More than half of the prisoners at the Burnside jail have had COVID-19, and the outbreak isn’t over. “As of Jan. 13, the cumulative case count involving persons in custody at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility is 128,” Justice Department spokesperson Heather Fairbairn told the Halifax Examiner in an email Thursday. The prison population […]
What is the pandemic doing to sports — and other — reporting?
Morning File, Monday, January 10, 2022
News 1. Omicron is testing Nova Scotia’s hospitals Jennifer Henderson digs into the effects of the current COVID-19 wave on the province’s hospitals, looking not just at those hospitalized with COVID-19, but also larger effects on the system. Her lead gets right to the point: The latest wave of COVID is putting pressure on every […]
Time to trash talk the litterers
Morning File, Thursday, Sept 24, 2020
News 1. How a proposal for tiny homes for veterans could shape Halifax’s affordable housing policy Zane Woodford talks with Dave Howard, co-founder of Homes for Heroes about a proposal for a village of tiny homes for veterans in Halifax. The proposal would include 15 to 25 tiny homes that are about 300 square feet, […]
The ABCs and Maybes of school reopening
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Some sense of normalcy. That’s what most children, parents, and teachers yearn for — a better learning environment than what was cobbled together when COVID-19 erupted this winter. Top paediatricians and child psychologists at the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and IWK agree that kids need […]
There’s still confusion over who will get the “pandemic premium” and when they will get it
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...