Late last year Alton Gas applied to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) for a renewal of its approval to construct an underground hydrocarbons storage facility. As part of the NSUARB review interested parties were asked for submissions. This is the submission of Dale Andrew Poulette, Mi’kmaq water protector.
This weekend we feature an interview with Ralph Wheadon, who became a Provincial Forest Ranger for the area above St. Margaret’s Bay in the early fifties. He talks about fighting forest fires, log drives down the Ingram River, and the changes (not for the better) he has witnessed over his long career. “”If we don’t have logs, if we don’t have timber, I worry about our watersheds. And I am really concerned, as a lot of people are, about cutting that biomass stuff down…”
“Metro councilors play a game. They warn if we want improved snow and ice clearing we all must pay more taxes. Fair enough. But out of a different pocket, we are now collectively paying through our taxes for the strains on Emergency rooms and the health care system. So we all pay one way or another,” writes Judy Haiven.
It’s been a year since Halifax Fire chief Ken Stuebing publicly apologized to Liane Tessier, and both Halifax Fire and the Human Rights Commission are reluctant to share what changes were made at the organization to deal with the misogyny that was so prevalent. “We’re dealing with issues that were hidden, now we are letting it out of the bag and HRM and the NS Human Rights Commission don’t like it, because now they are being held to account,” Tessier says, pointing to the work of Equity Watch, the anti-bullying organization she co-founded.”
Late last year I received a response to a Freedom of Information request that has all significant information greyed out. It’s a presentation about cost savings as a result of the Community Services Transformation Project. If a government initiative potentially will save money, possibly at the detriment of service levels, shouldn’t we be allowed to know how so, and how much?
“I conclude that random street checks, which take considerable time and effort for a police service to conduct, have little to no verifiable benefits relating to the level of crime or even arrests,” an Ontario judge concludes after an 11-months review, including extensive consultation with members of the Ontario Black, Indigenous and racialized communities, as well as police representatives.
“…we have to fight our own battles. The government would still be gleefully discriminating against us if we didn’t sue them,” writes disability activist Paul Vienneau.
“Many fishermen I know, in addition to being fishermen are educated professionals, ranging from various engineers to geologists; recently I’ve heard our objection for the proposed pipeline by Northern Pulp … described as: ‘the fishermen’s objections are based on emotion, not science’. I take offence to that and actually, my objections are based on science specifically,” writes John Collins.
“Northern Pulp’s proposal “to dump 62 million litres per day of treated waste into the rich fishing grounds of the the Northumberland Strait … is not any kind of a solution; it would be an environmental calamity,” writes Guysborough resident Ray Bates..
Judy Haiven on living and working in Nova Scotia, one of the stingiest and most punitive provinces when it comes to labour standards. Exhibit # 1: Working on New Year’s day and other holidays.