Provincial Liberal Leader Zach Churchill doesn’t think much of the Nova Scotia Government’s Nova Scotia Loyal, a program intended at creating a demand for local products.
The $6 million program includes two new consumer loyalty retail partnerships, an enhanced government procurement policy, branding to showcase local products and incentives for Nova Scotians to buy local.
Zach Churchill (NS Liberal Party photo)
Churchill, who was in the Antigonish area late last week, calls the program a complete waste of money and won’t do anything to help incentivize purchasing of local products.
Churchill says if the government really wanted to help incentivize purchasing of local goods, they would be supporting the local independent stores that actually sell local produce and meats that don’t charge fees to local producers.
He says the money could have also been given to the food bank who buy food from local producers, or the Nourish Communities Program, that gives funding to Nova Scotians who need it to buy locally produced foods at farmers markets. He says that would have had an impact on food insecurity and the local economy.