Sunny Cove Honey
Little Harbour
Partners: W. David Cameron and Sarah K. Cameron
SCH rents its hives to blueberry growers, resulting in “100% pure, not pasteurised” honey.
Anther & Apiary
Truro
Nature of business: “Selling honey, lip balm, soap, candles, skin creams.”
Partner: Suzanne Daniels
No word if this honey comes from blueberries, but let the honey wars begin.
Amplified Whispers Production
Lower Sackville
Nature of business: “Online media production & magazine publication.”
Partner: Simon Carriere
“Amplified Whispers is an immersive narrative for social advocates,” says its website. “In every volume, we escape to a new country seeking answers in local culture to inspire & activate change globally.”
The first “chapter” in the venture is Nepal. “We’ve pledge (sic) to invest 100 per cent of our profits from chapter one into connecting remote schools in Nepal to the internet facilitating the development of the students (sic) academic and creative growth,” says the website.
I emailed the company for more information but have had no response.
Carriere’s LinkedIn page explains that he:
Lead (sic) the development to build a creative agency & production company that seeks to elevate brand’s purpose through meaningful and dynamic content creation. Tasks involve to creatively direct and produce our flagship magazine in Nepal, collaborate with brands and lead the social impact programs our 100% model enables.
I never know what to think of these kinds of ventures. Undoubtedly Carriere’s heart is in the right place, but I wonder if this is the best way to help developing countries. The devil is in the details, I suppose, but probably “some dude from Canada saves us” isn’t the best strategy for Nepalese economic development.
Still, it’s not a bad thing to write about interesting places around the world, or for people to read about them.
The Dog Shop Bathhouse and Boutique Inc.
Mahone Bay
President: Ashley McWhirter
Let’s let McWhirter’s mother-in-law Christine Little tell this story:
I must brag as only a proud mother/mother-in-law can do. My son Shane and his lovely wife Ashley have purchased, and are now the new owners of THE DOG SHOP in Mahone Bay….
Ashley will be running THE DOG SHOP, has actually been managing it for some time and it is a dream come true for her to officially wear the hat of boss. Ashley truly, deeply and without falter, loves dogs. Her dedication is infinite. To her, working with our four legged friends and grooming isn’t a job at all, it’s a passion that you can physically see radiate from her smile as she speaks of her dreams and plans for the business.
She’s clever and inventive and has wonderful taste. I tell Shane he married his mother but he’ll hear none of it, but I think we share a lot in common. We certainly love to create and we both love our fur babies with equal ferocity. Like me; her heart has plenty more room to add to their little fur family so I know there will be more grand pups to love.
Well, that took a weird turn, but good luck to Ashley (who’s not at all like her mother-in-law), the dogs, and Shane (who totally doesn’t have an Oedipus complex).
Bark Life Dog Walking
Halifax
Partner: Kailyn Grimbly
“Bark Life is a local dog walking service catering to dogs and their busy people in Halifax, NS. We are experienced, insured and Pet First Aid certified,” says Bark Life’s Facebook page. How great is it that Grimbly lives on Shepherd Avenue?
Newfie Chews Dog Food
Halifax
Nature of business: “dog food.”
Partner: Patsy Ryan
I don’t know anything about this Newfie chewing thing, but we seem to have a theme going.
Prim & Pupper Pet Grooming
2310 Gottingen Street
Partners: Angelica Wright and Zacchary Paul
The business is registered at the Down Home Dog space on Gottingen Street. I don’t know if this is a rebranding or if that business has been sold — Down Home Dog isn’t registered. I suppose I could’ve walked in and asked, but I don’t have that kind of time. Intern: I need one to do the leg work on these listings.
Fur’n Gully Pet Grooming
Hubbards
Partners: Tabitha Greene and Paula Dominey
The business opened February 1; it has an active Facebook page, including the photo above.
Nova Aquaponics
Halifax
Director: Paul Kierstead
Nova Aquaponics’ mission statement is:
To educate Atlantic Canadians how Aquaponic gardening can help benefit themselves, their family and environment, while having fun growing fish and plants together. To provide a simple and affordable growing system that will bring years of healthy food production. To assist in providing innovative ideas to the Aquaponic industry of Atlantic Canada.
Its goals are:
Nova Aquaponics was founded to promote and provide aquaponic systems in Atlantic Canada and to demonstrate many of its commercial and home applications. The fish of choice based on area temperature and availability are trout. Tilapia will be introduced later this year. Our systems are available through a network of dealers throughout Atlantic Canada. Nova Aquaponics can design and build complete year round greenhouse and indoor growing operations for fish farming and hydroponic food growing.
Learn all about the AP-200 fish farm (pictured above) here.
Russell & Sons Torshee
Bedford
Nature of business: “Produces fermented vegetables and pickles through enhanced fermentation process by use of spices.”
Partner: Zhila Memarrashidi
I don’t know who Russell is, and I won’t endorse those health claims, but I bet it tastes great.
Tartan Tea House
1149 Bedford Highway
Partner: Daniel Holmes
“Tartan Tea House strives to host and promote a bygone era of traditional, high-quality tea drinking enjoyment,” writes Holmes. “Our traditional sit-down tea rooms are laid out to enjoy your time — we like to say for ‘Relaxed People.’” His website is heavily branded with the CFIB logo, so I worry that he won’t be paying his employees much.
Dr. Kombu Brewing Company
New Ross
Nature of business: Kombucha Tea
Partner: Clare Rivard
Clare Rivard is a manager at Muwin Estate Wines in New Ross. “Kombucha tea is a sour, effervescent beverage that can be made in your own kitchen, purchased in healthy food stores like Whole Foods or ordered in upscale NYC eateries and the Google corporate cafeteria,” says some random website I found on the internet. “Fans of the beverage extol its many benefits, including improved digestive health, appetite suppression and increased energy. But skeptics argue that these benefits are unproven by medical studies and that the bacteria in the fermented brew can be dangerous.”
Sauced Woodfried Pizza and Craft Beer
627 Prince Street, Truro
Sauced is operated by Derek Forsyth of The Truro Group, which also runs the Nook and Cranny and the Lokal Resto and Market. Sauced is registered at the same address as the Nook and Cranny, so I don’t know if this is a rebranding or the space next door.
The Carl Dair Typography Workshops Society
Halifax
President: May Chung
The CDT Workshops are explained as follows:
Canadian type designer, teacher, and author Carl Dair (1912-1967) gained international recognition for his work in print and typography. In 2011, Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) worked with world-renowned typographer Rod McDonald to create the Carl Dair Typography Workshops, a movable feast of learning that travels throughout Canada to help designers develop the typographic skills required to produce powerful designs.
The CDT Workshops have been held in Halifax a couple times; I guess this means they’re coming again.
Leo’s Donair Meat
1920 St. Margaret’s Bay Road, Timberlea
Purpose of business: “Production of meat products.”
Agent: Elias (Leo) Toulany
Leo’s is owned by a numbered company which also owns Timberlea Discount Meat & Video. I don’t know why, but a “discount meat & video” store kinda cracks me up. Not as much as the aromatherapy/pork store in Alderney Landing does, but a close second.
Association of Cameroonians in Nova Scotia
Halifax
President: McFarlane Njoh
Njoh is a law student who has been active in student government and African and Black activism. Hilary Beaumont spoke with him at the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” protest in Halifax in 2014:
Njoh said he attended the rally because he was racially profiled and assaulted by police. “I want to speak out and let people know that even though Ferguson might seem far away, police brutality is something that’s right in our own backyards.”
It happened to him when he was a new Canadian immigrant living in Calgary. He was on a road trip with friends when their car broke down. It was dark out and they were stranded so he called 911. Police ran the licence plate and found the car had been reported stolen. His friend had taken his parents’ car without telling them, but Njoh didn’t know that at the time.
“We were sitting in the car and the next thing I know there were about six cruisers gathered around the car. They were screaming at us, ‘Come out!’ and they all had guns drawn.”
Officers pulled him out of the car at gunpoint, slammed his head down in the snow on the pavement, kneed him in the back and arrested him. He was held in a cell for the rest of the night.
“I do know one thing for sure: we were all black in that car, that’s why we were treated that way.”
“I called for help. I gave them all the licence information and registration.”
“That experience changed the way I perceive the police.” Previously he thought of them as pleasant, and he still does, but now he questions that perception.
Cape Breton Cider Company
Sydney
Nature of business: “Makes and markets hard cider through a tap room in Sydney and distribution to restaurants and bars in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia.”
Partners: Jillian McPherson, Elizabeth MacCormick, Mairi Claire Turpin, Kevin McKague
I haven’t been able to learn anything about McPherson or Turpin, but MacCormick and McKague are both profiled on Cape Breton University’s website. They sound like delightful people trying to do right.
Oriental Motion Dance Studios
Halifax
Partner: Tomomi Suyama
Suyama, who goes by the stage name Sari, has been performing in the Maritimes for a while:
Sari has background in numerous kinds of dance styles, and she started belly dancing under the tutelage of Svetlana Skrchinskaya in Japan in 2007. She saw the special talent in Sari and let it bloom. Sari was then chosen as the main dancer of the dance company and instructor. She has received great accolades for her strong shimmy, expressionism, and movements that utilizes her background which extends beyond bellydancing.
Regardless of gender, there are so many incredible bellydancers in the world, and she deeply respects this dance not just as a symbol of feminism but an artform that can express wide range of emotion and story.
She pursues this profession as her life work, and spends her time performing as well as cultivating the future dancers.
She now teaches all over Halifax and surrounding areas, and performs all over Maritimes as well as has experience performing in Montreal and Toronto.
ACOA awards
Atlantic Canada Aerospace & Defence Association (ACADA)
Halifax
ACADA received a $3,161,194 ACOA grant to “support the growth/development of the Atlantic aerospace, defence and security industry”; another million dollars came out of some other government pot of dough. Who is ACADA?
The Atlantic Canada Aerospace and Defence Association (ACADA) is a collaborative SME-focused organization representing the interests of the aerospace, defence, marine and security industries in Atlantic Canada. ACADA is comprised of approximately 200 industry members and organizations across Atlantic Canada.
For more than 11 years, there has been a partnership with partner provincial associations, industry members, government, and other key stakeholders to facilitate strategic industry development on behalf of the region while promoting the Atlantic Canada brand locally, nationally, and internationally.
ACADA members are delivering products and services to the global marketplace in land, marine, and air/space domains for both commercial and defence applications.
It’s weird that there have been no news articles on a grant of over $3 million, but ACOA itself did issue a release:
A new Atlantic Canada Aerospace and Defence Association (ACADA), representing nearly 200 aerospace, defence, security and marine firms, will promote the sector’s capabilities and develop value-added activities for Atlantic Canadian aerospace and defence companies, with a particular focus on regional small and medium-sized enterprises in key areas such as supply chain engagement, workforce development, innovation and commercialization, and career promotion.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is investing more than $3 million under its Business Development Program to support ACADA’s operational and programming costs over the next three years.
Where’s Tamara Lorintz when we need her?
Incidentally, the federal corporate information page for ACADA lists three directors: Keith Donaldson, Paul Yeatman, and Mark Booth. Donaldson is the VP of Apex Industries in Moncton, which has received over $5 million in ACOA loans. Yeatman is the president of GeoSpectrum Technologies in Dartmouth, which has received $2.45 million in ACOA financial assistance. And Booth is involved in lots of aerospace companies (among others), many of which have received ACOA funding, during, before, and after his association with them.
“Shepherd Avenue”? That IS great! Nice catch.