Today we have Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, telling the Chronicle-Herald editorial board that: The global economic downturn has been nothing short of devastating to most of Canada’s forestry products industry. But Mr. Lazar, who is based in Ottawa, says he expects a turnaround by the end of […]
News
Posted inNews + Opinion
HRM’s missteps with parking enforcement officers
A former training officer with Halifax parking enforcement is speaking out publicly about the starvation wages being paid to the 10 officers who patrol downtown streets in Halifax and Dartmouth. Forty-seven-year-old Paul Keast says Securitas, the company which took over parking enforcement last September 1st, is forcing out officers earning $11 an hour and replacing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Economic predictions, pt. 1
Stephen Harper, Oct. 7, 2008 (four and a half months ago): I think there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as the consequence of all this panic. The Dow closed that day at 9,447.11. Today’s closing: 7,114.78
Posted inNews + Opinion
Violently bureaucratic
Crime rates across North America have been going down for about 20 years, and nobody knows why; neither individually nor collectively, factors like changes in demography, poverty rates, decreased drug use, taking lead out of the gas, policing strategies and the like do not explain the drop in crime. But despite the overall reduction in crime, Halifax experienced a spike in high-profile random violence in the last few years, including a series of “swarmings” and brutal attacks on the Common. In response, mayor Peter Kelly contracted with criminologist Don Clairmont to study violence in Halifax and suggest policies to address
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1,075 Canadians injured or killed in Afghanistan
The table above lists the annual number of non-battle injuries, individuals wounded in action, deaths of individuals not killed in action and individuals killed in action, from the beginning of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan in April 2002 to 31 Dec 2008. The information was provided by the military to Coast contributing editor Bruce Wark. […]
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Icy sidewalks
I’ve interviewed Gord Hayward, the city winter works superintendent, who is responsible for overseeing the crews that clear streets and sidewalks. Listen to it in the audio player below.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bayers Road widening: Chebucto Road meeting
I witnessed a pretty classic government-citizen disconnect last night at the public input meeting for the Highway 102-Bayers Road design study. The meeting was led by a collection of consultants and the lone city staffer, Dave McCusker, who were focused on the planning aspects of designing a highway corridor. In their minds, they’re looking at […]
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Publicly funded Trade Centre investing in partisan politics
Two years ago this week, Coast senior feature writer Stephen Kimber called out Trade Centre Limited for donating $6,691.12 to the provincial Progressive Conservative party: But you won’t believe what TCL has done now. Here’s how Kimber described it in 2007: But perhaps the most intriguing and under-reported political contribution in 2004 came from Trade […]
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Toronto Metro fires entire staff of writers
From the Globe & Mail: Free daily, and free writers A Toronto free daily newspaper has laid off all of its staff writers – but it won’t be without copy for its pages because it will be using non-paid interns instead. Metro, which has published in Toronto since 2000, terminated four unionized staff writers last […]
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Street charity nixed
Remember Bill 7? The Nova Scotia legislature passed Bill 7 on December 13, 2007, and it became law on April 1 of last year. Bill 7 did many things, but among them was clause 13 (of 27), which amended the Vehicle Act by adding to Section 173 a part A. Subsection (1) now reads: No […]
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Halifax’s schizophrenic approach to tearing down the Cogswell Interchange
We’ve got a schizophrenic city government. On the one hand, we’ve got city council moving forward (if slowly) with plans to demolish the Cogswell Interchange. As the staff report to this week’s council meeting explains: It is recommended that HRM Council: 1) approve the issuance of an RFP for consulting services to produce a detailed […]
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Rank Inc. wins bid for new convention centre
According to a statement just released by a competing firm, Joe Ramia’s Rank, Inc, has been selected by the province to move forward with plans to construct a new World Trade and Convention Centre on Argyle Street, at the site of the former Chronicle-Herald building. Update: I’ve placed the text of The Hardman Group‘s press […]