News 1. More fisheries mismanagement The environmental group Oceana Canada, which describes itself as “an independent charity established to restore Canadian oceans to be as rich, healthy, and abundant as they once were” is slamming the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for its management of fish stocks. Aaron Beswick reports for The Chronicle Herald on […]
Want $65,000? Just write a letter!
Morning File, Thursday, October 17, 2019
News 1. You can have the right to strike; just don’t try to use it. Yesterday, the provincial government showed its continued labour relations finesse — this time in its negotiations with crown attorneys. The crowns want a 17% pay increase over four years. The province is offering 7%. Yesterday, while most of the prosecutors […]
A Tree Walk will make us all rich!
Morning File, Thursday, August 22, 2019
News 1. Cod “DFO has issued a stark warning linking the demise of codfish in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to an exploding seal population,” reports Paul Withers for the CBC: It’s contained in the most recent stock assessment of Atlantic cod in the southern gulf, which was released earlier this month. “At the current abundance […]
The province spent $4 million to replace the Halfway River aboiteau, and just months later it is already failing
Morning File, Tuesday, August 20, 2019
News 1. Halfway River aboiteau In 2017, the Halfway River aboiteau collapsed. The aboiteau was essentially a dike or dam that at low tide allowed water to flow out to the Bay of Fundy but restricted the flow of water back into the river at high tide. It was an ancient construction — I haven’t been […]
“Hands off our protected areas, and lay off our Crown land”
The proposed Inverness airport will either encroach on or be very near to the Masons Mountain Nature Reserve, a protected nature reserve. It's not the kind of place one wants to have commercial jets “screaming in and out," says the Raymond Plourde, the Ecology Action Centre's wilderness coordinator.
In the past month or so, an awful lot of people — especially people with nothing to gain from a new airport that would serve a couple of luxury golf resorts in Inverness — have put forward more than enough good reasons for both the federal and provincial governments to tell Cabot Links and Cabot […]
Is executive fraud behind the bankruptcy of VistaCare Communications?
Morning File, Tuesday, July 9, 2019
News 1. Power rates “Nova Scotia Power has filed an application that would see power rates rise 1.5% a year for residential customers in each of the next three years, if approved by the Utility and Review Board (UARB),” reports Jennifer Henderson: The increases are related to rising fuel costs and purchases of imported power. […]
Diminishing Dissent
Morning File, Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Today’s Morning File is by Philip Moscovitch, while Tim is in court for the Assoun hearing (see Item #2). News 1. Shelburne School for Boys Writes Stephen Kimber: Was the government’s compensation program [in response to sexual abuse at the Shelburne School for Boys] crafted out of a well-intentioned desire to allow victims to tell […]
Setting the record straight on Atlantic Gold’s spin job
It has been fascinating — but discouraging — watching as Atlantic Gold and the RCMP try to justify the violent arrest of John Perkins at an information session on mine tailings dams and management, which the Vancouver-based mining company hosted last Thursday in the firehall in Sherbrooke on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, a fiasco you […]
The Trudeau government’s tax subsidy for journalism puts the Halifax Examiner in an impossible situation
Morning File, Friday, March 22, 2019
News 1. Holly Bartlett Last night, I went to a special preview of the first episode of AMI TV’s six-part series on Holly Bartlett (I wrote about the series here). It’s as good as I expected. I like that we can see where Holly lived, and how the police theory of her death makes no sense […]
Poverty mentality… poverty reality
Morning File, Thursday, February 28, 2019
News 1. Poor kids On Tuesday, Statistics Canada released its most recent Canadian income survey, covering 2017. The agency uses two tools to calculate poverty, the Low Income Measure (“defines an individual as having low income if their adjusted after-tax income falls below 50% of the median adjusted after-tax income”) and the Market Basket Measure […]