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...
The only thing that can save journalism: “Subscribe Somewhere”
Morning File, Monday, February 11, 2019
News 1. Canadian Press layoffs On Friday, the Canadian Press notified its staff that at the end of March it will be laying off six reporters nationwide, four of whom are in its Atlantic bureau in Halifax. The four Halifax reporters are Brett Bundale, Aly Thomson, Keith Doucette, and Alex Cooke. All are excellent reporters. […]
The Beaverbank Connector highway exit is a death trap
Morning File, Monday, December 3, 2018
1. Six demonstrators arrested outside Canada Post facility “I was sitting at home when I got the community call-out for a solidarity action at the Canada Post on Almon Street on Sunday night,” writes El Jones. “Since I live in the area, I decided to go down and see what was happening and join in […]
Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey was paid $5 million in 2018, but says his company is so broke it needs public subsidies
Morning File, Wednesday, November 28, 2018
News 1. Legacy media: CEO compensation and public subsidies Yesterday, Postmedia released its Management Information Circular in preparation of January’s shareholder meeting; the circular shows that CEO Paul Godfrey was awarded a $1.2 million bonus on top of his $1.2 million dollar salary in 2018, and with stock options brought in over $5 million in […]
The Yarmouth ferry subsidy? Still? Still more? Always…
“Our goal, which I believe we have achieved,” Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan said when he signed the latest ferry deal, “was to put a stable, long-term agreement in place.” How’s that working out?
I could say I told them so — and I did, way back when “them” was still Rodney Macdonald and his Tories, and from then on forward through Darrell Dexter and Stephen McNeil to whatever same-old-same-old will come next — but I’d have to stand in a too-long line behind all the other told-them-so nattering...
The gospel according to Mark
The short and the small of it all is that SaltWire CEO Mark Lever is blandly, blindly traveling a well-trod path to self-immolation. Unfortunately, SaltWire’s employees — and its readers — will become collateral damage in his self-lit inferno.
“We believe being in 25 communities is a big strength… I believe telling local stories in Gander, and in St. John’s, and in Corner Brook, and Summerside, and Sydney are going to be what supports this network. Not amalgamating. Not putting the same copy in every paper.” Mark Lever, Saltwire CEO Financial Post interview July 17,...