On Wednesday, Premier Tim Houston officially promoted a tax measure previously announced in the spring budget to encourage recruiting and retaining skilled tradespeople. Starting next April, skilled tradespeople under the age of 30 in a very wide range of occupations, will pay no provincial income tax on the first $50,000 they earn. The list of […]
Electric vehicle infrastructure in Nova Scotia needs a big boost
Confusion over arbitrary costs for a charge and gaps in the network of charging stations is putting the brakes on any momentum to clean up carbon emissions from vehicles.
Cars, trucks, and buses account for about 25% of emissions fueling climate change. One of the biggest barriers to persuading drivers to dump gas-guzzling cars, pickups, and SUVs for an electric vehicle is what’s called “range anxiety.” That’s a fancy term for the fear that grips a driver afraid you’ll run out of juice on […]
“Please don’t sell Nova Scotia”
Additional taxes on non-resident landowners has been discussed since the 1960s. Now the debate is on again as non-residents snap up property in Cape Breton.
Nova Scotia has long been a popular place not just for settlers, but in the last century it also became a popular place for non-residents — including many well-heeled Americans and Europeans — to purchase properties.[1] For decades, scholars and successive governments have debated the issue of non-resident land ownership in a province with relatively […]
Stop shaming people for renting
Morning File, Thursday, July 9, 2020
News 1. Development agreement approved for preschool at Halifax councillor’s house Zane Woodford reports on the approval of a development agreement for councillor Shawn Cleary’s house Wednesday night during a virtual public meeting. Cleary and his wife, Michelle, have been running a preschool, Maple Tree Montessori, from their home at the corner of Quinpool Road […]
Halifax, Tatooine, the city with two suns: Morning File, Thursday, October 13, 2016
News Views Noticed Government On campus In the harbour Footnotes News 1. Growth, Austerity and the Future of Nova Scotian Prosperity The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives yesterday released a report, “Growth, Austerity and the Future of Nova Scotian Prosperity,” written by labour economist Jordan Brennan. At 46 pages, the report is a short and easy […]
Mixed metaphors: Morning File, Friday, September 16, 2016
News Views Noticed Government On campus In the harbour Footnotes News 1. Irving The multi-billion dollar ship construction project has started, so what’s the economic impact? “Watch your mail for a glossy, 16-page magazine brought to you by Irving Shipbuilding later this month. Every homeowner in the Halifax Regional Municipality is supposed to get one, […]
Nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion: Morning File, Friday, August 12, 2016
News Views Noticed Government On campus In the harbour Footnotes News 1. The NDP promised Irving even more than we knew “Nova Scotia’s Liberal government revealed Thursday it refused to honour a $200-million loan guarantee offered to Irving Shipbuilding in a secret 2012 provincial government letter to the company,” reports Paul Withers for the CBC: The $200-million […]
We’ll not pay you not to work: Examineradio, episode #48
On this week’s episode we speak with striking Chronicle Herald reporter Michael Gorman. When not walking a picket line, Gorman stalks the halls of the Nova Scotia Legislature. We talk about the state of the union at the CH, as well as a recent piece he wrote for the Halifax Examiner on Irving’s unpaid temporary workforce. Gorman […]