Last week saw Halifax Regional Council assemble amid snowstorm and sickness to hash out municipal matters. It seemed like every second councillor had some sort of flu, with mayor Mike Savage in particular barely able to speak. So no judgments on anyone’s dedication as we present HRM council’s attendance records for 2014. It’s Brad Johns […]
Government
Posted inNews + Opinion
Terminal disease
Brenda Hurlbert left her father’s funeral in New Brunswick with a few of his most prized possessions. Hurlbert sat down at a video lottery terminal on the Digby ferry headed back to her home just outside Yarmouth. It wasn’t long before she’d blown through all of her money—all but a coin collection willed to her […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Q & A with Dr. Claire Campbell in Copenhagen
Q. Is this your first experience at an international conference of this nature? Like many academics I go to international conferences occasionally, though I’ve never been to a COP. I was just in Copenhagen in August, actually, for the first World Congress in Environmental History. Denmark is my favourite country in the world after Canada, […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Politico Waiting in the Wings
As we all know, Darrell Dexter didn’t include him in the cabinet when he went into office in summer 2009. Given Howard’s experience with the environment—Epstein is a former director of the Ecology Action Centre—his absence is a real shame. At some point in the coming months there’ll be a shuffle, and when it comes, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council sticks to secret appointments
At Halifax council’s Tuesday meeting, councillor Linda Mosher brought forward a proposal to change existing policy, such that in the future all council appointments to boards and commissions are made in public. Supporters of the status quo maintained that holding council discussion of applicants’ qualifications in public would be an invasion of those applicants’ privacy. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tree hugger power
At the Nova Scotia Environment Network’s annual gathering last week, in a discussion on working with the new government, some expressed hope, but most were disappointed. Longtime NDP MLA and environmentalist Howard Epstein was passed over for a cabinet post, and there has been no progress on key NDP issues, like a permanent uranium mining […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Let’s push for lower tuition rates
Nova Scotia has had no shortage of snake-oil get-rich-quick schemes. Consider the allegedly humungous natural gas deposits off our shores, which were supposed to turn us into Alberta East—the actual reserves are so puny that production will dry up in a few years. Some consultants made some dough, I guess. Otherwise, meh. Or, for a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province lowers access to information fees
The province Friday announced it is lowering the application fee for Freedom of Information Act requests from $25 to $5, thereby matching the fee for federal access to information requests. Until now, Nova Scotia had among the highest fees in North America. The high fee was a barrier for many people needing to access their […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NDP’s VLT flip-flop
Astonishing fact number one: Last year, gamblers in Nova Scotia pumped more than $708 million into Video Lottery Terminals, the equivalent of nearly $2 million a day. That info comes from the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation’s annual report released last week. It shows that in the 2008/2009 financial year which ended in March, VLT betting […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Health report fails to analyze root causes
If Freddie Mercury were alive, I’d ask his opinion of the Nova Scotia government’s 51-page report on suicide that was finally released last week. The Queen singer, who died of AIDS in 1991, might thrust out his hairy chest, give me his trademark, buck-toothed smile, and belt out “Don’t Try Suicide”: “So you think it’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NDP victory: Don’t eat the rich
To the editor, I read with interest the feedback on Stephen Kimber’s question, “What now?” (June 11, Upfront). The notion that previous governments have not done enough for the poor due to their support for the rich is misguided. While I agree more needs to be done for those struggling, let’s not forget the hundreds […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NDP government: Real change for a change?
Originally published at The Halifax Media Co-op, a project of the Dominion News Co-operative. Republished with consent. Darrell Dexter seemed to be enjoying himself Thursday as he addressed his newly expanded NDP caucus. “This frivolity has got to stop,” the smiling premier-designate told caucus members who only moments before had been laughing, shaking hands and […]
