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About Jen Powley

Writer, advocate of equal rights. Former staff of Ecology Action Centre and NSLEO. MFA in Creative Nonfiction, University of King's College. Master of Urban and Rural Planning, Dalhousie University. Bachelor of Journalism, University of King's College.

Jen Powley: For a real smackdown on slumlords, demand that landlords be licensed

February 28, 2022 By Jen Powley 1 Comment

Each year, the Slumlord Smackdown contest looking for Halifax’s worst landlords gets hundreds of entries. It is hosted by ACORN, an association of low to moderate income earners fighting for a better community. The Smackdown is a chance for tenants to speak out about broken appliances, thermostats, and windows, doors that don’t lock, rats, cockroaches, […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, PRICED OUT Tagged With: ACORN, Councillors, Halifax, Halifax Regional Council, inspections, Jen Powley, landlord licensing, landlord registration, landlords, Nova Scotia, Ontario, RentSafeTO, Slumlord Smackdown, smackdown, Tenants, Toronto

Jen Powley: Turn the convention centre into affordable housing

January 18, 2021 By Jen Powley 9 Comments

Quebec was granted $1.4 billion for affordable housing. Quebec City, Montreal, and Gatineau came together to make the ask. Nova Scotia should ask for $160 million based on a per capita equivalent. The mayors of Sydney, HRM, Bridgewater, Kentville, Yarmouth, Truro, and Wolfville could get together and make a similar coordinated bid.  HRM’s portion of […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured

Affordable housing: If HRM really wanted to, it could

November 26, 2020 By Jen Powley 5 Comments

On July 31, 2018, HRM’s Department of Planning and Development presented the Affordable Housing Work Plan to council. The work plan did not include any definitive timeline or real goals. The strongest commitment made is “consider.” It’s not a real plan to have more affordable units available to renters. It is more a plan of […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured

Opportunities afforded by the re-development of the Cogswell

November 11, 2020 By Jen Powley Leave a Comment

While the memory of the election is still with us and while the new councillors are still excited about their jobs, HRM ought to revisit the requirements for the redevelopment of the Cogswell district. The 90% plan was given approval on February 26, 2019 but since that date, HRM has declared a climate emergency. On […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured

Make Imagine Bloomfield grow again

November 5, 2020 By Jen Powley 11 Comments

The Halifax Regional Municipality has one month to decide how to use the federal government’s recently announced $8.7 million dollars for affordable housing. Given the length of time that Halifax has been facing a housing crisis, it is surprising that Mayor Savage has no apparent plan in place as to where to use this money. That’s surprising as […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: affordable housing, Imagine Bloomfield, Jen Powley

Province stalls home for disabled adults

November 25, 2019 By Jen Powley Leave a Comment

After the 2019 Emerald Hall decision affirmed that people with disabilities have the right to adequate care in the community, and after the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities criticized how Nova Scotia is doing on housing for the disabled (Nova Scotia still has more than 1,000 people with severe disabilities […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Accessibility By Design Act, EcoGreen Homes, Empowered, housing for the disabled, Independence Now, Joanne Larade, Muscular Dystrophy Canada, No More Warehousing, Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, nursing homes, UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

  • Pastel QAnon: How extremist groups recruit women May 18, 2022
  • Union leader pleads for better wages for paramedics May 18, 2022
  • Halifax council round-up: Reprieve for Rankin, development study next to Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes, and more May 18, 2022
  • Halifax council hikes taxi fares 16% May 17, 2022
  • RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather is being investigated concerning decision to not alert the public about the mass murderer’s fake police car May 17, 2022

Commenting policy

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