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“Please don’t sell Nova Scotia”

Additional taxes on non-resident landowners has been discussed since the 1960s. Now the debate is on again as non-residents snap up property in Cape Breton.

November 28, 2021 By Joan Baxter 7 Comments

Nova Scotia has long been a popular place not just for settlers, but in the last century it also became a popular place for non-residents — including many well-heeled Americans and Europeans — to purchase properties.[1] For decades, scholars and successive governments have debated the issue of non-resident land ownership in a province with relatively […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Access Nova Scotia, Allan MacMaster, American, Anne Murray, Arthur Bull, Assessment Act, Austria, Blaise Theriault, Canadian Pioneer Estates, Cape Breton, Capped Assessment Program (CAP), Coastal Communities Network, Crown land, Dalhousie University, deed transfer tax, Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Department of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Affairs, Der Spiegel, Donna Malone, former Premier John Hamm, Gary Andrea, Germany, Halifax County, Heather Breeze, Inverness County, Irving, Jim Moir, Kell Antoft, Kip Ready, Krista Higdon, land ownership, land titles, Lunenburg County, mandate letter, migrated, Minister of Finance and Treasury Board, Municipal Government Act, neoliberalism, non-Nova Scotian tazpayer, non-resident, non-resident landowners, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Association of Realtors (NSAR), PEI Department of Finance, Peter Pringle, Premier Tim Houston, Prince Edward Island, Prince Edward Island Land Protection Act, property assessment, property taxes, real estate, Real Property Tax Act and Regulations (PEI), Richmond County, Rolf Bouman, tax credit, Terence Bay, Tim Houston, Voluntary Planning Task Force on Non-Resident Land Ownership, Wagner Forest Management

Developers are selling off Cape Breton, one subdivision after the other, to German-speaking non-residents. What — if anything — is wrong with that?

It's not illegal to have extremist views, spread conspiracy theories, sell land to foreign buyers, or charge those buyers inflated prices for real estate in Nova Scotia. But there's no evidence those foreign buyers ever intend to move here, live here, or go through the immigration process that would allow them to do so.

November 23, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Nova Scotia has long been a popular place for settlers, but in the last century it also became a popular place for non-residents — including many well-heeled Americans and Europeans — to purchase properties.[1] For decades, scholars and successive governments have debated the issue of non-resident land ownership in a province with relatively little Crown […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 5G, Amanda Mombourquette, Andreas Popp, Andreas Popp Lane, Antigonish County, Bras d'Or Lake, Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Canadian Pioneer Estates, Canec Land Development, Cape Breton, Cape Breton Eco-Village, CBC, conspiracy theorists, conspriracy theories, COVID-19 pandemic, Der Spiegel, Evans Island, Evanston Road, Evanston subdivision, F.E. Properties, Frank Eckhardt, German speakers, German-speaking Europeans, Germany, Golden Lake Estates, Guysborough County, Halifax International Airport, Hay Cove, Holocaust, Immobilien, Inverness County, Jewish population, Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), land development companies, Lower River Inhabitants, Michael Vogt, Minister of Labour, nazi, Nazi Germany, non-residents, Pia Kaestner, Premier Tim Houston, preppers, Property Valuation Services Corporation, real estate, Renate Sedlmeier, Richmond County, Riechsbuerger (citizens of the Reich), Rolf Bouman, Sarah Herring, Second World War, Skills and Immigration Jill Balser, subdivision, Tom Ayers, Transparency International Germany, Victoria County, Viewpoint Nova Scotia, waterfront, Wissensmaufaktur

Marketing Cape Breton as a “refuge” for “clear thinkers”

Two development companies have sold 144 lots in Richmond and Inverness counties to German-speaking non-residents "who want to live with the values of Germany from 1933 to 1945."

November 19, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Nova Scotia has long been a popular place for settlers, but in the last century it also became a popular place for non-residents — including many well-heeled Americans and Europeans — to purchase properties.[1] For decades, scholars and successive governments have debated the issue of non-resident land ownership in a province with relatively little Crown […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation Tagged With: Adolf Hitler, Alexandra Mashaghati, Andreas Popp, Beaver Lodge Estates, Bras d'Or Lake, Cape Breton, Cape Breton Real Solutions, climate change, climate crisis, Condor, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, Crown land, cult, Der Spiegel, Elizaveta Firsova, Eva Herman, Evans Island, George Monbiot, German Politics and Society Journal, German-speaking Europeans, Germany, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Golden Lake Estates, Gottfried Feder, Iain Rankin, immigrants, Inverness County, Juergen Gindner, Leibniz University Hannover, Mehrab Mashaghati, Michael Vogt, Nazism, non-resident landowners, ocean access, Owls Head Park, Patricia Anne Simpson, Querdenker, real estate, refuge, refugees, refugium, Reichsbuerger [Reich Citizens’] Movement, Richmond County, Save Owls Head Provincial Park, Stephen McNeil, Telegram channel, The Guardian, Third Reich, Transparency International Germany, waterfront, Wissensmanufaktur

How the financialization of housing hurts renters and boosts profits

Morning File, Tuesday, June 15, 2021

June 15, 2021 By Philip Moscovitch 7 Comments

News 1. Could cheap repurposed drugs help provide a way out of the pandemic? The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Please help us continue this coverage by subscribing. One phenomenon I was not aware of before the pandemic was people being fans of specific drugs. My attitude towards pharmaceuticals generally involves listening […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 911, agriculture, ambulance, ambulance fees, American Journal of Therapeutics, André Picard, asset managers, AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca-Oxford, banning comments, blackface, Brazil, Brodie Fenton, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CAPREIT, carcinogenic, Catherine Tait, CBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, cement kiln dust, comments, COVID-19, Douglas Woodruff, Dr. Cheryl Thompson, Dr. Edward Mills, EHS, El Jones, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), facebook, farms, financial institutions, financial landlords, financialization of housing, Henry Ford, housing, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, journalists, Kaletra, Lafarge Brookfield, LaFarge Canada, landlord, Linda Pannozzo, Martine August, Michael Gorman, minstrel shows, minstrelsy, NDMA, Nova Scotia, Philip Moscovitch, Plato's American Republic, Policy Options, private equity firms, rapid testing, real estate, REIT, repurposed drugs, Robert Cumming, Ryerson University, Socrates, Tim Bousquet, Tim Jaques, Twitter, University of Waterloo, vaccine, Xanthippe

Stop shaming people for renting

Morning File, Thursday, July 9, 2020

July 9, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 15 Comments

News 1. Development agreement approved for preschool at Halifax councillor’s house Zane Woodford reports on the approval of a development agreement for councillor Shawn Cleary’s house Wednesday night during a virtual public meeting. Cleary and his wife, Michelle, have been running a preschool, Maple Tree Montessori, from their home at the corner of Quinpool Road […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: affordable housing, Budgets are Sexy, co-op housing, Generation Squeeze, Irving, Kent Homes, portable classrooms, real estate, renoviction, rent shaming, rental crisis, rental market, renting, school reopening, We Rent

House sales slow, but lots of people still need real estate services

"Three months in isolation with the person that I’m in the middle of divorcing now is not exactly a comfortable scenario.”

April 15, 2020 By Yvette d'Entremont 1 Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Karen Bingham is reluctant to let people know she’s still doing her job because of the likelihood of online backlash. But the Lower Sackville-based real estate agent said in the last two weeks, she’s had two clients who would have been homeless if realtors were […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, Karen Bingham, Matthew Honsberger, Natalie Muise, pandemic, real estate, Scott Grace

How a Young Avenue property is being flipped to “Canada’s worst landlord”

Morning File, Monday, December 2, 2019

December 2, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 14 Comments

News 1. Gerald Regan Writes Stephen Kimber: How do you reconcile the contradictory facts of our 19th premier’s life? You probably can’t. No matter what you write, you’re either rinsing Regan’s black heart in the cleansing stream of his passing or dancing gleefully on his grave. Most news reports I saw got it about as […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: affordable housing, Canada's worst landlord, Centre Plan, councillor Steve Adams, councillor Waye Mason, Daniel Drimmer, Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini, development, Highfield Park, HRM By Design, Josh Hawley, real estate, rent hikes, roundabout Hwy 118, Starlight Investments, Transglobe, Tsimiklis family, Turkish Republic Day, worst landlord in town, Young Avenue bylaw changes

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

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.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young man wearing a purple jean jacket and sporting a moustache lies on the green grass surrounded by pink plastic flamingos

Episode 80 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Singer-songwriter Willie Stratton has wandered a number of genre paths, starting with raw acoustic folk as a teen phenom, moving through surf rock as Beach Bait, and landing in a Roy Orbison-style classic country on his new album Drugstore Dreamin’. Ahead of his release show at the Marquee on Friday, he stops in to explain why mixing influences makes the best art, how he approaches the guitar, and what he likes about his day job as a barber.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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