The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. More than 45,000 Nova Scotian health care workers will qualify for a top-up to their wages if they worked during all four months of the pandemic from March 13 to July 12. But it’s still unclear when they will receive the money and exactly which […]
One year later: health care by the numbers
Exactly a year ago, the Halifax Examiner reported on a rally in downtown Halifax that attracted about 75 people concerned about overcrowded emergency rooms, inadequate mental health services, and too few places for seniors requiring long-term care. The rally was advertised through a Facebook group called “Nova Scotia Healthcare Crisis.” Among those in the crowd […]
For some people, wearing a mask is “a unique kind of claustrophobia”
Is it discrimination to refuse entry to people who won't wear a mask for medical reasons?
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. When Vel Oakes goes out, she doesn’t wear a mask. She said she’s gotten “some odd looks” if she’s standing in line waiting to get into a store — and she worries that as mask-wearing becomes more normalized, that’s going to get worse. Oakes described […]
Wait times increase for long-term care
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. If there was any doubt there are not enough places for people who need long-term care, the pandemic should lay that notion to rest. According to numbers provided by the Department of Health and Wellness yesterday, the wait-list for nursing home beds grew by 200 […]
Transit passes coming for 16,800 people on income assistance, but for some, this means already paltry incomes will go down
UPDATE (May 15, 2018): No passes have yet been issued to income assistance recipients, though they are still expected for “late spring”. Some Examiner readers wrote in to express concerns over the fact that the passes, which will feature a photo identification, would violate people’s privacy by revealing their status as income assistance recipients. […]
Stephen McNeil probably can’t meet his preschool pledge
The Liberal's pre-election budget included $3.7 million to expand Early Learning Centres to 30 new locations by September, just four months from now, but the locations haven't been identified, there's no money to help daycares transition, and school boards have been given no direction on how to implement the program.
With election promises thicker than apple blossoms, one that sets the Liberals apart is the promise of an expanded universal, pre-primary program for four-year-olds. Eight Nova Scotia schools including Rockingstone Heights Elementary in Spryfield currently offer full day programs for four-year-olds taught by Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in classrooms dubbed Early Learning Centres, once known...
Low income transit pass program to grow this year, but passes will still be out of reach for poorest of the poor
Halifax is poised to make its Low Income Transit Pass pilot program permanent, and start talking to the province about getting transit passes into the hands of income assistance recipients. If council approves the recommendation from their Transportation Standing Committee, the city will start accepting applications for the new permanent program in May, with a […]
A Hill To Die On: Morning File, Thursday, December 22, 2016
Hello Examiner readers: Katie Toth here, curator and cultivator of the finest locally-sourced, organic, free-range news. Tim is sleeping, I’m writing Morning File, and Christmas is three days away! That means eggnog is in my coffee and I have wool socks on. News 1. Nova Scotia now responsible for refugee support Syrian refugees are coming up on the […]
George Tsimiklis is the worst landlord in town
Part 1: the sad state of Tsimiklis's properties
Yesterday, CBC reporter Elizabeth Chiu beat me to a story I’ve been working on for months: City orders vermin-infested, ‘unsafe’ Halifax apartments shut down Kent Mullin is homeless but in a way, he’s relieved. His apartment — unsafe, a fire hazard and infested with cockroaches, mice and bedbugs — wasn’t much better than being on […]
Northern Pulp wants to poison our forests: Morning File, Thursday, August 11, 2016
News Views Noticed Government On campus In the harbour Footnotes News 1. Glyphosate “Northern Pulp’s plan to spray more than 1,300 hectares of woodland in Colchester and Halifax counties has some detractors stumped,” reports Francis Campbell for Local Xpress: Northern Pulp has applied to the provincial Environment Department for a permit to apply VisionMax on 27 woodland […]