Provincial

Affordable Housing Part II: Just Like BC?

Affordable Housing Part II: Just Like BC?

June 8, 2022 at 12:34 pm

In a December 2021 article about the difficulties facing non-profit groups trying to develop affordable housing, the CBC’s Elizabeth McMillan spoke to Pauline MacIntosh of the St FX Extension Department who had spent nine months “gathering feedback through the Build Together project, a partnership with a national non-profit based inRead More

How to Heat a Hospital

How to Heat a Hospital

April 6, 2022 at 10:55 am

The headline on a 2021 article  from the Nova Scotia Health (NSH) website declares: Cape Breton Regional Hospital’s new energy centre will be cleaner, greener and more efficient What struck me when I first read this was that it didn’t simply say the new energy center will be “clean, greenRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

March 25, 2022 at 10:51 am

Pennsylvania Pain I decided to write about the first thing that popped into my head this morning (that wasn’t war in Ukraine) and it was the TV series I just watched, Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet. (Warning: there will be spoilers. If you haven’t watched it and plan to,Read More

Constructive Dismissal at Ocean Nutrition

Constructive Dismissal at Ocean Nutrition

March 23, 2022 at 2:21 pm

I get email notifications of “recent decisions” by Nova Scotia courts that I don’t always open but yesterday I did and got sucked into reading the March 18 decision in the case of Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited, which led me to the original decision in the case, handedRead More

Defining “Affordable Housing”

Defining “Affordable Housing”

March 16, 2022 at 11:53 am

The mixed-income housing development proposed for the former Tartan Downs racetrack in Sydney will contain 55% “affordable housing” units — meaning 240 of the 430 units will be rented at 80% of market rent. Kent MacIntyre of the Urban Neighborhood Development Association (UNDA), the organization overseeing the project, is usingRead More

Where’s Cecil?

Where’s Cecil?

March 9, 2022 at 12:51 pm

Big thanks to the spectator who alerted me to the latest incarnation of former CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, who is now with the provincial department of Health and Wellness as  a “project executive” with “Health Capital Projects.” Clarke, whose updated LinkedIn profile states he is an “accomplished public sector leader;Read More

Hawks Field: A Dream Coming True in Dominion

Hawks Field: A Dream Coming True in Dominion

March 9, 2022 at 12:49 pm

It may not look like much on a cold February day (see below) but the Hawks Field in Dominion is undergoing a serious make-over – from field to Dream Field. Having noticed the construction and wondered about the project, I contacted Councilor Darren Bruckschwaiger, whose District 10 includes Dominion. HeRead More

District Energy: I Surrender

District Energy: I Surrender

February 16, 2022 at 12:21 pm

This article is me, metaphorically waving a white flag. I have tried to get an answer to a pretty simple question — when did CBRM council decide to throw its weight behind a $38 million district energy project for downtown Sydney?  — but it has proved ridiculously difficult. The questionRead More

What’s Not to Lichen?

What’s Not to Lichen?

February 16, 2022 at 12:17 pm

I received a press release yesterday from two groups, the Forest Protectors and Extinction Rebellion Mi’kmaki/Nova Scotia, with the subject line, “DNRR [Department of Natural Resources and Renewables] Survey finds more rare lichens in Last Hope forest.” The groups, as the CBC’s Michael Gorman reported this week, count about 50Read More

CBRM Council: Setting Boundaries

CBRM Council: Setting Boundaries

February 9, 2022 at 12:08 pm

CBRM council voted last night to hire a consultant to conduct a Utility and Review Board (UARB)-mandated district boundary review and make recommendations about district and council size. Planning and Development Director Michael Ruus had been asked, during a special council meeting on January 25, to prepare an Issue PaperRead More