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Lloyd’s Ferry Fairy Tales, Spring 2020 edition

Instead of waiting for the inevitable end to a ferry season that will never begin, why doesn't the government simply stop pretending, cancel its subsidy to Bay Ferries and redistribute those millions to local tourist operators who really need help? And then begin contemplating a different, more sustainable, less uncertain future for rural Nova Scotia.

May 17, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

My. Oh my. Really? You don’t say. Lloyd? Again? Still. Do tell. No, wait, please don’t… Last Thursday, for the first time since the provincial government declared us all in a state of suspended animation in March, our politicians came back out to play with reporters — at a politically safe distance, of course. After...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: COVID-19, Lloyd Hines, Yarmouth ferry

Lloyd ‘I-know-nothing’ Hines knows nothing… still

Four years and $60-million later, the only real question is whether the Yarmouth ferry fandango resembles a Monty Python skit or an episode of Hogan's Heroes. Oh, yes, and when will this show finally be cancelled?

September 1, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

  Monty Python was funnier. No. Check that. Monty Python is funny. Lloyd Hines? Not so much. Still, one can understand Tory MLA Tom Halman’s description of the latest twists, turns, twirls and top-this folly from the ongoing, never-ending Yarmouth-to-somewhere-in-Maine ferry fandango as “like a skit out of Monty Python.” Personally, I prefer to think...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: David Wilkins, Lloyd Hines, Yarmouth ferry

Who’s not telling the truth? Bay Ferries? The Nova Scotia government? US Border Services? All of the above?

You would think — given the circumstances and the season of the sun — that government officials would do almost anything to avoid ending up naked, deer-in-the-headlights, in front of microphones where they might be asked impertinent questions about ferries that don’t ferry and related matters. You would be mistaken.

July 14, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

No! Really? Couldn’t be. But there it was. In virtual black and white. “If Yarmouth ferry sailed even once this year, it would be productive: official,” read the headline over CBC reporter Jean Laroche’s piece last week about the latest twisty turn in the long since careened-off-the-rails story of the Yarmouth ferry. You would think...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bay Ferries, Lloyd Hines, Michael McCarthy, Paul LaFleche, US Customs and Border Services, Yarmouth ferry

Don’t worry. Be happy. That’s only your tax dollars you see sinking

Nova Scotia Transportation Minister Lloyd returned from Washington last week bubbling over with optimism for a summer season — albeit much, much shorter — for the Yarmouth-Bar Harbor tourist ferry. Don't hold your breath. But do hold on to your wallet.

July 7, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

So Lloyd “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Hines has returned from his airplane flight-of-fancy to Washington — the ferry portion of his trip having been unavoidably delayed/canceled/“soon” to be resumed — bubbling over with optimism. Perhaps it was just the summer humidity. During three, pre-July-4th-holiday days in the US capital — in the long foreshadow of...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bay Ferries, Chris Sullivan, David Wilkins, Lloyd Hines, US Customs and Border Protection Agency, Yarmouth ferry

Trails association wants to ban off-highway vehicles

Morning File, Wednesday, December 19, 2018

December 19, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 19 Comments

News 1. Northern Pulp Mill wins temporary injunction “A setback for the ‘No Pipe’ movement and a victory for the Pictou County pulp mill yesterday,” reports Jennifer Henderson. “Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge Denise Boudreau granted Northern Pulp a temporary injunction to prevent local fishermen from continuing with blockades she ruled interfered with a vessel […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aaron Murnaghan, ATVs, Bay Ferries, Catherine Tully, Halifax Regional Trails Association (HRTA), Heritage Advisory Committee, Justice Heather Perkins McVey, Larry Haiven, Lloyd Hines, Louie Lawen, Margaret Marshall Saunders, Marie Henein, Michael Gorman, Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs), Potemkinvile, Rouvalis family, Spring Garden development, Tim in a hoodie, Tom Parry, Tom Servaes, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Yarmouth ferry costs

Fool’s Gold

Nova Scotia's Myopic Pursuit of Metals & Minerals (Part 4)

June 13, 2018 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

A Halifax Examiner / Cape Breton Spectator investigation. This is the fourth and final instalment in a series of articles on the push for mines and quarries in Nova Scotia. You can find Part I here. How the mining lobby is working to undermine environmental protection in Nova Scotia On a cold day in late November […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: Amanda Rekunyk, Anaconda Mining, Atisthan Roach, Barry Carroll, Black Point Aggregates, Brian Fogarty, Bruce Nunn, Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP), Dawson Brisco, Don James, Donkin coal mine, Elder Elizabeth Marshall, Erdene Resources Development Corp., Fogarty’s Cove, Fool’s Gold part 4, Frank Fogarty, Frank Leith, Garnet Rogers, Gordana Slepcev, Gretchen Fitzgerald, Joan Baxter, John Perkins, June Jarvis, Justin Brake, Kameron Collieries, Kellys Mountain, Kluscap Mountain, Lloyd Hines, MANS, Mark Parent, martin Mariette Materials, Mike MacDonald, mining lobby, Morien Resources, NS Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Peter Oram, Premier Stephen McNeil, Raymond Plourde, Rodney MacDonald, Sean Kirby, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, Stan Rogers, Stantec, Suzanne Patles, Vulcan Materials Company, Whites Point Quarry

Fool’s Gold

Nova Scotia's Myopic Pursuit of Metals & Minerals (Part 3)

May 30, 2018 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

A Halifax Examiner / Cape Breton Spectator investigation. This is the third in a series of articles on the push for mines and quarries in Nova Scotia. You can find Part I here. Cobequid Gold and Tatamagouche water The news broke in November 2017 on the front page of the free monthly community paper, The Tatamagouche […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bruce Nunn, Carrie Miller, Cobequid Gold and Tatamagouche water, Cobequid Hills, Cobequid Mountains, Councillor Mike Gregory, David Blair, Department of Environment, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Deputy Mayor Bill Masters, DNR Deputy Minister Julie Towers, Donald James, Fool’s Gold part 3, French River Water Management Plan, French River watershed, Garth DeMont, Geoffrey Baldwin, Gregor Wilson, Jim Bezanson, Joan Baxter, John Drage, John Perkins, KMKNO Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative, Lloyd Hines, Melissa Nevin, Michael Allen, Minerals Incentive Program, Mining Watch Canada, Minister Margaret Miller, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Raissa Tetanish, Ramsey Hart, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Swan’s maple Products, Tatamagouche Water Utility, Trevor McHattie, Troy Sawler, Ugo Lapointe, Warwick Mountain Gold, Wentworth Valley

Biomass, Freedom of Information, and the Silence of the DNR Company Men

Part 5: Publicly funded information — not available to Nova Scotians — was provided to pipeline company based in Texas.

February 8, 2017 By Linda Pannozzo 8 Comments

Documents show that the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources provided publicly funded forest age class data, currently being withheld from the public, to Texas-based Bear Paw Pipeline Corporation Inc., a firm set to build a natural gas pipeline in DNR Minister Lloyd Hines’ riding of Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie. In December 2016, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE) […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Bear Paw Pipeline Corporation Inc., Bruce Nunn, culture of transparency, Data Sharing Agreement, Ghislain Pitre, Lloyd Hines, Mary Kennedy, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Nova Scotia Environment, Open Data Portal, Sara Wallace, Stantec Consulting Ltd.

Muzzling the Forest Keepers

A Field Guide to Boreal Felt Lichen and DNR Message Control

November 4, 2016 By Linda Pannozzo 9 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: Allan Eddy, Andrew Fedora, Bob Bancroft, boreal felt lichen, Brad Toms, Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, COSEWIC, David Richardson, Deep Cove, DNR, East Coast Environmental Law, Frances Anderson, Global Forest Watch, Irwin Brodo, Jason Hollett, Jonathan Kierstead, Jonathan Porter, Lloyd Hines, Mark Elderkin, Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, Michael Pickup, MTRI, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Robert Cameron, SARA, Sherman Boates, Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve, Species at Risk Act, Tom Duck, Wolfgang Maass

Forest Tragedy

How the forest industry and compliant bureaucrats hijacked the public will

September 13, 2016 By Linda Pannozzo 7 Comments

They were heady days. It was spring of 2008 and citizens started gathering in droves in community halls to talk about why the natural world mattered to them. A few months earlier Conservative Natural Resources Minister David Morse announced that Voluntary Planning would lead a year of independent public consultations on the province’s minerals, forests, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Allan Eddy, biomass, Bob Bancroft, Bowater, Bruce Nunn, Charlie Parker, clearcutting, David Morse, Department of Lands and Forests, DNR, Donna Crossland, Doug Macdonald, Ike Barber, John MacDonell, Jonathan Kierstead, Jonathan Porter, Lloyd Hines, Matt Miller, Nancy McInnis Leek, Natural Resources Strategy, Nova Forest Alliance, Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association, Peter Woodbridge, Raymond Plourde, Wade Prest

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

  • ‘The rest is for the seagulls’ February 28, 2021
  • 4 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Saturday, Feb. 27 February 27, 2021
  • How safe is dentistry in the pandemic? Dalhousie researchers aim to find out February 27, 2021
  • Former city lawyer wins fight with Halifax Water over pipe under her property February 26, 2021
  • 10 new cases announced in Nova Scotia: new restrictions imposed in Halifax area February 26, 2021

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