The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. The province’s chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Strang, announced 17 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total in Nova Scotia to 90. Of the 90, two people are in hospital, and three have recovered. The investigations into all of those 17 new cases are not […]
Let’s talk about those damn bus doors again
Morning File, Tuesday, January 21, 2020
News 1. Santina Rao “The officers involved are still on the job and Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella had little to say publicly on Monday about the violent arrest of a young Black mother at Walmart last week, citing an ongoing court case and a potential investigation,” reports Zane Woodford: Kinsella addressed reporters after […]
Hospital auxiliary closes gift shops
Partners for Care is a registered charity but now provides no actual charitable services. However, with $7.45 million in parking fee revenue last year, it paid out over a quarter-million dollars in consultant fees, and its two executives were collectively paid over $200,000 in salary and benefits.
Partners for Care, the non-profit group which ran half a dozen gift shops at the QE2 Health Sciences Centre for 25 years, abruptly closed the doors at its remaining four locations Tuesday. A charity without charitable activities to operate raises some interesting questions, particularly as Partners for Care evolved from the QE2 Health Sciences Centre...
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...
Halifax Transit moving forward together, but without some Beaver Bankers
Morning File, Thursday, December 5, 2019
News 1. 198 workers out of a job as Web.com closes Yarmouth location Almost 200 employees at Web.com in Yarmouth were told yesterday that their location is shutting down next year. The company offers internet services to businesses and has locations in New Glasgow and Halifax. The Yarmouth location has been operating for 18 years. […]
Health Authority hits re-set button
Four years after the amalgamation of nine separate district health authorities into one centralized organization known as the Nova Scotia Health Authority, the responsibility and the money for running hospitals and health programs will shift to senior managers in four zones — North, South, Eastern, and Western. The oversight for ensuring consistency and planning will...
(Can we stop) talkin’ ’bout our generations?
Morning File, Tuesday, November 26, 2019
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 […]
A fascinating (and disturbing) look at North End Dartmouth, circa 1970s
Morning File, Friday, August 30, 2019
News 1. Politicians respond, sort of, to Greg Hiles’ death This item is written by Jennifer Henderson. Premier McNeil, Health Minister Randy Delorey, and Justice Minister Mark Furey all read from the same script after Thursday’s meeting of Cabinet ministers in charge of the province. There will be no consideration given to any sort of […]
What is going on at the East Coast Forensic Hospital?
The death of Greg Hiles last week at the East Coast Forensic Hospital has led to calls for an inquiry and questions about the conditions at the facility. Serious problems have been consistently raised about the state of the province’s hospitals, nursing homes, and other treatment facilities. Disability rights advocates recently won a Nova Scotia Human […]
Community Transition Unit (4B) at the VG: elderly dementia patients have no privacy, are plagued with rats and Legionnaires’ Disease, and can’t drink the water
Conditions on the Community Transition Unit (4B) of the crumbling and leaky Centennial Building at the VG hospital in Halifax are so bad that they’ve provoked the family of an 85-year-old woman with dementia to speak out. The family’s hope is the Nova Scotia Health Authority (which operates hospitals) and the Department of Health (which...