Tim Bousquet

Maybe I should cross the street and watch the circus: Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Halifax today to make a military announcement. A news release issued Sunday by the Prime Minister’s Office said Mr. Harper will be joined by Defence Minister Peter MacKay for an announcement at 1 p.m. The announcement will take […]

Weekend trading price: $125.96/barrel City budget assumptions: $100/barrel My prediction: soon after the October election, the newly sitting city council will have to deal with a fiscal crisis at city hall, due to skyrocketing fuel costs. It’s always dicey to make predictions, and I don’t know what kind of modelling city bureaucrats used to make […]

Mother’s Day in the United States (and, I’m assuming, Canada) has its origins in the 19th century pacifist movement: Ruth Rosen explains: …The women who conceived Mother’s Day would be bewildered by the ubiquitous ads that hound us to find that “perfect gift for Mom.” They would expect women to be marching in the streets, […]

Not much (paid subscription required): McNeil said his party demanded a home heating rebate program for low-income Nova Scotians, 10 new medical school seats, transit tax breaks and funding for the colo-rectal drug Avastin. That’s pretty weak, as opposition parties go.

Breaking: It’s official — the Liberals will keep the MacDonald government alive this spring.Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said this morning that his party will vote in favour of the budget next week, thereby ensuring it will pass and eliminating the possibility of an election.

This government sure has had its issues with government-leased cars: Cabinet ministers in Nova Scotia will no longer be allowed government-leased vehicles, after the teenage son of the community services minister crashed in her SUV. Premier Rodney MacDonald said ministers will now have to buy or lease their own vehicles and claim mileage.

Allnovascotia.com (paid subscription required) is reporting that developer Doug Raphael has acquired three buildings at the corner of Agricola and McCully Streets, and is “considering” building a four- or five-storey office building at the site.

GPI Atlantic issued its extensive study of Nova Scotia’s forests yesterday. The “good” news: selection harvesting, which removes trees selectively to maintain the integrity, age and species diversity, health, and value of the forest as a whole, grew marginally from 0.9% of logging in 2000 to 1.5% in 2005-06, while clearcutting declined from 97% to […]

As I said below, I hold these sort of things suspect: …the IIHF men’s world hockey championship is bringing lots of business to Halifax. “It’s an incredible event for downtown Halifax,” Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, said Tuesday in an interview. Mr. MacKinnon said the 12-day tournament, which began May […]

As I’ve stated previously, I think it’s very unlikely there’ll be a provincial election this year. CBC: With a crucial budget vote ahead, Nova Scotia’s minority Progressive Conservative government has agreed to meet one of the demands of the Liberals — to train more doctors. Liberal leader Stephen McNeil has played this pretty well, raising […]

Wednesday morning: $121.70/ barrel on world markets. City budget projections: $100/barrel.

As I reported two weeks ago, the Halifax council was poised to adopt a 2008-2009 budget with exactly $0 for new street tree planting and bikeways. At the last moment, however, council dedicated $135,000 to the trees program. That about pays for replacing trees that will die over the same period, but doesn’t begin to […]