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 […]
Province no longer paying for hotels for Halifax homeless shelter residents
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. The provincial government has stopped paying for hotel rooms for dozens of people who were moved out of a temporary homeless shelter last month following a confirmed case of COVID-19. And while federal funding is now covering the bill, the local association tasked with doling […]
“Those who are in a shelter or without shelter cannot self-isolate”: Halifax deals with homeless population during COVID crisis
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Amid a public health emergency that relies on people keeping six feet apart to halt the spread of COVID-19, a team is putting on a full court press to deal with one group of citizens. Housing Nova Scotia, the Halifax Regional Municipality, the YMCA, and […]
Forest Confidential
An investigation into Nova Scotia’s biomass harvest data and how the numbers aren’t adding up
A few months ago I reviewed a film that has been circulating the province about the growing use of forest biomass as a form of so-called renewable energy. The film — Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? — reported on how the biomass industry sells itself as green by making two bogus claims: it uses […]
Pulp Culture
How Nova Scotia’s Faustian bargain with the pulp industry may leave the sawmills in ruins
I wonder if Billy Freeman, a sixth generation saw-miller with 15 years experience, saw this juncture coming. A few weeks ago, Freeman, the process improvement manager at Harry Freeman and Son Ltd. in Greenfield, Nova Scotia wrote an illuminating op-ed in the Chronicle Herald supporting Northern Pulp in its request for an extension of the […]
By Any Other Name: Nova Scotia’s Department of Lands and Forestry just made “Clearcuts” disappear
Nova Scotians who signed up to receive proposed harvest plans on Crown land might have noticed some disturbing changes recently. As of a few days ago the maps no longer specify whether a proposed cut is a “clearcut” or not. The word was removed from the legend and the list of harvest prescription types. This […]
The problem with the new Bridgetown School: It’s not just the school
Construction of an access road to the new Bridgetown school is more than $2 million over its original $1.3 million dollar budget. A friend of Stephen McNeil's is the beneficiary of the work, and has been fined for illegally building a boat ramp on nearby public land.
One of the first orders of business for the newly elected Liberal government in 2013 was to announce the construction of new schools in Bridgetown and Tatamagouche, in the ridings of Premier Stephen McNeil and Education Minister Karen Casey respectively. The two schools jumped from #26 and #28 on the new school construction list to be included among 10 school […]
Halifax Explosion 2: Morning File, Thursday, September 8, 2016
News Views Noticed Government On campus In the harbour Footnotes News 1. Teachers The government has reached a tentative contract agreement with the teachers union. No details have been published, and a new contract is contingent on a vote of approval by union members. The McNeil government would very much like to go into an election with […]