The province has issued a tender to build and operate a half-dozen small-scale biomass plants that will heat government buildings around the province by November of this year. The plants will run on wood chips supplied by private woodlot owners and are being advertised by the Department of Lands and Forestry as both a response...
How the proposed Summer Street parking garage fits into province’s plan to replace the Victoria General Hospital
The largest infrastructure project in the province’s history got the once-over from the legislature’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday. It will be at least the end of 2026 before the patients putting up with what some doctors have described as “third world conditions” in the leaking Victoria General Hospital will be moved out. The bad news...
Zombie ideas that won’t die
Morning File, Thursday, December 12, 2019
I’ve said this before, but when I first started writing for the Examiner, a friend asked how much Tim paid. After I’d replied, the person I was speaking with said, “Oh, so it takes [x] monthly subscriptions just to pay for you to do one Morning File.” I’d never thought of it in such bald […]
Auditor General: $2 billion QEII redevelopment at risk for fraud
The province’s auditor general released a critical report yesterday that looked at the $2 billion project to expand the Halifax Infirmary and build a new Community Outpatient Centre at Bayers Lake to replace the decrepit Victoria General and Centennial buildings. Michael Pickup’s strongest criticism and first recommendation declared: “The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal...
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 […]
Tidal power update: new legislation clears way for three new projects, but a tidal power industry is still “decades” away
The dream of commercializing renewable energy from the world’s largest tides got a new lease on life last week. The Nova Scotia government amended a law to give three tidal developers permission to pursue the goal. The first project to test the powerful tidal waters of the Bay of Fundy, a $20 million-plus venture between...
The Halifax stadium proposal: private profit for Anthony Leblanc, socialized risk for the public
Morning File, Tuesday, October 1, 2019
News 1. More stadium updates MLA Susan Leblanc, whose Dartmouth North district includes the Shannon Park site of the proposed stadium, has come out swinging against it: Tomorrow I will table legislation on behalf of the @NSNDP caucus that would block public money for a CFL stadium. #nspoli #HRM #Dartmouth — Susan Leblanc (@susanleblancMLA) September […]
Pollution and weeds plague Dartmouth’s lakes
On a hot steamy night more than 150 Dartmouth residents turned up at a “Save Our Lakes” meeting hosted by Claudia Chender and Susan Leblanc, the representatives for Dartmouth South and Dartmouth North in the legislature. Top among the concerns expressed at the Micmac Aquatic Club last night is the fact that no level of...
Profiles in cowardice: Gordon Wilson, Suzanne Lohnes-Croft, Ben Jessome, Brendan Maguire, and Hugh MacKay are craven fools
Morning File, Thursday, January 31, 2019
News 1. Tuition “A proposal by Dalhousie’s Budget Advisory Committee to raise tuition next fall for the seventh year in a row drew criticism during a budget presentation to the Dalhousie Senate this week,” reports Jennifer Henderson: “You can’t put all the burden on students because we just can’t take it anymore,” said Senator Masuma […]
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 […]