News
1. Birch Cove Lakes – Blue Mountain wilderness
Yesterday, the Annapolis Group issued a press release threatening to sue the city for a bazillion dollars over city council’s refusal to allow the company to develop land it owns within the proposed Birch Cove Lakes – Blue Mountain Wilderness Park boundaries.
The press release is inaccurate and improperly frames the issue. I don’t have time to get into it this morning, but will try to somehow find the time today. (Which reminds me, I have an editorial about the park that I stupidly forgot to publish… that’ll come too.)
2. Coast Guard vessel Hudson involved in child porn investigation
Last August, the Canada Border Services Agency announced it had arrested a New Brunswick man named Julien Marceau after searching an unnamed vessel in Halifax Harbour. The CBSA charged Marceau with smuggling, and Halifax police additionally charged him with possession of child pornography.
A search warrant application related to the investigation has been recently made public. The “information to obtain” (ITO) application reveals that Marceau was the First Engineer on the Coast Guard vessel Hudson, and that he had been working with the Coast Guard for 30 years.
3. Chronicle Herald strike
“After almost a year on strike, there may be light at the end of the tunnel for journalists at the Chronicle Herald,” reports Preston Mulligan for the CBC:
Frank Campbell, vice-president of the Halifax Typographical Union, said the union and the newspaper’s management team may be heading back to the bargaining table.
“There’s been some off-the-record talks between the lawyers for each side and the thought is that those talks are the basis for some real negotiating,” Campbell said.
The union and the Herald had been planning to face off before the Nova Scotia Labour Board over an unfair labour complaint filed by the union. That was adjourned Tuesday.
[…]
Campbell said the two sides decided to adjourn the hearing.
“In the interim it was decided, mutually I thought, that the best way forward would be to adjourn the pending unfair labour practice hearing,” Campbell said.
4. Erin Moore and Ezra Levant
You may have heard: Justin Trudeau was in Dartmouth the other night.
I’m not big on such politician meet-and-greets — I didn’t go to see Stephen Harper when he talked at the Halifax Armoury, across the street from my then-office at The Coast, and I had no desire to see Trudeau either. It’s just not my form of journalism. Still, I wouldn’t fault anyone else for wanting to see Trudeau, or for journalists who go to the events.
Which brings me to Erin Moore, who is the broadcast journalism instructor at Nova Scotia Community College. You’ll recall that Moore’s class has unearthed a bunch of documents related to North Preston land claims and has done some excellent reporting around that issue.
I speak with Moore’s class every year — my role is to play the curmudgeonly old reporter, an object lesson in what terrible fates could befall students if they don’t toe the straight and narrow — and yesterday just happened to be the day of my annual appearance. Before we began, Moore told me about her visit to see Trudeau. She wrote up her story and has kindly allowed me to publish it here:
I took my seven-year-old son to see Justin Trudeau on Monday night. One of my hopes as a parent is that my son takes an interest in politics as a way to help him understand why things are how they are in his city, province, country, and planet. I want him to become an engaged and informed citizen and to understand the role he can play if he’s not happy with the direction things are going.
So we stood in the cold for more than an hour in a line that snaked the entire way around the Dartmouth Sportsplex. I hate the cold and wanted to bail but it was a rare educational opportunity for Oliver. While we stood there, rubbing our mittened hands together, hundreds of teachers walked by us carrying picket signs. He recognized his teacher from last year and they waved at each other.
He asked me why they were protesting and I explained how it connected to the current work-to-rule campaign. Then we saw teenagers with bandanas over their mouths holding signs that opposed pipeline construction. I explained that many people are against the decisions prime ministers make and peaceful protest is a protected part of living in a democracy. People are allowed to disagree, loudly, without risking going to jail. That spawned a lot more questions on his part.
I wanted to remember the night. I was so impressed by his questions and his desire to wait in the cold. So I got the woman standing behind us to take a photo. Then I did something I almost never do. I tweeted it. Normally, my Twitter account is for professional tweets only. But I decided to put this one out there:
What happened next occurred because of my other role. Along with being Oliver’s mom, I’m also a journalism instructor at the Nova Scotia Community College. In fact, several of my students were at the event covering it for class. But the fact that I took my son to see the prime minister called my journalistic credibility into question for Ezra Levant, former Sun News Network pundit and current commentator for conservative news site Rebel Media.
“Journalism instructor”. https://t.co/zJAfu1tBsn
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) January 16, 2017
Levant retweeted my photo with the caption “Journalism Instructor” in quotation marks then pinned it to his feed for his 94-thousand followers. The implication I’m guessing is that I couldn’t possibly have journalistic integrity if I took my child to a Liberal event. I must be a Liberal supporter. I must be biased. The trolls saw red meat and fought each other to feast on it first. Finally warm inside the arena, my Twitter account started blowing up with mostly anonymous users calling me a child abuser, a bad mother, and a bitch. Hundreds of them. They’re still coming.
I responded to Levant with the following:
Then I stopped responding and it was hard. I was being attacked for my politics, my professionalism, and my parenting by people who don’t know a thing about any of them.
That’s how trolling works of course and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. No one threatened to rape or murder me as so often happens to women online.
But it made me think a lot about the Oxford dictionary’s newest word: post-truth.
Somehow, what was actually going on in that photo didn’t matter at all. The fact was that as a mother I wanted my child to see the democratically-elected leader of our country answer questions by both supporters and opponents without a script. As a journalist and journalism instructor, holding those in power to account is a fundamental part of the job. In the town hall setting ordinary people, non-journalists, had the same opportunity to hold Justin Trudeau to account. What a thing for a child to witness.But never mind the truth. To the trolls, and to Levant, that photo was an example of liberal bias in the media and of a bad mother forcing her child to risk frostbite so he could get indoctrinated by socialist propaganda. Sigh.
Some of my students have asked me why journalism and the pursuit of truth even matters if we’ve truly entered an era of post-truth. My response is that it matters now more than ever, that pursuing truth is still an essential service in a democracy and that holding those in power to account has never been so important.
If we give in to fiction instead of fact, and vitriol instead of verification, we all lose because we’ll all be less-informed when it comes to making important decisions about our lives. That’s something that as both a journalism instructor and as a mom, I’m working hard to prevent.
5. Red Cross building
The city is selling the former Red Cross building at 1940 Gottingen Street, across from the police department and behind Centennial Pool. According to a tender offer issued this morning:
1940 Gottingen Street is known as the former Canadian Red Cross building (circa 1967 – 2013). The first lease of the property by the City of Halifax to the Canadian Red Cross was signed in 1967, with a second lease concluded in 1983. The Canadian Red Cross’ national blood program was transferred to Canadian Blood Services in 1998. That operation continued to occupy the building until it declared the property surplus to their functional requirements in 2013. The municipality then received vacant possession of the property. Halifax Regional Police requested to hold the property for operational considerations from that point, and released its interest in the property in 2015. All municipal business units recommended the property be presented to Regional Council for approval as surplus to municipal requirements in 2016.
[…]
The property is a strategic development site and an important economic opportunity for development in the north end of the downtown business district and Regional Centre. Situated at the corner of Gottingen Street and Rainnie Drive, its physical location is highly visible, centrally located, near downtown commercial areas, events venues, and major parks. In recent years, Gottingen Street and surrounding streets have been experiencing a commercial and residential revival.
Of course it’ll be sold to a developer who will throw up some shitty condo building, with million-dollar units looking out at the Citadel. The site has an “as a right” height limit for new construction of 23 metres, so roughly seven storeys, but a developer could dangle some supposed goody in front of city council and build whatever they want if councillors approve a development agreement.
Views
1. Cranky letter of the day
To the Charlottetown Guardian:
John Palmer is against MP Wayne Easter’s private members’ bill to declare Charlottetown as the Birthplace of Canada.
In “Parliament can’t change history” (Saturday’s Guardian) he writes: “Our founding Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald must be turning in his grave at this proposal.”
Ouch! I wonder what he thinks of New Brunswick’s new tourism campaign for 2017: “Celebrate Where It All Began.” Seriously? Now there’s one that’s really out in left field. I understand the original campaign name was “The place where Confederation almost, sorta, kinda started”, but that had no kick to it. And there’s the Shakespeare play “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Lloyd Kerry, Charlottetown
Noticed
I’ve been trying to increase my collection and trawling through of government records. Part of that involves just building a process to do so, and so yesterday I taught myself how to stay on top of ACOA grants. Not five minutes into this new enterprise, I discovered that last month Saint John-based Hammond River Brewing Company Inc. received a $50,000 ACOA grant to hire an assistant brewer. That got me wondering what Hammond River’s competitors, like Picaroons or Pump House, would think of this, and boy howdy did that train of thought open up a can of worms.
First of all, Picaroons has received three ACOA loans totalling about $110,000, and Pump House has received a $49,995 grant to hire an engineer, another ACOA grant of $7,950.00, and five ACOA loans totalling over $600,000. But that’s the least of it. The ACOA website reveals other support for breweries, as follows:
• The first ACOA beer funding I could find dates to 1996, when the agency loaned St. John’s Quidi Vidi Brewing almost a half-million dollars to “establish a microbrewery and winery operation.” The next year, ACOA loaned the brewery another $129,650 to expand its operation.
• In 1997, ACOA dumped a cool million dollar loan into Harold MacKay’s Maritime Beer Company, which went beer belly up (because it sucked) much as MacKay’s Power Promotions bid for Halifax Common concerts led to a gigantic fuck up. Bygones, I guess.
• In 1998, ACOA loaned Pictou’s New Scotland Brewing Company a quarter of a million dollars to get established. New Scotland went bust in 2011, but its equipment was purchased by Uncle Leo’s Brewery, which in turn was the recipient of a $97,500 ACOA loan in 2012.
• In 1999, ACOA loaned Moncton’s Neat Brewing $14,550, followed by another $30,000 loan in 2001. By 2004, ACOA gave up all pretence of a loan, and simply gave Neat Brewing $25,000.
• In 2012, ACOA loaned Prince Edward Island Brewing $350,000 to establish its microbrewery, and granted it $35,000 to “hire an experienced beer industry expert.” It appears PEI beer experts are short-changed on the ACOA moolah: not only do they have to pay the bridge toll to get anywhere civilized, they also get paid $15,000 less than their Maritime counterparts.
• In 2013, Shelburne’s Boxing Rock Brewing received a $100,000 ACOA loan to purchase equipment.
• Also in 2013, Liverpool’s Hell Bay Brewing received an ACOA loan of $32,060 to “purchase additional equipment to increase brewing capacity at a new location.”
• In 2014, ACOA loaned Fredericton’s Northampton Brewing a half million dollars, and followed that up with a $50,000 grant in 2015 to “hire expertise for continuous improvement.” We’re back to fiddy K for the brewmaster salary.
• 2015 was a big year for Fredericton brewers. That year, ACOA loaned Maybee Brewing $238,538 to “purchase equipment to establish a craft brewery”; TrailWay Brewing Company $243,463 to “purchase equipment and make leasehold improvements”; and Grimross Brewing $194,831 to expand its brewery.
• In 2016, Newfoundland brewers got back into that ACOA action, when Port Rexton Brewing was loaned $141,775 to renovate its building and was flat-out granted $49,875 to “hire technical expertise to assist with micro-brewery operations” (close enough to 50K, I guess).
• Shiretown Beer got a $40,000 loan from ACOA to re-open its failed brewery, also in 2016.
• Also last year, ACOA loaned Fredericton’s Gray Stone Brewing (I don’t know why they use the American spelling of “gray”) $210,000 to “establish a 10-barrel craft brewing house.” Celebratory news reports of the opening managed to omit the ACOA financing.
• Again last year, ACOA loaned Holy Whale Brewing $167,643 to open a brewery in an old church building in Alma, New Brunswick.
• Halifax’s Garrison Brewery has received seven loans totalling over three-quarters of a million dollars.
• Through the years, Propeller Brewing’s John Allen Brewing Company has received an ACOA grant of $26,250 to hire a brewing consultant and about $600,000 in ACOA loans.
So, evidently, ACOA is in the brewing business.
I’ve got mixed emotions about this. First of all, I like beer: yah beer! And I like and respect many of the brewers and brewery owners who are producing beer in the Maritimes: they’re interesting and creative folk, and we’re better for them. And I suppose the theory is that people will drink Maritime-brewed beer rather than American-made swill owned by InBev or whatever, and that will result in a handful of local jobs… and so this is an investment in the local economy.
Moreover, I understand that new brewers are under-capitalized and a risk too far for commercial banks, so some government financing might help boost the industry. Still: what about those grants? What would Gloria McCluskey think?
More to the point, the craft beer revolution that started in the United States relied not a whit on government financing. I knew Kenny Grossman, who started Sierra Nevada Brewery — I never liked the guy, but he started the business by hitting up friends and family for loans and never got a public handout, so more power to him. On the opposite coast, Sam Calagione started Delaware’s Dogfish Head Brewery on a whim and a prayer.
But it looks like the Maritime microbrew industry is almost entirely dependent upon government financing. I count upwards of $10 million in ACOA financing for breweries.
When I’m writing about government economic development programs, I often fear I’m sounding like some crazed right-winger singing the praises of the supposed laissez-faire free market. I’m not — I think government does have a role in the economy, including a financing role. But this doesn’t feel right. Maybe it’s because some breweries — North and Unfiltered come to mind — don’t get any ACOA funding, and they’re at least to some degree competing with ACOA-financed operations, so I wonder about the fairness of it. Or maybe because it’s a bit too much like Soviet central planning for my tastes — somebody in the politburo decided that craft brewing, as opposed to, I don’t know, home-sewn clothing sold on Etsy, is the future of our economy, so the home sewers starve while the brewers move up the Party ranks.
Then again, maybe I’m thinking of this all wrong. Like craft brewing, my own industry, the news media, is starved for financing. Imagine what $10 million invested in news startups — just to be annoying, let’s call them “artisanal” news — would do for the industry. My goal is to one day hire an assistant editor, the rough equivalent of the assistant brewer, to be able to amp up production; that day would come a lot sooner if the Halifax Examiner were the beneficiary of a $50,000 ACOA grant. I’m sure Mary Campbell’s Cape Breton Spectator could likewise productively make use a $100,000 line of credit to expand operations. And there would undoubtedly be artisanal news sites popping up all over the Maritimes if only ACOA’s VP of Innovation and Groovy Stuff would power up the financing train.
What could possibly go wrong? I’d even start showing up at the PM’s meet-and-greets.
Government
City
Halifax Explosion 100th Anniversary Advisory Committee (3pm, NSCC IT Campus) — the committee is putting out a call for Halifax Explosion survivors, the only requirement being that they be “living.” You’ll get an award for not dying twice, I guess.
Province
Standing Committee on Public Accounts (9am, Province House) — Nova Scotia’s hardest-working and most deserving rich person, Laurel Broten, will be congratulated for her hard work and deserving nature.
On campus
Dalhousie
Innovation! (8am, Weather Watch Room, 5th Floor Dickson Building) — Bill Bean will speak on, “Innovation Rounds: Connecting Philanthropy to the Research World at the QEII.” Or, you could meet me at the University Club Thursday after we record the podcast and I’ll tell you how we can fund research by taxing the fuck out of people who are so rich they get lauded as philanthropists for tossing a few coins away.
Architecture Lecture (9am, Auditorium, Medjuck Architecture Building) — Sascha Hastings, an arts producer in Toronto and RAIC project manager for the 2014 Venice Biennale, will speak.
Thesis Defence, Biology (10:30am, Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building) — PhD candidate Ingrid Pollet will defend her thesis, “Influence of Extrinsic Factors on Movements and Reproductive Success of Leach’s Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa).”
“Genomic insights into cannabis, wine, and cider” (4pm, Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building) — Sean Myles will speak. Bring your own cannabis, wine, and cider.
Architecture Lecture (6pm, Auditorium, Medjuck Architecture Building) — Silva Ajemian, a founder of TODO DA and First Street Green Art Park in New York, will speak.
President Trump: Now What? (7pm, Potter Auditorium, Rowe Management Building) — Two 75-minute panels of five speakers will address the lessons and implications of the US election. A reception with light refreshments will precede the lecture at 6pm. Here’s the event listing:
The results of the 2016 American presidential election are more than a little surprising and disorienting for many students, faculty, political analysts and the general public. This event will feature two 75 minute panels with five speakers/experts on each panel addressing the lessons and implications of the US election for various aspects of: American politics, gender, class and/or race in the US, immigration, journalism and the role of traditional and social media (e.g., false news; polling failures, etc.), Canada-US relations, international politics, international trade, diplomacy, or global security.
The event will be hosted by:
Frank P. Harvey (Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)The panels will be moderated by:
Sylvain Charlebois (Dean, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie)
Camille Cameron (Dean, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie)Panelists include:
Jerry Bannister (History, Dalhousie)
Brian Bow (Political Science, Dalhousie)
Mary R. Brooks (Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie)
Louise Carbert (Political Science, Dalhousie)
Sara-Jane Corke (History, Dalhousie)
Amal Ghazal (History, Dalhousie)
Edna Keeble (Political Science, Saint Mary’s University)
Ajay Parasram (International Development Studies, Dalhousie)
Isaac Saney (History/Transition Year Program, Dalhousie)
Kelly Toughill (Journalism, University of King’s College)
Saint Mary’s
Regeneration (1pm, Library LI135) — John Reid and Robert Summerby-Murray will be here to talk about their new book, “The Political, Environmental and Cultural Economy of Heritage in Atlantic Canada: studies in regeneration.”
In the harbour
4:45pm: Macao Strait, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Lisbon, Portugal
The barge/tug Atlantic Griffon will be tooling around the harbour all day in sea trials.
Footnotes
I’ll be on The Sheldon MacLeod Show, News 95.7, at 2pm.
Re: Birch Cove Lakes – Blue Mountain
First of all, let us be very clear on exactly who this developer is suing and why. He is is suing the people of the Halifax Regional Municipality on whose behalf the Municipal Council rejected a very bad development proposal. This is one of the very few cases where public will prevailed over money.
The developer is doing this because he took a gamble, buying some land at a bargain basement price for which there were NO development agreements and got all sooky when things didn’t go the way he wanted. What he wanted was to make a gigantic windfall profit with another blight of asphalt and concrete sprawl. Now he is trying to blackmail us – the residents of the municipality – by whipping out his huge and powerful lawyers to intimidate and literally steal money out of our collective pockets. I know Tim has the goods on the whole backstory and I look forward to the facts being brought out, Maybe even the mainstream media will get on this at some point.
Have you tried applying for funding to ACOA? That’s what they’re there for.
Personally, I wouldn’t have been able to start my business without an ACOA loan (now paid in full). How much of a boon it is to the local economy, I can’t say, it’s paying a landlord and one employee, and not me, but the system of grants and loans is essential to a lot of business startups, though it’s clearly more angled towards those willing to “play the game”.
These are high risk loans, and I’m sure the default rate on them is pretty high, which is why banks generally won’t touch it, but ultimately ACOA is still in the business of making money if the loans are paid.
While far from perfect, I feel that it is a worthwhile endeavour for the government, and there’s a tone to your reporting that it’s somehow unfair for businesses to receive ACOA funding. Again, it’s not perfect, I’m sure John Risley has access to far more funding than someone like you or I, though he needs it far less, but I believe the answer is to improve the current system, not scrap it.
Might I take this moment to remind you of my comments on review of the new YMCA/Luxury Apartments project that HRM so lavishly drooled over, and overruled the Design Review Committee because, you know, rich people need a place to play too.
That Blood Plant site, and the (plan violating) at grade HRM parking, are next to the Centennial Pool, a facility that has some rare aquatic training capabilities, and could use some support. Support like having a new YMCA next to it. One that would also be next to tennis, speed and recreational skating, a new gym, a soccer pitch, the main softball diamond, and the Common, which serves as a running track for what sometimes seems to be every runner in the city. I had the temerity at the time to ask if the Y location was perhaps no longer the highest and best use for that land and that it might be better used for high end residential without violating the Parks Canada requested, and technical report recommended, height restriction – the rule all previous developers along Sackville Street had been governed by, but council ignored.
Now, I gaze at that hole on the corner where the fine Miami-Modern Architectural example CBC building once stood, wondering if it will lower the local water table and slowly kill all the trees in the Public Gardens. And I can’t help but think how much better it would be to have that YMCA built where it would strengthen our recreational resources, instead of threatening the importance of the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site with multiple bonus stories of luxury apartments on top of a YMCA that is in the wrong place.
I know it’s too late, but just take this as yet another example of what could have been had we shown some imagination and been…. um, bolder?
I kinda wish you would post the Erin Moore segment as a separate post so I could link to it more easily/clearly.
Each subhead in Morning File is its own anchor tag, meaning that you can link to any section simply by having that section on your computer or device screen and copying the URL. Posting that URL will link directly to that section.
I realize that, but it gives the image/header of the whole “Morning File”….
Ah, you don’t want Erin’s words of wisdom cluttered up by my words of not-so-much wisdom, eh?
🙂
There’s 15 minutes I didn’t really have, but here you go:
https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/ezra-levant-trolled-me-for-taking-my-seven-year-old-son-to-see-justin-trudeau/
Shiretown in Charlo didn’t fail. The owner burned out and took time off (less than a year) before starting again with better equipment. His first brewery essentially was a series of giant pickle pots and old pop canisters, beer bottled by hand, and he was both brewing and driving the product to liquor stores and agency stores around NB.
He sold the giant pickle pots to an even smaller brewery that operated out of a guy’s basement, and took about a year or so off. He had and still has his own skin in the game. I’ve interviewed the guy more than once (and I confess I drink his beer, but not exclusively his beer) and a man more dedicated to business you couldn’t hope to find. He told me that the only way he could do it without burning out was to get back into it on a slightly larger scale — although again, his operation is still much smaller than microbreweries I’ve seen elsewhere. (And unlike most microbreweries I’ve encountered in NS, he accepts empties back for cleaning and rebottling.)
I agree with the comment that you have to look at the repayment rate and the success rate on these things compared to other things in which ACOA invested. There do seem to be a lot of microbreweries in NB and NS, but if they are repaying the loans and people are buying the local beer rather than Budweiser and Coors Lite, I’m not sure it is a bad thing in the least. Just from my observation, these breweries seem to be working out better than some of the investments they’ve made.
This is apart from any argument that maybe we shouldn’t be loaning public money to private businesses at all. I know people on both the right and left who hold to that view, and I am definitely in sympathy after the government of NB lost over $73-million in loans to Atlantic Yarns a few years back. So much of this money seems to go to bigger enterprises too.
But if they are to lend money, why exclude microbreweries? Or, as you say, small media outlets — I don’t see any reason why that business should be excluded if you have a good business case. You and the lady in Cape Breton should submit your applications.
Sounds like Oliver Moore is off to a good start in life. What a noxious piece of work is Levant.
Yes and yes.
Parker Barss Donham and Jeff Pinhey,and add my double yes.
Sit on their ass tweet, text, phone it in or shout about it on cable news stations “reporters” should take a page from Erin Moore and her students. They are routinely ON THE SCENE, in real time, covering important issues and individuals of the day. I have crossed paths with them everywhere — with notebooks microphones, and cameras in hand. On point and taking care of business.
Moreover, they are always dressed as if they are ready to ascend to the top job in any media organization. This is especially important for young journalists of colour who are often judged more harshly on their appearance than their white counterparts. I’m telling you what I know. A white editor once stopped me as I was heading out the newsroom on assignment and asked: “When are you going to start dressing for success?” Because I was not young or subject to intimidation (ever), I fired back: “When you start paying me more money.” This from a “paper of record” that had somehow managed to miss the entire lead-up to the Jim Jones Peoples Temple situation that saw hundreds of elderly black folks perish in the jungles of Guyana. Suffice it to say that this slovenly-dressed reporter was not on staff at the time.
Erin and her NSCC students have rightly garnered national attention for their superb investigation of the North Preston land claims issue. They have run circles around local “established” media and other more “prestigious” journalism programs.
All praises.
The Canadian Blood Services property is in the Downtown Halifax Plan area. While I have no doubt that it will be sold to a developer for condos, I would be very surprised to see the height go higher than what is currently permitted. There is no development agreement option in the Downtown Halifax Plan; the plan would need to be amended.
Council has been very reluctant to amend the Downtown Halifax Plan, having only done so on two occasions since its adoption in 2009. The first was increasing the height on the YMCA site. This was prior to any particular developer involvement, and was done to support the development of a new YMCA. The second instance was for the Nova Centre, which–given the involvement of all three levels of government–is probably a unique situation, and no other site could expect the same level of treatment. In contrast, Council rejected the Skye Halifax request to amend the Downtown Halifax Plan.
There is also little incentive for developers to ask for Downtown Halifax Plan amendments. The existing rights are reasonably generous, and the as-of-right process is quick (for HRM timelines at least). Unless you hope to get a HUGE uplift (Skye Halifax), it’s not really worth the time and risk to ask for plan amendments in Downtown Halifax.
Two suggestions:
1. Do some math, and take the time to do some investigative reporting. Tell us how much ACOA lost with their LOANS, how much was actual unsecured grant money, and how their repayment track record for this industry compares, with, oh, I don’t know… mall located body measuring devices? Or other such lucrative startups ACOA has funded. Then count the jobs created, and discuss the craft brewing support in the context of ACOA’s mandate. I’m always interested in the cost per job. You can look back to the Bowater things and get a metric for what one government saw as the value of a job. Reading it now, it looks to me like your article is a celebration of an ACOA success story.
2. Apply for a grant and loan for the Examiner from ACOA. From the look of your growing roster of staff, it appears that you ought to qualify for something, as you seem to be creating more jobs than NSBI all on your own. Maybe not as good as the local brewing industry, but not bad, considering ACOA hasn’t helped you. Yet.
You forgot about this: http://www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca/eng/Agency/mediaroom/NewsReleases/Pages/4766.aspx
What I’ve noticed about the ACOA funding, is since 2013 it is only going to established breweries in NS that want to package product. Apparently they have over-invested and won’t consider more.
Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission is playing scab in the latest edition of the Herald throwaway ‘Dartmouth Tribune’ with a front page promo of downtown Dartmouth described as ‘contributed’. Comes without selfies.