News last month that Debert plastics company Composite Sea to Sky had filed for bankruptcy, owing the province $1.9 million and the federal Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency $900,000, was met with a collective yawn: What’s a few more million tax dollars dumped down a few more “economic development” drains? Still, the details of this particular […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inArts + Music
Lund addresses being outed
How seriously does official Halifax take Pride Week? Consider this: Right in the middle of last year’s Pride celebration, the Chronicle-Herald published an article outing councillor Peter Lund. The political classes were at the time caught up in a mini-scandal involving a secret memo sent to councillors by mayor Peter Kelly; the memo called out […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pool boy economy
Reading Richard Starr’s new book, Power Failure, which is about Nova Scotia’s long history of botching energy policy, I was struck by a 1926 quote from future Liberal senator Eugene Forsey. Echoing the local business and political mucky-mucks of the day, who were selling the coal industry as the Next Big Thing, Forsey celebrated Nova […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
North end business improvement district gets started
The newly created north end business improvement district had its first meeting yesterday, and elected officers. Michelle Strum of Alteregos Coffee Shop was named chair and Fred Connors of FRED is vice-chair. Allison Moz of Eye Candy Signs is secretary/treasurer. Bernard Smith was officially hired as executive director, and a budget of $111,742 was approved.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Macdonald Apartment construction noise annoying neighbours
A generator related to construction at the MacDonald Apartments building on Cunard Street is making life hell for residents in the building and people living on Princess Place, a small lane to the east of the building with about a dozen homes. The generator is in a metal shipping container plopped on the apartment building’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council passes on wind
Halifax council Tuesday punted on a decision on new zoning rules for wind turbines. Currently, no new windmills can be erected anywhere in HRM; existing windmills are grandfathered in and may remain. After two years of study and public input, city staff had brought forward a proposal that nearly completely bans wind turbines in the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Metallica concert ready to go
A week out, prospects for next Thursday’s Metallica concert on Citadel Hill couldn’t look better: Environment Canada forecasts unseasonably warm and dry days. Promoter Harold MacKay has won the showdown with city administrator Richard Butts. And even angry merchandiser David Bluestein has made peace with MacKay, and so will be hawking t-shirts, CDs and other […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dawn Sloane calls Bill Karsten out for repeated interruptions
Halifax councillors Dawn Sloane and Bill Karsten came tete-to-tete at Tuesday’s council meeting. Sloane had been recognized to speak by mayor Peter Kelly, and was explaining her views on a relatively mundane issue, sidewalk sweepers, when Karsten, as he often does, interrupted her with asides and mumblings. “Do you mind? I am talking; I’m sick […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council OKs north end Business Improvement District
The north end business climate is looking up. Hundreds of new condos have been constructed on lower Gottingen Street, long-standing eyesore Mitchell’s Environmental Treasures has finally been torn down, Agricola Street has come into its own as the newest hip shopping destination and merchants are becoming organized and starting interesting projects. Among the latter is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Media mis-report “showdown” between Richard Butts and Harold MacKay over Metallica show
Under the headline “Concert promoter agrees to pay HRM thousands,” last week, CBC broadly implied that concert promoter Harold MacKay had paid back about $40,000 of the the $359,550 lost in the Common concert fiasco: The city had been trying to recover approximately $359,550 — a portion of a $400,000 advance issued to MacKay’s former […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Rename the school
Renaming Cornwallis Junior High is the right thing to do. Children, of all ethnicities, are attending or interacting with (via sports teams, for example) a school named in honour of a person who promoted racially based genocide. This is simply wrong. It’s wrong to subject Mi’kmaq children to this— honouring the murderer of their forebears is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City embarrasses itself with Metallica fiasco
In a bizarre and inexplicable move, this past week the city of Halifax attempted to force the promotion company for the July 14 Metallica concert on Citadel Hill to pay the $359,550 bill for the Common concerts fiasco. With the advice and encouragement of Scott Ferguson, president of provincial crown corporation Trade Centre Limited, Halifax […]