News 1. Elmsdale Lumber Elmsdale Lumber used to sell most of its bark and chips to Northern Pulp, but now that the mill has closed, Elmsdale is finding new markets, reports Jennifer Henderson. “We will survive” says owner Robin Wilber, but he sees the new markets as only a short-term fix until, he says, the […]
Northern Pulp lobbyists and the revolving door with government
In February this year, Mary Campbell drew our attention to a video clip of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known affectionately as AOC, questioning witnesses at a hearing by the US House Oversight and Reform Committee. AOC was pointing out how much members of Congress can legally get away with, even when it looks an […]
Euphemism watch: Jails are now “prisoner care facilities”
Morning File, Tuesday, December 3, 2019
News 1. Health care funding Canadian premiers met Monday and issued a call for a 5.2% annual bump in the Canada Health Transfer, among other demands. Andrea Gunn reported on the meeting for the Chronicle Herald: Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said he wasn’t sure whether a 5.2 per cent increase would be sufficient to […]
Mining for (public) dollars
The Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS) has created a new organization called the Minerals Research Association of Nova Scotia (MRANS) with the aim of leveraging still more provincial grants to further enrich global mining companies — and their local operatives.
In the beginning, by which I mean 2007, there was the Mining Association of Nova Scotia, also known as MANS, an appropriate acronym for an industry lobby group with a 17-member board of which 15 are men. It should be said, however, that MANS is not registered with the Nova Scotia Registry of Lobbyists, although […]
Maritime Launch Services and its private/public servants
One government bureaucrat sent a nasty email to a CBC reporter. Others had rude things to say about the Halifax Examiner. And Stephen McNeil met with MLS and it Ukrainian "partners" even though they aren't registered as lobbyists.
It’s not the first time I’ve waded through many hundreds of pages of correspondence released by a government under a FOIPOP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) request, but it is the first time that reading the correspondence made me feel slightly queasy, like a voyeur witnessing unhealthy relationships developing between uncritical and subservient […]
How a simple vendor disclosure form can combat corruption in government
Morning File, Tuesday, December 11, 2018
News 1. Lord Dalhousie report Last night, the “Scholarly Panel to Examine Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race” issued its draft report. I wasn’t there, but you can see what went down in a social media recap of the event. I asked for a copy of the draft report yesterday but couldn’t get it; last night […]
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 […]
Great white sharks are killing people and they’re coming to Nova Scotia
Morning File, Wednesday, September 19, 2018
News 1. Deaths in custody Yesterday morning, I reported that an official at the Burnside jail had testified in court that “several” prisoners at the jail have died over the past week. I knew about the death of Joshua Evans, a man with a mental disability who took his own life, but no other deaths […]
The contradiction of being Councillor Cleary
Shawn Cleary is the chief flag-waver for the city's most unpopular high-rise proposal — and its developer. But he refuses to accept campaign donations from developers, and is promoting municipal campaign finance reform. He dismisses the significance of the fact the developer's chief lobbyist is a good friend, yet he is spearheading a proposal for a municipal lobbyist registry. Only in Halifax you say...
“We don’t build buildings because of public opinion. We build them for good planning… And so I think this is a good thing for us… In terms of the design, I think we’ve mitigated most of the concerns…” —Councillor Shawn Cleary June 19, 2018 Shawn Cleary’s suitcase of sophistry requires a little unpacking. Councillor Cleary […]
Another cool thing ruined by someone holding the camera the wrong way: Morning File, Friday, October 20, 2017
News 1. Clayton Miller Back in July, Wagner’s law firm held a press conference to publicize “new evidence” in the Clayton Miller case: the videotaped testimony of Bryan McDonald, a Cape Breton Search & Rescue captain, who said he and his team of 10-15 people searched the area where Clayton’s body was later found, but found nothing. […]