News 1. The casino crapshoot Rob Csernyik has an incredible investigative piece on the casinos in Nova Scotia and how locals, not high-rolling tourists, became the big spenders. Csernyik looks back before the first casino opened by ITT Sheraton in the summer of 1995. A poll from 1993 showed that 57.7 respondents were against the […]
Hugh MacKay and our I-know-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing premier
Why is it so hard for Stephen McNeil to acknowledge mistakes were made, let alone admit he or anyone in his orbit ever does anything wrong? The latest Hugh MacKay drunk-driving allegations offer a premier case study in Trumpian counterattack, obfuscation, and butt-covering.
Stephen McNeil insists he knew nothing, his chief of staff did nothing wrong, and it’s all the fault of the author of an email or/and the leader of the opposition for failing to go to the police with information Chester-St. Margaret’s MLA Hugh MacKay might have been driving drunk almost a year before he was...
MLAs grill Forestry Transition Team members
Sawmill operators whose secondary markets for wood chips have taken a hit as a result of the closure of the pulp mill in Pictou County will not be receiving any financial assistance from the Forestry Transition Fund established by the province. “Everything we do must be seen through the lens of international trade and we...
Northern Pulp announces more layoffs
Northern Pulp issued a news release earlier this morning to announce 90 salaried employees will receive layoff notices today, in addition to some 180 unionized employees given notice earlier this month. The release says: “The majority of Northern Pulp’s 90 salaried employees will be laid off over the next few months with the earliest being […]
Environment Minister Gordon Wilson orders two-year environmental assessment of Northern Pulp Mill’s proposed effluent treatment system
Clear as Sludge: What does the decision mean for the future?
Nova Scotia’s Environment Minister is ordering Northern Pulp to produce more information and complete a full environmental assessment before he will approve the mill’s proposed wastewater treatment plant and a pipeline bringing the effluent from the plant to the Northumberland Strait. The project will replace a 50-year-old polluting system that dumps into Boat Harbour that […]
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...
Physician assistants? It shouldn’t be that hard. Really
The province has announced a pilot program to see if it's safe to let physician assistants into our health care system. They already operate legally in much of the US, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and in the Canadian military. So why just a modest pilot project? We're glad you asked.
A September announcement that the province’s health department plans to launch a new pilot project to road-test the use of physician assistants had somehow passed over — or under — my Spidey-sense news radar until it popped up again, almost incidentally, near the end of a news report Friday. The Friday story focused on new...
Secrecy is a feature, not a bug
Morning File, Thursday, November 14, 2019
News 1. More fisheries mismanagement The environmental group Oceana Canada, which describes itself as “an independent charity established to restore Canadian oceans to be as rich, healthy, and abundant as they once were” is slamming the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for its management of fish stocks. Aaron Beswick reports for The Chronicle Herald on […]
Want $65,000? Just write a letter!
Morning File, Thursday, October 17, 2019
News 1. You can have the right to strike; just don’t try to use it. Yesterday, the provincial government showed its continued labour relations finesse — this time in its negotiations with crown attorneys. The crowns want a 17% pay increase over four years. The province is offering 7%. Yesterday, while most of the prosecutors […]
Cold storage was going to save N.S. in 1926
Morning File, Thursday, October 3, 2019
News 1. Northern Pulp’s sci-fi future This item is written by Joan Baxter. It’s all supposed to be decided in just 83 days. Yesterday, Nova Scotia Environment announced that it had received the focus report for Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment plant, which was required after former environment minister Margaret Miller announced in March that […]