Tim Bousquet

Guarding the entrance to Halifax Harbour, McNabs Island hosts impressive and diverse ecosystems, amazing views of the harbour and interesting and complex archaeological sites, including military fortifications, a bottle works and a cholera cemetery. I had never been there before so I jumped at the opportunity to ferry over with the Friends of McNabs Island […]

Thousands upon thousands of Haligonians are poisoning the environment, endangering children and breaking the law. And they’re being aided and abetted by corporations that put profit above community values. Halifax’s pesticide by-law prohibits the use of pesticides and herbicides on all property in the SuperCity, from Ecum Secum to Hammond Plains, without a permit. The […]

One of the best ways to make a lot of money in Nova Scotia is to trash the planet. Consider: Last year Ralph Tedesco, CEO of Nova Scotia Power, and Chris Huskilson, CEO of NSP’s parent company, Emera, were paid $2.6 million and $1.2 million respectively in salary and bonuses. If we’re to accept the […]

I’ve found a bunch of stuff in my attic: a milk bottle cap with “Buy Savings Stamps and Help Smash Hitler” stamped on it, 1950s-era hockey cards for Walter Hergesheimer and Jim Morrison, a baseball card for Angel Scull and a boy’s “hockey diary,” in which he laments he didn’t get to face his “mortal […]

I went to Bedford to talk to Bob Kerr, a lone citizen-activist fighting Sobeys’ plan to build a gas station in the parking lot of its store at Mill Cove Plaza. But I came away thinking there’s a much bigger issue: our society just can’t seem to structure itself in a rational fashion. Specifically, we’re […]

“Concern about the environment is a core Canadian value,” says Jim Hoggan. “It’s not something that just popped up last year —it runs deep in the Canadian identity. “But people have been bullshitted to for so long, they don’t trust anyone.” A self-described “corporate PR guy” who has represented such firms as A&W, the Northwest […]

Twice recently I’ve screwed up the coffee thing. You know: the evil paper cup conspiracy. The first time, I neglected to bring my plastic mug with me to meet someone for coffee at the Farmers’ Market—I ended up furtively stealing sips from a paper cup, self-consciously dreading that someone might see Mr. Environmental Columnist chopping […]

Dynamite would be a lot of fun. But probably the demolition experts would insist on something less cathartic: wrecking balls and such. Still, that sucker has to come down. I’m talking about the Cogswell interchange: the tangle of concrete in the heart of downtown Halifax that serves no purpose save to remind us there was […]

Nova Scotia is sinking, and, thanks to global warming, the oceans are rising. We here in Halifax, sitting on the edge of both Nova Scotia and the ocean, have a geologist’s word that Nova Scotia sank between 21 and 47 centimetres over the last century, a continuation of a process that’s been going on for […]

David Suzuki and Elizabeth May are in town this week to speak at the Sustainable Campus Conference at King’s College. But I’ll leave it to others to heap praise on the pair or ask whether the environmental calculus really favours generating tonnes of greenhouse gas by flying eco-celebrities around the world to get people excited […]