bigger economy means little to a worker whose paycheque disappears into food and rent. A new project should not be called a success just because it makes a profit for its owners. It should also create good jobs and leave communities better off.
Here we are in 2026, and the Atlantic Economic Panel now has another growth plan. Before governments put money behind it, Nova Scotians deserve plain answers. Who pays? Who gets the contracts? What good union jobs will it create, and what will those jobs pay?
A report cannot build a home, hire a nurse or raise a wage. Governments make those choices. Some past plans may have helped set useful goals. But a goal on paper is not a result in someone’s life. Investments only happen when we have good public services; why are we cutting them? Ask whether working people can afford to live here, get care when they need it and see a future for their children. That is the test we should use from now on. Not how many pages a report has. Not how bold its title sounds. We know where to start: build housing people can afford, protect public services and make sure growth brings decent pay. Put the people who do the work first.
We cannot print our way to prosperity. At some point, the government has to put down the reports and get to work. We don’t need report number ten, and we didn’t need numbers nine, eight, or seven if no one was prepared to act on them.
A Volvo rolled off a Dartmouth assembly line in 1963. At one time, this province had three oil refineries. After the Dartmouth refinery closed, we had none. Meanwhile, the report-writing industry shows no sign of slowing down. We can tell our children what we used to build, or we can give them a reason to build a future here. Another report won’t do that, but feel free to listen again to the promise that stays the same: prosperity is just around the corner. Can’t wait.
