Provincial

Time for an Update?

Time for an Update?

July 12, 2023 at 11:51 am

Editor’s Note: I thought I’d revisit a few stories I’ve covered this year to see how things have been coming along.   Blowin’ in the wind Capitalize Albany Corporation (which does not, sadly, exist purely to stamp out lowercase spellings of the New York State capital but is the city’sRead More

Swarmio Applies for Creditor Protection

Swarmio Applies for Creditor Protection

June 28, 2023 at 12:49 pm

Swarmio Media Holdings Inc sought creditor protection in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last week. The Court agreed to some of its initial requests (it stayed proceedings until July 1, appointed a monitor, agreed to a debtor-in-possession or DIP loan) and scheduled a “comeback” hearing for June 30, atRead More

Information for Me, Not for Thee

Information for Me, Not for Thee

June 28, 2023 at 12:47 pm

How it began   The photo shows then-opposition leader Tim Houston striding purposefully toward the Supreme Court of NS where, according to his accompanying tweet, he: …filed an appeal…to fight for answers. The Liberals have been hiding information from Nova Scotians for too long. While this lawsuit focuses on theRead More

AG Finds Island Employment Mismanaged Over $1M

AG Finds Island Employment Mismanaged Over $1M

June 21, 2023 at 12:06 pm

An investigation by Nova Scotia Auditor General Kim Adair has revealed “gross mismanagement” of public funds in excess of $1 million by Island Employment Association (IEA), the now-defunct Cape Breton third-party employment services provider whose chief funder was the Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE), now Labour, Skills &Read More

CBRM Council: Water & Wind

CBRM Council: Water & Wind

June 14, 2023 at 12:42 pm

Water/Wastewater Commission Greg Campbell (no relation, a point I feel obliged to underline regularly for his sake), manager of technical services for the CBRM’s Water Utility, appeared before CBRM council last night and I realized that I had dropped the ball in my coverage of his issue, which is theRead More

UARB Approves Water-Rate Hike

UARB Approves Water-Rate Hike

June 14, 2023 at 12:40 pm

On 28 March 2023, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) approved a request from the CBRM (on behalf of its Water Utility) for a rate hike, the municipality’s first since 2019. The increase, for residential customers, will look like this:   The Board also approved a plan toRead More

We’ve Been Clop-ed

We’ve Been Clop-ed

June 6, 2023 at 11:30 am

The Nova Scotia government announced on Monday that it was investigating the theft of personal information stolen through a global privacy breach of a file transfer system called MOVEit. Colton LeBlanc, in his capacity as minister of cyber security and digital solutions, held what the Halifax Examiner‘s Zane Woodford termedRead More

About That Tax Cut…

About That Tax Cut…

May 31, 2023 at 11:30 am

First things first, I think municipalities in Canada have a raw deal and I put the blame squarely on the British North America Act of 1867 which declared them to be nothing more than “creatures of the provinces” with no real power of their own. It’s a subject I exploredRead More

Our Housing Crisis: Low Vacancies, High Rents, Damaged Stock

Our Housing Crisis: Low Vacancies, High Rents, Damaged Stock

May 31, 2023 at 11:20 am

CBRM council met on May 10 for a “Strategic Vision” workshop that, despite it’s rather vague title, actually had a clear—and important—purpose: councilors met to discuss quality of life, family recreation, public transit and affordable housing and homelessness. I’m going to focus on the latter because I think ensuring accessRead More

Cape Breton’s Invisible Coal Company

Cape Breton’s Invisible Coal Company

May 3, 2023 at 10:08 am

Media coverage of the weekend fire at the Donkin Mine may not have answered all the pertinent questions about the incident, but it revealed an interesting truth about the way Kameron Coal operates. According to the Cape Breton Post, the province was alerted to the fire around 7:00 PM onRead More