The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union is criticizing the province for highlighting the importance of tourism less than a month after it made cuts to the sector.
On Tuesday, the Nova Scotia government released numbers that showed the province’s tourism industry generated $3.7 billion in revenue last year, which indicated an eight percent increase over 2024.
In a statement, Tourism Minister Dave Ritcey called tourism a “strong economic driver that supports businesses and creates jobs across the province.”
NSGEU president Sandra Mullen is critical of the comment, noting the minister’s statement comes only a few weeks after the province’s latest budget made large cuts to the sector.
The union head said that people are proud of the tourism sector, but highlighting their work while cutting and making it harder to grow the sector is not real leadership.
“You can buy the greatest advertising campaign possible, but if there are not the people on the ground to deliver a great experience, then visitors will stop coming, and another important revenue source will dry up under the Houston watch,” said Mullen in a release.
Mullen said the recent budget cuts appear to have been made without any regard to the economic impact on small businesses and communities throughout the province.
Announced on February 23, the province’s $1.2 billion deficit budget included cuts impacting museums, the arts and culture sector and most visitor information centres in Nova Scotia.
“This government has created the largest fiscal deficit in the province’s history,” added Mullen. “Rather than investing in a multi-billion sector the Tory accounting playbook offered a different answer — saying it’s time to cut, how does that make any sense?”
With files from Chris Halef, CityNews Halifax.