Reality Bites provides the best coverage of political issues related to Halifax and City Council anywhere in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Oh, and we bring the snark, too. Contact timb@thecoast.ca to send a tip.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Hurricane Earl may drop in on Halifax

If the storm continues to track along the Atlantic seaboard, we'll be seeing a lot of rain on Labour Day weekend

Posted by Carsten Knox on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 11:55 AM

No one can predict the paths of storms with 100 percent certainty, but the good people at the Canadian Hurricane Centre of Environment Canada, with all their computer models and hi-tech equipment, released this statement of concern earlier today:
Hurricane Earl information statement issued by the canadian Hurricane centre of Environment Canada at 9.11 AM ADT Tuesday 31 August 2010.

This is a preliminary statement regarding future impact of hurricane Earl in Eastern Canada.

Based on the large-scale weather pattern and computer models.. Hurricane Earl will likely play a role in the weather over Eastern Canada in the Friday to Sunday timeframe. There remains a broad range of future tracks for hurricane Earl which is now north Of Puerto Rico and moving northwest. The range of possible track scenarios are as far west as Maine to as far east as eastern Newfoundland. Thus..It is too early to describe details of potential Impacts..But important to realize that a storm of this nature Affecting land would bring heavy rains..Strong winds..And Large waves. Regular 6-hourly forecasts from the CHC will commence Today at 3 PM Atlantic time. As time goes on..We will provide increasing level of detail as is appropriate.

At this point..Probabilistic computer models show a 40 percent Chance of tropical storm-force winds (about 70 km/h) over Western Nova Scotia by the weekend. The probability of hurricane-force winds Over land is low at this time since we are still about 4 days away.. But we will have more information on that in our afternoon technical discussion.

The primary message at this point is to stay tuned for updated Forecasts under this header and the CHC website..And to note That the Friday to Sunday timeframe is the period of impact or closest approach to Eastern Canada.

Now, for those concerned about what to do if we do see a whole bunch of rain, high winds and the like later in the week, a handy list of dos and don'ts was written up in The Coast's Hot Summer Guide this year. For that article, click here.

Monday, August 30, 2010

The passing of journalism

Jules Loh dies

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 11:35 AM

Jules.jpg
Jules Loh died yesterday. As the Associated Press explains:
Former AP reporter, features writer Loh dies at 79
By RICHARD PYLE (AP) – 13 hours ago

NEW YORK — For most of his four decades as a reporter, Jules Edward Loh traveled the United States, reaching every state and using his honeyed Georgia accent to charm his way into the hearts, minds and lives of Americans, famous and obscure.

To write "Lords of the Earth," a 1971 book about the Navajo Indians of Arizona, he became so close to tribal elders that they named him Poputiney, meaning "Many Pencils." Back in New York, his irreverent colleagues at The Associated Press dubbed him "Loh, the poor Indian."

Despite numerous journalism awards by the time he retired in 1997, Loh said of himself, "I am a reporter, period. They can chisel that on my gravestone."

Loh is remembered for his coverage of the American civil rights movement, the Alaskan earthquake, the space race and, most endearing, his long-running AP column "Elsewhere in America." But, to me, he was first of all "Uncle Jules," my mother's brother.

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Centennial Pool Reopens

Yay! Fall swimming!

Posted by Carsten Knox on Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 4:00 AM

For all of you swimmers who’ve been missing the popular urban pool at Gottingen and Cogswell, Centennial Pool reopens September 7 following months of renovations.

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Halifax ponders its crap: biosolid debate heats up

Posted by Chris Benjamin on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 4:00 AM

HRM council is reevaluating the practice of applying biosolids---N-Viro Corporation’s composted and treated sewage---to municipal property. The controversy started in mid-August when city crews stank up Dunbrack Street, driving locals to their councillor, Debbie Hum.

“We didn’t get a lot of information on the issue at council,” Hum says. She has concerns that the medical waste and chemicals in biosolids may not be fully accounted for in testing, and could cause harm. Last week she requested a staff report on the issue, including explanations of how Dunbrack was chosen, how the product is tested, why the public wasn’t better informed, other potential uses for biosolids---particularly using it as an alternative energy source---and potential risks.

Hum says the Dunbrack application was in-line with provincial rules, so staff believed the decision was “operational versus policy-oriented,” meaning public discussion wasn’t required. She adds that using HRM sewage locally “is in line with not shipping out our waste.”

Richard MacLellan, acting manager of the Sustainable Environment Management Office, will present the report to council September 28. “Staff will probably recommend parameters of use that would satisfy community, health and environmental needs,” MacLellan says. Dunbrack Street was the latest in a series of low-key test sites for biosolids. “We were trying to be the least controversial we could be, but obviously we weren’t successful.”

Councillor Steve Streatch, not known for agreeing with environmentalists, is also concerned. “I don’t think it should be so close to the urban centre,” Streatch says. “It’s not the safety; it’s the ick factor.” He adds that, now that farmers have been conditioned to use biosolids, their “source’ll dry up” if it is used instead to generate energy.

Lise Leblanc, N-Viro’s hired consultant, confirms that as much as two-thirds of HRM biosolids could be used as a lower-emissions energy source producing half the energy as an equivalent amount of coal. “So far we’ve done six tests and they’ve all gone really well,” she says. “But even if we used 100 percent for energy it would be a drop in the bucket for Nova Scotia Power.”

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A small council protects elites' interests

The historical debate

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 5:22 PM

In 1841, when the independent city of Halifax was created, there were 19 elected representatives for the city of 20,000 people. Were that ratio of population-to-elected representatives kept to the present, today we’d have 437 city councillors.

Continue reading »

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

SEIU trying to organize Halifax Securitas guards

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 6:17 PM

The Service Employees International Union is attempting to organize Halifax-area security guards who work with Securitas, a Swedish-headquartered firm with operations around the world, including 160-180 local employees.

The union is going public with its drive today, Thursday, because “we’re trying to pressure Securitas to honour its agreement,” says SEIU organizer David Bush. In 2006, Securitas signed an international agreement with unions committing the company to neutrality during unionization drives, and said it would provide unions with necessary employee information and provide a neutral setting for union organizers to meet with prospective members. (Read that agreement here.)

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Monday, August 23, 2010

Keith Fudge sighted

Accused of ripping off Halifax gay bar VorTex

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 3:55 PM

Fudge.jpg
A reader in Newfoundland emailed today to say Keith Fudge is living and working in St. John's.

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Friday, August 20, 2010

Clearwater's John Risley gets a son-in-law

Deckhand scores big

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 12:09 PM

Sarah Risley, daughter of lobster billionaire John Risley, has married Guy Barnett, a British deckhand who came to Canada to work on Risley's yacht.

Risley.jpg
Britain's Daily Mail is aflutter with the news, noting that
Before he left his home town, he worked on a little old boat taking holidaymakers on trips to catch mackerel.

Guy Barnett returned in style aboard a £100million superyacht.

The newlyweds sailed into Dartmouth, England harbour on the Northern Star, a gaudy extravaganza the nouveau riche rent for £533,000 a week---a gift from daddy---and Sarah met Guy's mates.

The Mail says that the couple was married "Friday in a marquee at the Risley mansion in Chester on the south coast of Nova Scotia. Around 150 guests attended the 'low-key' event and were entertained by a live band." But, says a person who was tangentially involved with the event, there was nothing "low key" about it at all; any excess you could think of was rolled out, and the night ended with an overly long fireworks display.

Incidentally, while the Northern Star is in Dartmouth, England, its sister ship, the Northern Light, is docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Or was, anyway, as of Wednesday night. That boat was just sold for a measly €24.9 million.

Now, enough of your surfing the internet, and get back to working to pay back that student loan!

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Monday, August 16, 2010

Signs for Urban Wilderness Park go down

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 9:58 AM

Wilderness.jpg
The signs announcing Dartmouth's Urban Wilderness Park were taken down Friday, evidently in preparation for its bulldozing, which ought start towards the end of next month.

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Council size and voter turnout

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 8:21 AM

In today's editorial I argue that there is an inverse relationship between the number of people represented by an elected official and voter turnout--- that is, the smaller the district, the greater the turnout.

By no means is that relationship absolute---there are lots and lots of factors that help determine voter turnout, ranging from the importance of the issues in play to the strength of local voting tradition to the personalities of the candidates to the weather on election day. But looking at the evidence, it is apparent that size of district is an important variable.

Bobby O'Keefe of the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies looked at information his organization has collected and came to much the same conclusion. You can read his analysis of ten Canadian cities with populations between 200,000 and 500,000 here. For a larger database of Canadian cities, click here.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Decision postponed on developing land earmarked as wilderness park

Birch Cove Lakes-Blue Mountain Wilderness spared, for now

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 6:12 PM

A wilderness jewel just 15 minutes from downtown Halifax has been spared from development, at least for a few years.

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Brad Johns wants to take back small council vote

But counting the votes, it's hard to see the reason why

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 4:14 PM

click to enlarge Middle Sackville councillor Brad Johns.
  • Middle Sackville councillor Brad Johns.
Remember council's decision not to shrink itself? Well, late last night, at the tail end of a Halifax regional council meeting that lasted until 11pm, councillor Brad Johns notified council that he will introduce a motion of rescission regarding that decision.

Rules for motions of rescission are laid out in council's rules of procedures:

56A (1) After a matter has been decided in the affirmative, a member, at any subsequent meeting, may give notice of motion of rescission.
(2) At the next meeting of Council, the giver of such notice, or in that member’s absence, any other member on the member’s behalf, may put the motion of rescission.
(3) A motion of rescission is debatable.
(4) A motion of rescission shall be passed by a majority vote.
The votes leading up to the vote Johns is contesting hit a 12-12 council gridlock, but the vote to keep council size at 23 councillors and the mayor passed 12-10 because two councillors---Sue Uteck and Reg Rankin---had left the August 2 meeting. If we assume Uteck and Rankin are present next week, and if all councillors vote the same way they did last week, we'll still have a 12-12 gridlock, and Johns' motion will fail. (A majority vote will require 13 councillors.)

So unless Johns thinks he can change someone's vote, it's unclear why he's bothering.

Shambhala Buddhists welcome the 3rd generation

Drukmo Yeshe Sarasvati Ziji Mukpo born today at the IWK

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Congratulations are in order. CBC:
The queen of the Shambhala Buddhist community gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday morning in Halifax.
Her name is Drukmo Yeshe Sarasvati Ziji Mukpo, which means Lady Dragon Wisdom. I don't know what her arrival means, if anything, for the schism that has developed between the old American hippies who followed Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche to Halifax in 1986, and the younger generation that follows the more doctrinaire teachings of Trungpa's son, and the Lady Dragon's father, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

The old guard brought a lot of good to Halifax, and their dissent continues to sometime boil over the top in the Shambhala community, such as with the recent establishment of Radio Free Shambala. As of today, however, the dissenters have not commented on the arrival of a new princess.

United breaks family reunions, too

Does the airline have something against Nova Scotia?

Posted by Kyle Shaw on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 2:13 PM

click to enlarge What the phrase "United Airlines flight to Canada" makes Americans think of.
  • What the phrase "United Airlines flight to Canada" makes Americans think of.
The Chicago Sun-Times has a story about United Airlines taking five days (and counting, presumably) to get some stranded luggage from O'Hare International to United flyers visiting Nova Scotia. The story quotes Jill Erickson, who came here for a family reunion.
“I bought a $5 dollar shirt, and I’m wearing my grandmother’s shorts and some flip-flops,” said Erickson of Wichita, who said she has contacted United Airlines multiple times in the last few days. “My biggest problem is all the time I’ve spent on this when I could have been visiting with my grandmother.”
If United has an axe to grind against our province, it might have something to do with local musician Dave Carroll's YouTube hit "United Breaks Guitars."

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Dartmouth Bridge Terminal has options to be down-scaled

Architect Troy Scott worries Halifax council may opt out of pedestrian bridge

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 12:34 PM

Bridge_Terminal_3.jpg
The tendering process for the expanded Bridge Terminal in Dartmouth continues apace, with about a dozen prospective bidders attending a mandatory job site meeting this morning. The companies range from Dexter Construction, the largest construction firm in the area, to several smaller firms reaching big, and include at least one unnamed company that previously has worked exclusively on the offshore oil platforms---that work is now drying up and the company is expanding its horizons, explain city officials. Such competition will hopefully bring the project costs down.

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