Northern Pulp Environment Minister Gordon Wilson says he has read all 3,000 pages and “about eight binders worth” of submissions related to whether he should approve a new effluent treatment plant proposed by Northern Pulp. The new plant would replace the Boat Harbour facility which by law is scheduled to close January 31, 2020. The...
Auditor General: $2 billion QEII redevelopment at risk for fraud
The province’s auditor general released a critical report yesterday that looked at the $2 billion project to expand the Halifax Infirmary and build a new Community Outpatient Centre at Bayers Lake to replace the decrepit Victoria General and Centennial buildings. Michael Pickup’s strongest criticism and first recommendation declared: “The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal...
Power rates are going up
Power rates will go up an average of 1.5% in January and by the same amount for each of the next two years. The new rates were approved by the Utility and Review Board in a written decision released Friday. While large industrial customers such as Oxford Frozen Foods will pay 3% a year more,...
Deciding Northern Pulp’s future
A tangled mess of dubious science, loans, and liabilities will determine how government officials will act in coming days — and how much it will cost Nova Scotians.
Nova Scotia’s business minister Geoff MacLellan says it’s not the time to talk about all the money that Northern Pulp owes the province, and it won’t be until after environment minister Gordon Wilson makes his decision on the mill’s new effluent treatment facility on or before December 17. CBC reporter Michael Gorman notes that MacLellan...
Calvin Lawrence: Black Panther Party’s “unlikely cub”
His hiring as a Halifax police officer in 1969 happened only because the city feared what might happen if it didn't at least pay lip service to inclusion. But over the course of his 36-year policing career, Calvin Lawrence proved a more than worthy fighter against racism.
Calvin Lawrence remembers the life-altering moment well. It was an early summer day in 1968 and Calvin, then 19 and still a student, was hanging out at Creighton and Gerrish Streets, “one of my favourite corners,” with his good friend Ricky Smith. A big Lincoln car filled with three senior members of the black community,...
Compensation of $100K for three disabled people who fought for human rights
Adjudicator Walter Thompson says the disable people have a "lack of capacity to benefit from the fruits" of a larger award.
Beth MacLean is an intellectually disabled middle-aged woman who spent 35 years in institutions, including more than four years in a locked-down psychiatric unit of the Nova Scotia Hospital known as Emerald Hall. She is currently living at Quest in Lower Sackville waiting for placement in a group home. A decision filed with the Nova...
The Ivany Report set a target of a $4 billion tourism industry in Nova Scotia by 2024. We’re nowhere near that. Now what?
Despite making significant progress in attracting more visitors and generating $2.6 billion in revenue last year, the province’s tourism industry is still a long way from the goal of $4 billion by 2024 envisioned by the Ivany Report five years ago. “We’re updating our strategy which we are calling The Second Half,” Judy Saunders told...
Coming to terms with the complicated legacy of Gerald Regan
How do you reconcile the contradictory facts of our 19th premier's life? You probably can’t. No matter what you write, you’re either rinsing Regan’s black heart in the cleansing stream of his passing or dancing gleefully on his grave. Most news reports I saw got it about as right as those complicated realities — and our changing times — allowed. Premier Stephen McNeil didn't.
“I think you know every Canadian knows you’re guilty. And you can take that to your grave!” Court spectator Mark Iich Shouted at Gerald Regan following his acquittal December 1998 As the author of “that book about”… I spent much of last week being interviewed by journalists, all of whom — like me — were...
Health Authority hits re-set button
Four years after the amalgamation of nine separate district health authorities into one centralized organization known as the Nova Scotia Health Authority, the responsibility and the money for running hospitals and health programs will shift to senior managers in four zones — North, South, Eastern, and Western. The oversight for ensuring consistency and planning will...
Doctors’ deal within government’s public sector wage guidelines? Not really
When the government announces its new contract with the province's physicians, expect it to claim the deal fits within the guidelines it intends to impose on less powerful, more vulnerable public sector workers. It isn't. Not even close. But that's the McNeil smoke and mirrors.
We won’t know for certain until Wednesday (Nov. 27) whether Nova Scotia’s 3,100 doctors have agreed to a new four-year contract with the provincial government. But we can guess. And that guess would be yes. Doctors Nova Scotia has been officially lips-zipped silent about the terms of the deal during the past month while its...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 58
- Next Page »