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Nova Scotia government doles out $10 million more for Northern Pulp

The effluent pipeline may have been turned off but the provincial money pipeline continues to flow 

May 12, 2020 By Joan Baxter

The Nova Scotian government will be giving Paper Excellence, the parent company of Northern Pulp and a corporation linked to the multi-billionaire Widjaja family of Indonesia, still more millions. This time, the amount is $10 million. Northern Pulp still owes the province $85 million from previous loans. And the company still owes $65 million on...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: A’se’K, Boar Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Chapman, Environmental Racism, Ken Swain, Kristina Shannon, Marla MacInnis, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Paper Excellence, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil

“Today is a great day! A’SE’K Day!”

The Northern Pulp mill stops dumping effluent into Boat Harbour today, and the pipeline will be sealed tomorrow.

April 30, 2020 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul is calling today “A’se’K Day.” Although the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented PLFN and allies from gathering to celebrate the occasion, it is a momentous one. A January 29 ministerial order from Environment Minister Gordon Wilson stipulated that by April 30, 2020 the Northern Pulp mill on Abercrombie Point […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: A’se’K Day, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Chief Andrea Paul, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Graham Kissack, Michelle Francis-Denny, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN)

The province issues tough new orders to Northern Pulp

January 31, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Wednesday afternoon at 3:59 PM an email landed in my inbox. It was from Nova Scotia Environment and it was short, even terse: Environment Minister Gordon Wilson has issued a ministerial order to govern how Northern Pulp must conduct its orderly shutdown of the mill, today, Jan. 29. The ministerial order and terms and conditions […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour Effluent Treatment Facility (BHETF), Brian Hebert, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil, Rachel Boomer, William Palmer

No federal assessment will be required for Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment project

December 17, 2019 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Yesterday, four days before his announcement was due on the Northern Pulp effluent treatment proposal, and less than 24 hours before the deadline for the provincial environment minister to announce his decision, federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson released a statement saying that he had “decided not to designate the Northern Pulp project […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, Caribou Harbour, Coldwater Lobster Association, Earnscliffe Strategy Group, Friends of the Northumberland Strait, Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, Impact Assessment Act, Impact Assessment Agency (IAA), Justice Timothy Gabriel, Maritime Fishermen’s Union, Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island, Millbrook First Nation, Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister Margaret Miller, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Northern Pulp lobbyist, Northumberland Strait Sportfishing Association, Paper Excellence, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Dennis King, Premier Stephen McNeil, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association, Sipekne'katik First Nation, Trevor Floyd, Velma McColl

Saltwire finds one scientist who thinks Northern Pulp’s effluent isn’t toxic

Morning File, Monday, December 9, 2019

December 9, 2019 By Tim Bousquet and Joan Baxter 3 Comments

News 1. Stadium David Fleming is an economist who has worked with the Greater Halifax Partnership and the North End Business Association, and is now working on PEI. He reviewed the case for public financing of a stadium, and found it wanting. Click here to read “There’s not a good financial case for a publicly […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anaconda Mining, Anthony Leblanc, Atlantic Schooners, Bathurst Police Force, Boat Harbour, Brian Baarda, CFL funding, Chief Andrea Paul, Chris Lambie, Chronicle Herald, David Fleming, Donald Gordon, Elkhorn, Frances Willick, Insp. Richard Haye, Jim Williams, Karissa Donkin, Lori Marino, Lynn Hammond, Michael Dadswell, Michael MacDonald, Michel Vienneau, Mike Rainone, Northern Pulp effluent, Pedro Chang, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), power rates, RCMP, RCMP Sgt. Ron DeSilva, SaltWire, Sharphead First Nations Reserve, Terri Fraser, Whale Sanctuary Project

(Can we stop) talkin’ ’bout our generations?

Morning File, Tuesday, November 26, 2019

November 26, 2019 By Erica Butler 5 Comments

November Subscription Drive: How a paywall can actually make a newspaper better Christine Schmidt in Nieman Lab writes about the Shawnee Mission Post, a local news site started in Johnson County, Kansas in 2010, which relied on advertising-only until it converted to a paywall in 2017. The paper still has advertising (in the form of […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: all female lobster crew, Aly Thompson, Brendan Carr, Carmelle d’Entremont, Christine Schmidt, Colin Stevenson, David Costanza, Gail Atkinson, generations, Janet Davidson, Jay Senter, King's Co-op Bookstore, Laura Fraser, Lindsay Peach, Michael Gorman, millennials, Nine Locks, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp proposal, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), OK boomer, parking rates, Shaun O'Hearn, Shawnee Mission Post, subscriber supported journalism, sunshine list, Tim Guest, Utah Phillips

Northern Pulp’s “political game”

It's decision time for the Nova Scotia government. It will either approve a pipeline for pumping mill effluent into the Northumberland Strait, or won't. And it will either extend the Boat Harbour Act, or won't. Those affected by the mill operation are laying out their case and preparing next moves.

November 21, 2019 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

The story of the bleached kraft pulp mill in Pictou County, which has already dragged on for 53 years, is coming to a nail-biting climax. How — and when — it’s going to end is anyone’s guess. Time is running out, and two key dates loom. The first is December 17, 2019, which is the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Allan MacCarthy, Boat Harbour Act, Brian Hebert, Chief Andrea Paul, Colton Cameron, Friends of the Northumberland Strait (FONS), Jamie Simpson, Jill Graham-Scanlon, Jim Ryan, Minister Gordon Wilson, Minister Margaret Miller, MP Sean Fraser, North Nova Seafoods, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp focus report, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil

Government moves slowly, except when it moves lightning fast

Morning File, Friday, October 4, 2019

October 4, 2019 By Erica Butler 5 Comments

News 1. Twenty years after the Marshall decision, DFO still has no agreement with First Nations communities over fishing management It’s been twenty years since the Marshall decision (in which the Supreme Court of Canada found that Donald Marshall Jr. had a treaty right to fish for eels out of season) and the Department of […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: anti-abortion demonstration, Capital District funds, Chief Michael Sack, councillor Matt Whitman, Debbie Buott-Matheson, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), discretionary funds, Glen Arbour Homeowners' Association, Indigenous fishermen, Kyle Moore, Michael Gorman, Northern Pulp effluent, Philip Croucher, Police Chief Dan Kinsella, racially motivated assault, Singh Brar

There’s good water news, but mostly there’s bad water news

Morning File, Thursday, August 15, 2019

August 15, 2019 By Erica Butler 3 Comments

News 1. There’s Something in the Water “It was a Saturday morning and Ellen Page was giving up some of what could have been a bit of down time to do a telephone interview about her forthcoming film on environmental racism in Nova Scotia, which will have its world debut this September at the Toronto […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Active Transportation Trail, algae, Atlantic International Film Festival (FIN), Big Jump, Boat Harbour, Councillor Sam Austin, Cycling Collision Card, cyclist struck Devonshire Avenue, Halifax Harbour Swim, Jodie Fitzgerald, Lake MicMac, Minister Catherine McKenna, MLA Brendan Maguire, Northern Pulp effluent, Stephen Archibald and Spring Garden Road area

Northern Pulp’s environmental documents: missing mercury, a pulp mill that never was, and oodles of contradictions

March 5, 2019 By Joan Baxter 9 Comments

Cover photo: “Point D,” where treated Northern Pulp wastewater currently flows from Boat Harbour into the Northumberland Strait, just a few hundred metres from Pictou Landing First Nation. There is much to wade through in the documents Northern Pulp submitted to Nova Scotia Environment on February 7, 2019, when it registered its “Replacement Effluent Treatment […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bell Bay Tasmania, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Canso Chemicals, Chief Andrea Paul, Clean the Mill Group, Dave Gunning, Dillon Consulting, dioxins and furans, Dr. John Krawczyk, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Gary Porter, Greg Egilsson, Gulf NS Herring Federation, Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA), Jamie Simpson, Kathy Cloutier, KSH Consulting, mercury, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Nova Scotia Environment, oxygen delignification system, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Point D, Rachel Boomer, Terri Fraser, Toxikos

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support 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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