News 1. Power outages “Three-and-a-half days after Dorian knocked out power for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the province, Nova Scotia Power issued a news release Tuesday evening, Sept.10, saying it had restored electricity for 75% of these customers,” reports Jennifer Henderson: “We have the most crews working in Nova Scotia history,” boasted the […]
Do P3 hospitals offer value for money spent? None of your business, says Stephen McNeil
What does Deloitte — the company we paid $500,000 to analyze the wisdom of P3s for new hospital infrastructure — have to say in its report? We don't know. Why not? Because “your Liberal government,” which, since 2013, “has been dedicated to being the most open and transparent government in the country, tirelessly working to improve public trust, increase citizen engagement and enhance government services for you, the taxpayer,” won’t tell us.
The ever-expanding, ongoing plan to drag Nova Scotia’s healthcare infrastructure into the 21st century — by tearing down and replacing three well-past-their-best-before-date buildings in the QEII hospital complex, expanding the Dartmouth General Hospital and constructing new outpatient clinics in the Bayers Lake business park and on the site of the former CBC building on Bell...
Nova Scotia’s foolhardy use of public-private partnerships continues
Morning File, Friday, October 5, 2018
News 1. Jails lose crime investigation evidence “On Tuesday, I attended Dartmouth Provincial Court for the preliminary inquiry into the murder of Nadia Gonzalez,” writes El Jones: Samanda Ritch and Calvin Sparks are charged with first degree murder. But before the inquiry could start, there were two issues. The first was that Sparks’ lawyer, James Giacomantonio, […]
How the government chose to build two new schools in the “right” place in the right pre-election time
Perhaps they wrote the names of the two schools on sheets of paper and put them in a hat, picking them out one by one. “Oh, look, Karen, you won,” says the premier. “My turn! My turn!”
The very suggestion the Nova Scotia government would cherry-pick new school building projects from the bottom of the priority pile simply because said schools would be built in constituencies held by Education Minister Karen Casey and Premier Stephen McNeil, is — cue the harrumphs — “a ridiculous comment to make.” So says the minister herself....
When pigs fly in Dartmouth’s blue sky: Morning File, Thursday, November 3, 2016
Today’s Morning File is written by Katie Toth. Tim will return tomorrow. November Subscription Drive Tim announced this morning that Stephen Kimber is joining the Examiner. This is fantastic news and is yet another reason to subscribe. Your subscription helps underwrite quality journalism. Click here to purchase a subscription. News 1. Public-private partnership was expensive; […]
Will the Victoria General be replaced with a P3 hospital? The McNeil government isn’t ruling it out
“Private Deals, Public Failures” is the slogan of a campaign running on TV and social media this week launched by the Nova Scotia Health Coalition. The non-profit group which defends public health care is worried the McNeil government may choose a private company to handover the financing, building, and ownership of health-care facilities to replace...
A P3 replacement for the Victoria General is very much on the agenda
After the disastrous P3 school fiasco, why would the province build a hospital through a public-private partnership?
Seven companies with offices across Canada and a few global companies with offices around the world have submitted their proposals to manage the ambitious, multi-million dollar project to replace the crumbling Victoria General Hospital. Cannon Design is headquartered in the United States. HOK is an international firm that has built the Rogers Arena in Edmonton and...
“$1-Billion spent on P3 schools and nothing to show for it”: Examineradio, episode #67
In the 1990s, the Nova Scotia government entered into a public-private partnership in order to facilitate the construction of 39 schools across the province. Over the intervening years the total cost of those leases has been about a billion dollars. Over the next few years the 20-year leases are expiring and the province is faced […]