Here’s the deal. On Wednesday, May 14, an Australian gold mining company called St. Barbara Limited, with one gold mine in Australia and a second one in Papua New Guinea, agreed to pay $722 million for Atlantic Gold Corporation, which operates one open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, has proposed three more along the […]
Fracking is back on the agenda in Nova Scotia
After years during which nobody seemed to be asking the F-question in the province, suddenly it is being asked again all over the place: To frack or not to frack? Who’s asking and why?
To frack, or not to frack Nova Scotia? That seems to be the question. Again. There’s been a de facto moratorium on fracking — more specifically on “high-volume hydraulic fracturing in shale” — in the province since 2014, and oil and gas companies haven’t exactly been beating down our doors to get it lifted, demanding...
Paying for cops but not courts: Yarmouth ferry file
It’s heartening to learn the Province has not been asked by Bay Ferries to pay its legal fees to appeal a judge’s decision which allows the Progressive Conservative leader to seek a court order to find out how much taxpayer’s money is going to Bay Ferries for managing the Yarmouth ferry service. Which isn’t to […]
Stunting 101: The games Bay Ferries plays
Bay Ferries says its Yarmouth ferry service's real problem has nothing to do with the government's over-subsidization or its own over-pricing. Blame it on the "nasty" opposition.
Mark MacDonald knows which donkey to pin the blame on for the fact his Bay Ferries Ltd.’s money-sinking pot of a Yarmouth-Maine ferry service isn’t winning the accolades he believes it deserves from Nova Scotia taxpayers. Forget the $61,187,310 in previously announced subsidies, grants and other goodies those same taxpayers have shovelled into the service...
The Yarmouth ferry is going to Bar Harbor — a little late, and at some unknown cost…
Bay Ferries has announced that the Alakai ferry — dubbed “The Cat” — will begin sailing between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor, Maine starting June 21. On its website, the company says that date is “subject to change” because of the renovations required to the ferry terminal in Maine. A public hearing will take place in […]
Northern Pulp says it “cares” — but for whom and for what?
“We care,” says Northern Pulp on the website it has created to spread the word that it “cares about forestry families of Nova Scotia.” The site is a vehicle for the company’s letter-writing campaign to get people in the forestry sector to contact Premier Stephen McNeil, their MLA, MP, or even Canadian Senators to ask […]
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 […]
Irving Shipbuilding accused of “heavy handed” treatment of subcontractor
Morning File, Friday, February 15, 2019
News 1. Court Watch Irving Shipbuilding Maritime Associates International, Inc. (MAII), an American firm with offices in North Carolina, Florida, and British Columbia, is suing Irving Shipbuilding (ISI) for what it says is Irving’s “high handed” refusal to accept MAII’s work product. At issue is the provision of water-tight doors and hatches for the six […]
Transportation minister Lloyd Hines won’t say how much we’re spending to move the Maine ferry terminus to Bar Harbor, but he insists it’s totally worth it
“What a crazy world,” says provincial NDP leader Gary Burrill, “that border protection officers in the United States aren’t being paid because of the government shutdown and we are debating whether the Nova Scotia government should be paying them. Something is wrong somewhere.” The question of Nova Scotia taxpayers footing the bill for the salaries...
McNeil government refuses to release VG replacement report
The McNeil government continues to keep the advice it receives on its biggest and most expensive decisions carefully out of public sight. Yesterday the Minister of Transportation, Infrastructure and Renewal (TIR) refused to release a preliminary cost estimate to replace the crumbling Victoria General (VG) Hospital the government has promised to demolish in 2022. That’s...