Citizens concerned about the amount of wood harvested (mostly clearcut) to be used as biomass aren’t going to be happy with the numbers contained in the 2018 Fuel Adjustment Mechanism (FAM) report filed last month with the regulator. When used for generating electricity, the efficiency of biomass is only 21-23% efficient. Last year, the biomass...
Living with crabs
Morning File, Wednesday, March 27, 2019
News 1. Street checks The Street Checks report is being released this morning, just as I’m writing this. 2. Provincial budget The Liberals released the 2019/20 budget yesterday and immediately spun it with a deluge of press releases. See if you can catch the bullshit word: If you guessed “invests” you win a pony! No […]
Hell, Let’s Talk
Morning File, Wednesday, January 30, 2019
News 1. Northern Pulp Mill “A permanent injunction has been granted preventing fishermen from blocking survey vessels from carrying out work for a contentious treated waste pipeline into the Northumberland Strait,” reports the Canadian Press: Justice Josh Arnold approved the injunction Tuesday after Northern Pulp and the fishermen agreed to a consent order last week. […]
Oil spills, protected areas, and the future of the planet
Morning File, Monday, November 19, 2018
November subscription drive I’m really bad at self-promotion, so I’m going to let Trevor Parsons give today’s plug for the November subscription drive: This @HfxExaminer travel mug won't help you survive in #WildNovaScotia, but it will keep your coffee warm on the way to the trail head. More importantly, subscribing to the Examiner helps to […]
City takes Canna Clinic to court
Morning File, Tuesday, October 30, 2018
1. Stadium Halifax council takes up the stadium issue at its meeting today, which starts at 1pm. As the representatives of the Maritime Football League Partnership will be present, I hope council moves the stadium discussion to the top of the agenda, or at least early on. But I can’t be certain of that, and […]
With increased projections of sea level rise and storm surges, does it make sense to put a Cultural Hub on the waterfront?
Question: With signs of accelerating effects from climate change, should $200-300 million of public money be invested in a new building to last less than a century on the Halifax waterfront? When it comes to a new home for both the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design...
Peter Kelly is back in the news
Morning File, Thursday, October 25, 2018
1. OPOR “This is a story about a potential half-billion-dollar health-care services contract, alleged cozy dinners between bidders and bureaucrats, an unusual legal letter and accusations the government’s tender process was unfair,” writes Chronicle Herald reporter Paul Schneidereit: The planned purchase of a new provincewide electronic health record (EHR) system — expected to cost in the hundreds […]
Stephen McNeil announces his complicated carbon plan
Nova Scotians will pay more for electricity, gasoline, and home-heating over the next four years as part of the province’s plan to reduce its carbon footprint and avoid a carbon tax Ottawa announced it will impose on four other provinces beginning this January. But Premier Stephen McNeil insists Nova Scotia consumers will pay much less...
“Pig in a poke”: die-hard proponents want to open Nova Scotia to fracking
About 200 people gathered last evening in Pugwash, filling the Northumberland Community Curling Club for a debate framed around the resolution “fracking will be beneficial to Cumberland County.” The audience was, not surprisingly, clearly divided between those in favour and those against. For many, including several members of the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action...
The corporate kleptocracy takes aim at Nova Scotia
Morning File, Friday, August 31, 2018
Hi, I’m Joan Baxter, a Nova Scotian journalist and author. Some of my books are actually quite upbeat, proving that I’m not always a bearer of bad news. News 1. Abandoned tidal turbine Jennifer Henderson updates the situation of the abandoned tidal turbine in the Minas Basin in this article for the Examiner. After a […]