Item number 15 on the agenda of last week’s council meeting of the Municipality of the County of Colchester County was “Northern Pulp Misinformation.” Four hours into the meeting, held on Zoom, the item finally made the floor. The municipality’s director of public works, Michelle Boudreau, told Council she had put together a “Frequently Asked […]
Transcontinental says SaltWire still owes it $10 million
Morning File, Friday, October 8, 2021
News 1. ReconAfrica Two Nova Scotians are working to protect an ecologically fragile area in northern Namibia, reports Joan Baxter: [Calgary-based] ReconAfrica has taken out exploration licences covering 30,000 square kilometres, nearly half the size of Nova Scotia, in northern Namibia and Botswana. There are two World Heritage sites in the region — the Okavango […]
The “Right to Know” in Nova Scotia often goes right to “no”
It’s almost “Right to Know Week” in Nova Scotia, but that doesn’t mean that access to information in the province is something to celebrate, as a recent freedom of information request illustrates.
In this article, Part 1 of a two-part series about the state of the public’s “right to know” in Nova Scotia, the focus is on what happened when the Halifax Examiner submitted a Freedom of Information (FOIPOP) request to the province about whether it would agree to protect the French River watershed — the water […]
A plague of ticks, tick-borne diseases, and poli-ticks
Part 1: Tick populations in Nova Scotia are exploding largely because of climate change and the province is Canada’s “hot spot” for Lyme disease. So, how is the province monitoring and managing tick-borne diseases and health risks?
This is the first article in a two-part series about ticks and tick-borne diseases in Nova Scotia — what we know about them and what we’re doing about them. Part 1 looks at some of the reasons for the tick population explosion and the increased incidence of Lyme disease, and what public health authorities are […]
Communications specialist: “hundreds of thousands of dollars” were spent to produce “blatant lies” for the campaign against the Biodiversity Act
Last month Forest Nova Scotia, an industry group representing the most powerful shapers of forestry policy in Nova Scotia spearheaded a propaganda campaign against the Biodiversity Act. The Liberal government of Iain Rankin had introduced the Act on March 11, calling it legislation that would “preserve and protect Nova Scotia’s unique ecosystems, wild animals, plants, […]
A pinch of SALT
Morning File, Thursday, December 19, 2019
News 1. In Nova Scotia, pulp rules Linda Pannozzo’s latest is a commentary on the ongoing Northern Pulp story. While we wait for the premier’s announcement tomorrow, Pannozzo gives us some background on how we got here, and thoughts on how the process has created an unnecessary “environmentalists vs forestry and mill workers” dichotomy: By […]
Saltwire finds one scientist who thinks Northern Pulp’s effluent isn’t toxic
Morning File, Monday, December 9, 2019
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 […]
Deciding Northern Pulp’s future
A tangled mess of dubious science, loans, and liabilities will determine how government officials will act in coming days — and how much it will cost Nova Scotians.
Nova Scotia’s business minister Geoff MacLellan says it’s not the time to talk about all the money that Northern Pulp owes the province, and it won’t be until after environment minister Gordon Wilson makes his decision on the mill’s new effluent treatment facility on or before December 17. CBC reporter Michael Gorman notes that MacLellan […]
Water, water everywhere
Morning File, Thursday, April 11, 2019
News 1. Feds announce environmental assessment for Boat Harbour plan Jennifer Henderson has the latest on the Boat Harbour cleanup plan. Yesterday, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced it would be undertaking an environmental assessment. Henderson explains the lagoons are where tens of million of litres of daily effluent from the kraft pulp mill at […]
Back to the drawing board, Bill
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says his budget will provide support for journalism. It won't. It will only provide demise-delaying bailouts for badly managed media corporations. There are better ways.
Start with this from Page 173 of the federal budget Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled in the House of Commons last week: “Support for Journalism.” No one — certainly not I — would argue “a strong and independent news media” isn’t “crucial to a well-functioning democracy,” or that the news media doesn’t play a “vitally important...