News 1. Stadium This item is written by Tim Bousquet. Halifax council yesterday rejected Sam Austin’s bid to immediately end a staff review of the Schooners’ stadium proposal. Had Austin been successful, the stadium proposal would have effectively been rejected. In October 2018, council passed a motion outlining how it would deal with the stadium […]
Cold storage was going to save N.S. in 1926
Morning File, Thursday, October 3, 2019
News 1. Northern Pulp’s sci-fi future This item is written by Joan Baxter. It’s all supposed to be decided in just 83 days. Yesterday, Nova Scotia Environment announced that it had received the focus report for Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment plant, which was required after former environment minister Margaret Miller announced in March that […]
The Halifax stadium proposal: private profit for Anthony Leblanc, socialized risk for the public
Morning File, Tuesday, October 1, 2019
News 1. More stadium updates MLA Susan Leblanc, whose Dartmouth North district includes the Shannon Park site of the proposed stadium, has come out swinging against it: Tomorrow I will table legislation on behalf of the @NSNDP caucus that would block public money for a CFL stadium. #nspoli #HRM #Dartmouth — Susan Leblanc (@susanleblancMLA) September […]
The stadium proposal hijacks the real need for recreation and sports facilities
Morning File, Monday, September 30, 2019
News 1. Stadium Writes Stephen Kimber: [L]et me ask a simple question. Where would you rather your governments spend $5–6-million (almost certainly more) of your tax dollars every year for the next 30 years (and likely the next forever after that)? Would you prefer they spend that $180 million (interest included, over-runs not included) on […]
If we build it, will they come?
The stadium that refuses to die has returned. Last week, HRM released most of its private sector proposer's pitch for public sector funding to make its dream of a CFL team reality. But it's worth asking ourselves: what else could/should we spend that $180 million over the next 30 years on?
“Premier Stephen McNeil reiterated Thursday that no money from general revenue will go toward a stadium.” Uh-oh. Not “uh-oh” that our premier told the Chronicle Herald he didn’t intend to pluck any money out of our general revenue and dump it into the latest $110-million stadium-in-the-sky scheme, but “uh-oh” that he qualified his no with...
Jennifer Henderson: a reporter’s reporter
Morning File, Wednesday, November 7, 2018
News 1. Jennifer Henderson One of the great unexpected pleasures I’ve had over the past four years was the day in 2016 when recently retired CBC reporter Jennifer Henderson contacted me to say she wanted to start writing for the Halifax Examiner. Of course I readily agreed, and Henderson has since become an important part […]
And the stadium financing cup-and-pea, smoke-and-mirrors game begins
Morning File, Wednesday, October 31, 2018
News 1. Stadium I was thinking that this morning I’d have a lot of details related to yesterday’s council’s discussion of the proposed stadium, but I’m afraid there’s not much new to report — there weren’t too many revelations yesterday. For background, read what I wrote Monday. There were, however, a lot of councillor questions […]
The stadium proposal deconstructed
Morning File, Monday, October 29, 2018
News 1. Stadium Tuesday, Halifax council will take up the proposal for a football stadium at Shannon Park. Specifically, council is being asked to direct staff to undertake a business case analysis of the stadium proposal and to identify financing options and legislative changes that would be required to make the proposal a reality. There’s […]
A man was killed in a 1998 explosion at the Irving refinery; afterwards, a safety report made recommendations that would “prevent a similar occurrence,” but 20 years later the refinery exploded again
Morning File, Wednesday, October 10, 2018
News 1. Refinery explosion Canadian Press reporters Holly McKenzie-Sutter and Brett Bundale interviewed Jonathan Wright, an American contractor who was working just 25 metres from the site of the explosion at the Irving Oil refinery Monday: First, Jonathan Wright heard a loud hissing. Then he was thrown to the ground and turned to see a wall of […]
Here come the public subsidies for a CFL team: Morning File, Thursday, December 28, 2017
News 1. Weather There’s weather today. 2. Sexual history and anonymity Yesterday, the courts published Judge Anne Derrick’s decision on whether testimony on Catherine Campbell’s sexual history would be allowed in the preliminary inquiry of the murder charge against Christopher Garnier. Derrick’s ruling is complicated, but the gist of it is she ruled that Campbell’s sexual history […]