Most people who live in a ‘free country’ like Canada believe they have the right to a healthy environment. We feel we are entitled to all that is imbedded in that philosophy — clean water, fresh air, healthy food, etc. Those of us who live in a rural setting (18%Read More

In last week’s Inverness Oran, April MacDonald wrote about a significant issue that should concern everyone living in Nova Scotia — municipal by-laws, more specifically, municipal by-laws concerning agricultural land and land use. Many people are unaware of the by-laws that need to be created because things are changing inRead More

I watched most of Monday’s almost four-hour Climate Change Municipal Action Plan Update and will recap some of the highlights for you, but I have to begin. with District 7 Councilor Ivan Doncaster’s contribution to the proceedings which consisted largely — I could not make this up if I triedRead...

Jennifer Henderson at the Halifax Examiner has been following plans for a new provincial art gallery on the Halifax waterfront from a (to me) very reasonable angle — the “when are we going to talk about sea rise?” angle. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (TIR) has issued a requestRead...

I’ve been paying pretty close attention to this drama I think of as the The Albert Barbusci Show, but I must have missed the episode where we asked Barbusci, our port promoter and the CEO of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP), to identify a company with an untested method ofRead More

The Spectator squeezed in a working holiday this past week, driving from Sydney to Québec City by way of New Brunswick’s Acadian Coast and the Gaspé Peninsula. It’s very early in the season, which has its positives — no crowds or blackflies — and its negatives — very little isRead More

Since writing last week about the delayed development of Cossitt Heights — a 350-unit, site-sensitive, sustainable housing development proposed seven years ago for a former Sydney industrial park — I’ve gotten my grubby little hands on a copy of the Power Point Presentation shown to council in 2012 as partRead More

Coverage of “developer” Jim Kehoe’s Cossitt Heights Park has made my eyes cross so firmly that typing has become a challenge, but I will persevere. It all started (the story, not the Kehoe coverage) in 1991 (pre-amalgamation) when the Cossitt Heights Industrial Park was established on Upper Prince Street inRead More

Deep Dives The banner across the top of this morning’s Cape Breton Post gave me pause, I’ll admit it: The SaltWire Deep Dives: Looking at the Doctor Shortage in Atlantic Canada. Today: Where are all the doctors? “Deep dives?” I thought. “That’s my thing.” I was nervous, but I hadRead More

Not having been affected by the rain storm that hit the Cape Breton Regional Municipality this past Thanksgiving, I had the luxury of learning about the difference between “overland flooding” and “sewer backup” weeks later, over a beer with a friend whose basement had flooded. The woman sent by hisRead More