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 […]
Nova Scotia
Power Ballot
“I don’t know what difference it will make. I feel like I don’t know shit,” says a young man on a skateboard in Millefiore Clarkes’ film, Democracy Needs You. By the end of the four-minute clip, the same young man, sporting sunglasses and a green cap, says, grinning, “I probably will vote after this just […]
Dexter to make convention centre announcement
Premier Darrell Dexter will announce his support for the proposed new convention centre, today at 12:30. The Coast will live-blog the announcement via our Twitter account, twitter.com/twitcoast.
Companies connected with Nova Scotia Business, Inc board member James Kehoe to receive $585,688 in rebates approved by NSBI.
In March, while James Kehoe was a board member at Nova Scotia Business, Inc., the province’s business development agency, that board approved over a half million dollars in payroll rebates for companies associated with Kehoe. Those payroll rebates were approved by the Dexter government on July 27. James Kehoe’s four-year term as a NSBI board […]
How to get on a boat
Halifax International Fleet Review means more navy ships will be coming into the harbour than the average person can keep track of. The event’s website (see tinyurl.com/ShipsGalore) has a list of all the ships, detailing a short biographical history and statistics for each vessel, including what kind of weaponry the ships carry. There’ll be at […]
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 […]
Breaking news: Full public Paul McCartney concert costs revealed
[First published April 13] The provincial Department of Tourism spent $600,000 on last year’s Paul McCartney concert on the Halifax Common, and floated private promoter Harold MacKay with a $3.5 million cheque to cover McCartney’s artist fee. The payments have not previously been acknowledged publicly. Department spokesperson Tina Thibeau confirms that expenditures for the concert […]
Busting a move against breast cancer
“It takes a community to kick cancer’s ass,” says Joan Helson, a breast cancer survivor. Helson learned she had breast cancer on her birthday. Since then, she’s become an advocate for the importance of early diagnosis and treatment and a participant of a fundraiser to buy the mammography equipment Nova Scotia needs. According to the […]
$39-million ice bill
After the federal and provincial governments bailed, the city is left holding the entire bill for a four-pad hockey arena in Bedford, leaving municipal officials to cobble together a makeshift financing scheme. The $39-million arena complex on Hammond Plains Road was originally envisioned as an economic stimulus project, with a third of the cost paid […]
Museum of Natural History set to evolve
The Museum of Natural History will close its doors to the public Sunday, in preparation for a major renovation of the building. The nearly 40-year-old structure is badly in need of an overhaul, says public information officer Judith Shiers-Mille. The plan is to completely rebuild the Summer Street entrance, including the doorway, the brickwork surrounding […]
Tall Ships were slave ships
Not everyone will feel a sense of Nova Scotian pride this week. King’s College professor El Jones believes that the festival is one more attempt to whitewash Nova Scotia and ignore the troubled history of the largest indigenous black population in Canada. “When I look at those ships I want you to think about the […]
Nova Scotia needs a new deal
Kyle Shaw: Not long after the global financial meltdown started last September, Nova Scotia’s then-premier Rodney MacDonald announced that he had formed an Economic Advisory Panel to help steer the province through these troubled times. The names on his list were the usual suspects of Nova Scotia business, representing the major companies literally doing business […]

