Briefing Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, and Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Zach Churchill briefed reporters today (some in person, some on the phone) on the province’s plan to send students back to their classrooms on September 8. Churchill began by recapping previously announcedRead More

As predicted, the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s long-awaited plan for getting students back to school in September has been met with push-back and “yeah-buts” from both opposition parties, the NSTU and CUPE Nova Scotia, who feel it is short on details about how, exactly, it’sRead More

Being a pathological optimist, it didn’t occur to me to wonder, when Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill canceled international school trips on March 4, if there would be any disruptions to my own classroom. Nor did I think we wouldn’t be back after March Break. Or that we wouldn’tRead More

Travel-related Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health confirmed, 20 new cases of COVID-19 in the province on Tuesday, bringing our total to 147. Although community spread has been concluded as the cause of one case, most of the confirmed cases — 96%, according to Strang —Read More

This space had been reserved for reporting the results of an interview I did last Thursday with Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill. I thought I’d have some new insight into the government’s determination to push through the recommendations in educational consultant Avis Glaze’s administrative review of the Nova Scotia educationRead More

Writing about wastewater earlier this year, I raised the possibility that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke might not be worried about meeting a December 2020 deadline associated with new federal wastewater regulations because he’s already announced he won’t be seeking a third term — which means he will bid us farewellRead More

I have been wading through pages of documents related to the CBRM and Business Cape Breton (BCB) and the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) searching for answers to questions about economic development funding and Glace Bay revitalization and the role of our economic development “entity.” While I still haveRead More

Why am I so interested in Business Cape Breton, the CBRM’s economic development “entity?” Because I just can’t get a grip on what it’s supposed to be — it’s neither flesh, nor fowl nor good, publicly accountable municipal body. It’s a non-profit society with a board made up of localRead More