Nova Scotia Power is asking for a rate increase for households of 11.6% over three years instead of the 10% it requested in January. The company cites rising fuel costs, higher-than-expected prices for power purchased from other utilities, and the costs of failing to meet greenhouse gas targets. “The forecast fuel and purchased power costs […]
Nova Scotia government submits revised plan, still without a price on carbon
In the final hours before Ottawa’s Sept. 2 deadline for provinces to submit proposals around the implementation of a rising federal carbon tax, the Houston government has changed the proposal it submitted two weeks ago. As the Halifax Examiner reported earlier this week, the federal government rejected Premier Tim Houston’s plan to meet federal requirements […]
Action on climate change too slow, opposition says
Opposition politicians held the Houston government’s feet to the fire on Wednesday during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which was following up on a 2017 auditor general’s report on managing climate change. The Department of Environment and Climate Change has completed nine of 10 recommendations and is struggling to complete the […]
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...
Trying to get straight answers from the provincial government is an exercise in frustration and futility
Morning File, Thursday, October 4, 2018
Joan Baxter here again, filling in for Tim who is in Toronto for Wrongful Conviction Day, and being recognized by Innocence Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to identifying, advocating for, and exonerating individuals convicted of a crime that they did not commit. He is being awarded the the Tracey Tyler Award for his reporting on the […]
McNeil government is moving slow with greenhouse gas reduction plan
Details are wanting, industry is worried, and regional cooperation is sidelined.
Nova Scotia continues to resist a sales pitch from Ottawa to sign on to its system for reducing emissions starting in January 2019. That resistance comes despite a warning different carbon pricing regimes within Atlantic Canada could drive up administrative costs for companies such as Irving Oil, Wilson Fuels, Northern Pulp, and Lafarge Cement. Those...
Nova Scotia’s cap-and-trade system to go easy on big corporate polluters
Legislation introduced by the McNeil government to enable setting up a cap-and-trade system to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as part of a Trudeau directive to slow climate change was debated briefly in the Legislature this week. What is missing from Bill 15 — “An Act to Amend Chapter 1 of the Acts of 1994-95,...
The McNeil government’s carbon-reduction plan probably won’t work, say experts
Honey, get me re-write. Most participants in yesterday’s panel discussion called “Cap-and-Trade 101” at Dalhousie University expressed concerns about the first draft of a policy released by the provincial Environment Department Wednesday. If enacted, that will put a price on carbon next January in compliance with a directive from Ottawa. According to panelist Jason Hollett,...
Muzzling the Forest Keepers
A Field Guide to Boreal Felt Lichen and DNR Message Control
Endangered boreal felt lichen. Photo courtesy Brad Toms. A redacted email exchange recently obtained through a Freedom of Information request revealed that on November 7, 2014, Allan Eddy, the associate deputy minister of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, was not happy with something he had just seen. Eddy was attending the annual science conference […]