The invitation I received from New Dawn for the inaugural Father Greg MacLeod Lecture says the series, named for the late community advocate, will invite us to “love an idea — especially a distinct, hopeful, outside-the box, radical idea” about “the life we know in Cape Breton.” I have toRead...
Earlier this year, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) was in the news, including in The Cape Breton Spectator where yours truly wrote about Ontario’s plan to “launch a pilot project to assess whether a basic income can better support vulnerable workers, improve health and education outcomes forRead More
Dear Minister Furey, Re: The Race to Restrict our Human Rights Yesterday, the Nova Scotia Law Amendments Committee heard from seven different presenters about the issues, problems, and limits of the Adult Capacity and Decision-making Act (Bill 16). The new Act is meant to replace the outdated and especially restrictiveRead More
Paying for Information Maybe public information in Nova Scotia is of a slightly better quality than public information elsewhere. Maybe Nova Scotia Land Registry documents are carefully stored and aged and contain undertones of citrus and hints of oak that set them apart from generic land registry documents. Maybe theRead More
After the June 2013 floods that caused an estimated $400 million worth of damage to infrastructure in Calgary, the City: …determined that a broad investigation of flood mitigation issues and responses was required. The City also decided that the investigation should be carried out by an arms-length body of expertsRead More
This past Saturday found me driving along Route 4 listening to commercial radio. (I know what you’re thinking: did last Saturday also find you breathing and blinking at regular intervals? Did it find you wearing shoes? But you have to understand, I haven’t owned a car or listened to commercialRead More
Has anyone else wondered why our political leaders at every level of government give lip service to representing the constituents they seek support from only when they are campaigning for office or forming the political opposition in the legislature? Ritually, leaders of political parties promise and promise and promise someRead More
How to Spend $160 The September 27 edition of the Cape Breton Post was an exciting one for me. The front page featured a Canadian Press story about the provincial budget (prompting me once again to wonder why, if Saltwire is such a heavyweight Atlantic Canadian news presence, it can’tRead...
If there was one issue that dominated the 2017 provincial election in Cape Breton, it was healthcare. And it’s not like there was any one healthcare issue that stood out — poke the system just about anywhere and you’ll hit a sore spot, whether it’s lack of access to primaryRead...
I (finally) received an answer from the CBRM in response to my wastewater questions. You can read my original story here, but the gist is that when Canada’s new Wastewater System Effluent Regulations (WSER) came into effect on 1 January 2015, municipalities operating water treatment systems that didn’t meet themRead...
