Canada’s cap on international student visas just scapegoats students, says CBU student
Navy Nguyen is a fifth-year student at Cape Breton University outside of Sydney, NS. When they moved here from Viet Nam at the end of 2018, Sydney was a lot smaller than they’d been led to believe: “I was disappointed by how bad the transit system was already back then, and it’s just gotten worse…
Halifax uses value engineering to cause climate change
On Wednesday Jan. 24, the city’s Budget Committee met for its inaugural meeting of the 2024 Budget Season. In this meeting, councillor Sam Austin got a more fulsome explanation about the hard work the Department of Public Works is doing to ensure that history will not be kind to this cohort of councillors. The DPW’s…
The first container ship derby of 2024 is here. Who will win?
In The Coast’s very first harbour report—Feb. 6, 2023—I made an offhand joke about the high seas drama involved in two container ships with the same itineraries scheduled to arrive in Halifax at the same time. It had all the makings of a good race—which is to say, it was the kind of scenario to…
PHOTOS: Here’s a look at Halifax after the first nor’easter of 2024
Kelly Cormier’s work day started earlier than usual on Monday. Instead of brewing coffee or prepping the Ardmore Tea Room’s kitchen for the usual morning rush of patrons hungry for hash browns and scrambled eggs, the Quinpool Road diner’s co-owner was out shovelling snow so she could open on schedule at 8am. There was plenty…
Death From Above 1979 to play Light House Arts Centre in May
One of Canada’s best-known rock duos will reunite for a string of Maritime shows this May. Toronto dance-punk rockers Death From Above 1979 (bassist Jesse Keeler and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger) will perform in Moncton, Halifax and Charlottetown between May 24-26. The tour visits Halifax’s Light House Arts Centre on May 25. Keeler and Grainger are…
Nova Scotia and PEI likely to suffer from cap on international students
It’s application season for universities–animated by stress and excitement for the future. Deciding on where to spend the next four years can be a challenge. Budgeting for tuition, food and rent in a city experiencing a housing crisis–another. Figuring out if your chance of getting into school just got slashed by 35%? That’s a challenge…
Halifax artist Glen McMinn’s solo exhibition is a hockey-lover’s dream—and much more, too
Glen McMinn was 52 years old and feeling restless. Despite a thriving career as the founding partner and creative director of Halifax design firm Breakhouse, instead of enjoying his success, he found himself counting down the days, weeks and months until he would turn 64. The number chased him like a hangover in those years:…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s Jan. 9 meeting
At Tuesday’s council meeting, the city’s elected officials learned that one of the city’s departments is slowly but surely suffocating Halifax’s future. But before that happened, there was a piece of good news: The Halifax Common Master Plan came back to council and got approval. It was in 1763 that then-king of Canada George III…
Customer Service’s new video for “Grad Day” is a punk rock triumph
In the earliest days of the 2000s, pop punk had something akin to a renaissance. Canadian bands like Sum 41, Treble Charger and Gob were at the peak of their powers—not just in terms of output, but in crossover appeal: Albums like All Killer No Filler, Wide Awake Bored and The World According to Gob…
Wintersleep returns to Marquee Ballroom this May
It’s been five years since indie rockers Wintersleep have been onstage together in Halifax. That hiatus ends May 11, when the JUNO award winners behind “Weighty Ghost” and “Amerika” take to the stage at the Marquee Ballroom. The band that got their start in Halifax in the early 2000s—playing the likes of the Seahorse Tavern…
The missing Grade 9 problem
In 2020, voters elected Jeff Arsenault to the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial–CSAP, the province’s French school board–as one of three representatives for Halifax. The CSAP has 18 elected members province-wide, who are responsible for a school system of 23 Acadian and French-language schools that served 6,170 students in Nova Scotia last year. Halifax has over…
See all the nominees for the 2024 East Coast Music Awards
The full list of nominees is here for the 2024 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. A total of 48 different local artists, engineers, media personalities and venues made the shortlist for the annual celebration highlighting the best music from the East Coast. That includes six nominations for homegrown singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, on…
Halifax singer-songwriter Mat Elliott’s debut single is a dream-synth trip
Take the laid-back, bassline-riding funk of Tom Misch and sprinkle in a little psychedelic dreamwave for good measure: That’s the feeling you’ll get from Mat Elliott’s new single, “Two Years.” It’s a precursor to the Halifax-based singer-songwriter’s debut EP, South Endings, set for release in April. A project Elliott describes to The Coast as “a…
The Grand Parade podcast: It’s time for Halifax to ban drive-thrus for real
When former HRM councillor Richard Zurawski made a pitch for regional staff to explore banning drive-thrus in Halifax back in 2018, he was hoping for a different future from what we see today. At the time, the Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park-Wedgewood councillor and Green Party hopeful told his Environment and Sustainability Standing Committee peers he was “deeply…
Classified gets nostalgic and tours around Halifax in video for new single, “All Wrong”
What do McLean Street, Cunard Street and Connolly Street all have in common? For Enfield’s Luke Boyd (better known as rapper Classified), they were the backdrops to some of his earliest days as an aspiring artist, when the “Oh… Canada” and “Inner Ninja” emcee moved from his small town to Halifax at age 19. In…
Saving Centennial Pool, a tale of two committees
The city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee met on Thursday, Jan. 18, and talked about water sports. First on the agenda the committee heard from Trevor Brumwell, who was representing the Save Centennial Pool Committee. On top of Brumwell’s presentation, there was a slew of public speakers who also voiced support for saving the…
Is Halifax becoming a fire prevention leader?
The city’s Audit and Finance Committee got together Wednesday Jan. 17 for a pretty routine meeting. First up, mayor Mike Savage brought forward a financial indicators report as an information item. In a bureaucratic rondelay, the HRM compiles information, sends it to the province, the province sends back this report and then the city can…
Halifax Wanderers announce 2024 home opener, tease full schedule release
Three months, one week and two days. That’s all that remains before professional soccer returns to Halifax, when HFX Wanderers FC hosts its first game of 2024 against a newly-retooled Atlético Ottawa and their hometown signing, Matteo de Brienne. The Wanderers will kick off their home schedule on Saturday, Apr. 27—two weeks after the Canadian…
In fenced-off Meagher Park, one renegade poem keeps surviving its removal
Look beyond the chain-link fence at the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street, and a story emerges. It’s there, scrawled in permanent marker, on a plywood board that would be easy to miss, if not for the fact that it keeps disappearing—then coming back again, albeit in different forms. One day, it’s a pamphlet;…
US-Houthi conflict shows early signs of affecting ship arrivals in Halifax
When the hard-to-miss ONE Crane container ship arrived in Halifax late Monday morning, it did so by a most unusual route—and not just because of the channel it followed into the harbour. As is often the case, the 364-metre-long ship came in from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ordinarily, that would have involved passage through the Gulf…
3 new buzzworthy restaurants teased for Halifax’s waterfront
Colin Bebbington has a full plate. Three years since returning to his hometown of Halifax with a slew of Michelin-starred stints on his resume, the 34-year-old chef known lately for his popular pop-up kitchens is about to do something entirely new: Open a permanent fine dining location. And in prime harbourfront real estate, to boot.…
NSCAD sends message to students: keep us out of it!
On Oct. 18, NSCAD’s president Peggy Shannon emailed all students and faculty a statement against hate: “In the midst of a horrific escalation of violence in the Middle East that has resulted in many civilian deaths, I want to unequivocally condemn all forms of hate and discrimination.” The email went on to describe NSCAD as…
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Waves of fortune
Playing in casinos is known to have positive effects on the mind. You feel more relaxed and happier after a few games. Moreover, you also get to take risks by placing wagers, which has been shown to induce adrenaline, which is a great way to improve your mood. The deal gets even better with online…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s Jan. 9 meeting
The Property Valuation Services Corporation gave its annual presentation to council at the Tuesday, Jan. 9 meeting, council’s first meet of this election year 2024. PVSC is the independent arms-length government agency that sets a property’s value so that it can be taxed based on that value. (Assessments are right now arriving in the mail…
More delayed cargo arrivals in Halifax Harbour this week
What’s the one thing nearly two out of every three ships arriving in Halifax this week have in common? They’re running late. Of the 17 cargo ships, container ships, bulk carriers and oil tankers that have berthed—or are still scheduled to berth—in Halifax before Sunday, 11 are behind schedule. And those delays vary anywhere from…
Mission creep has Halifax police caught in a bind
After the annual elections of the chair and vice-chair, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners used its Monday, Jan. 8 meeting to vote to recommend council approve an additional six RCMP officers in the 2024/25 budget: two for domestic violence, four for general duty. After commissioner Becky Kent kept her seat as chair and vice chair…
First look at Hardisty Brewing Co., Cole Harbour’s newest taproom and charcuterie spot
The first word that comes to mind when you walk through the front doors of Hardisty Brewing Co.’s new Cole Harbour Road space is “cozy.” The lights are dimmed above the sprinkling of tables and high-tops, all clean lines and polished wood grain. The mood is bright as the rainbow-coloured drink menu behind the bar.…
7 new Halifax restaurants to get you excited for 2024
If last year’s haul of industry awards is anything to go by, Halifax’s food and drink scene continues to put our coastal city on the map. That doesn’t show any signs of slowing in 2024, even as the region reels from the loss of several beloved haunts in 2023. The good news? More palate-pleasing options…
In Halifax, 1 in 3 young children live in ‘child care deserts.’ In Nova Scotia, it’s nearly 1 in 2. How is the province trying to solve that?
Corrections January 31: After this story was published, the province got in touch about two things. First, we were wrong to say the “annual report from 2023 is overdue” because Nova Scotia’s funding agreement with the federal government doesn’t require a publicly available annual report. The province assures us that the required Action Plan was…
The Grand Parade podcast: Two fixes for Halifax’s money problems
The New Year always comes with the worst hangovers, doesn’t it? When HRM council resumes on Tuesday, Jan. 9, Halifax’s councillors will be confronted once again with a thorny problem: How to dig the region out of a $68.7 million deficit that no-one on council seems to know how to wriggle out from under. (That…
About that British naval support ship in Halifax Harbour
Venture to the northernmost point of the Halifax boardwalk and you’ll see it: Tucked in behind the gates of the HMC Dockyard and painted in white and blue is a military vessel which, as foreign ships go, is a rather unusual one to find in Halifax Harbour. The SD Victoria offshore support vessel has been…