Blogging Nova Scotia The top news stories around the province of Nova Scotia Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 71 5544

Articles from Blogging Nova Scotia

Halifax And Rural Nova Scotia - The Great Divide 2007-08-16 13:12:00 Someone should tell the Nova Scotia Government about the old saying "never put all your eggs in to one basket", because that is exactly what has been happening recently. Every year Halifax receives more and more while every other region struggles to survive. Even with 60% of the people living outside of the city.A good example is within the education department. This year metro opened up 4 new schools while the old Duncan MacMillan High School in Sheet Harbour is in need of replacing. The high school was shut down for weeks due to unsafe mold levels 10 years ago and has caused many students to become sensitive to chemicalsSticking with education for a moment, did you know that many schools have been cutting out programs left and right? Many core programs such physics and pre calculus are only being offered every second year and extended french is a laugh at only two classes per year. Students who choose to go on to university are at a significant disadvantage due to the lack of a prope ...

Hide The Cigarettes 2007-08-15 19:45:00 The following is a guest post from Wolfville Watch. To view this article on this site as well, you can use the following link: Wolfville Watch"Out of sight out of mind." That's the philosophy that seems to be behind the new rules for displaying cigarettes. Either that or it is another sadistic anti-business stab in the back thought up by leftist gremlins in the Provincial bureaucracy. As if small businesses don't have enough red tape and regulation strangling them. And most businesses in Nova Scotia are small – about 3/4 of businesses in the province employ fewer than five people.The new rules, part of the Tobacco Access Act, stipulate that tobacco products can't be visible from inside or outside a store. Shopkeepers must keep them under, above or behind the front counter and the products must be behind a spring-loaded cabinet door or another device that closes on its own. The cabinet space can't be any bigger than about 1.6 square metres. Vendors may still display a sign that li ...

Gas Price Prediction For August 17th 2007 2007-08-15 18:58:00 It is Thursday again which means gas prices change for the people of Nova Scotia tomorrow. Here is my prediction for gasoline prices on August 17th 2007.I predict gas prices will stay the same or change by less than $0.02 in either directionGasoline Prices In New BrunswickAugust 10th 2007 - 101.4August 16th 2007 - 101.5Difference -To find out which zone you are located in, check out the map provided by Service Nova Scotia. You can also get a copy of the latest gas prices across the province by viewing the official report release. This prediction is in no way official and should only be used as informational. Any decision to purchase or not to purchase gasoline on any given day rests with you. All prices are based on self serve regular unless otherwise specified. ...

Passing Gas 2007-08-15 07:20:00 A $30 million dollar project will begin to supply the peninsular regions of Halifax with natural gas. Almost 80% of the businesses have agreed to switch to the cleaner burning fossil fuel. The pipeline will run from Dartmouth to Halifax underneath the harbor and could be expanded in the future to other regions.This plan will help us reach our goal of lowering our emission levels and should be completed by December. Heritage Gas Ltd will be picking up the costs and the province will spend $3.5 million to convert the capital health buildings.Natural gas is still a fossil fuel but it creates less pollution than any others. Maybe in the future wind and solar power will be widely available but until then natural gas will suffice. ...

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) 2007-08-14 06:23:00 Pete's Frootique has made a bold move to stop plastic from making its way to our landfills. Any customer who chooses to use plastic bags from the company will now be charged $0.05 per bag. People are allowed to bring bags from other stores or request a box if needed at no cost. The money raised will be put towards a committee to make the store more eco-friendly.At first I was turned off by the plan because of the amount of money the store stood to receive from the plan. Their current usage of plastic bags would net them an extra $2500 a week for no new services. Since learning the money would be used for this committee I have learned to tolerate it. I would have rather they offer discounts to consumers who bring their own bags since it would not bring more money in to the company.I will still give my congrats to Pete's Frootique for taking steps to become more environmentally friendly. More companies should consider how they can do their share. Plastic may be cheap to buy but is very ...

Pictou Poison 2007-08-11 23:44:00 Despite health concerns, the Nova Scotia Government has approved a plan to kill hardwood trees using pesticide sprays. The spray will kill all hardwood trees on private lots in Pictou to allow softwood trees more room to grow. Residents, the Green party and the Stop The Spray community group have all raised concerns over the idea.The people want more testing done on the long term health affects. Without the testing there is no way to asses the risk to people in the area. The Vision and Vision Max sprays could affect people for many generations with no way to reverse the symptoms.So the government has approved a plan to kill trees with no idea how it will affect the people of Pictou. They are playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette where the only benefit would be more space for softwood. Why would it be so hard to simply cut down some of the trees causing the problem and then putting them to good use? We do this on a daily basis in our province so why switch to spraying them to dea ...

ALC Introduces New Safeguards 2007-08-10 07:45:00 The Atlantic Lottery Commission will introduce new policies to give consumers peace of mind. Starting Monday all winning tickets will be stamped and handed back to the owner including a validation slip. This will allow the owner to verify the prize amount being handed by the cashier.The old system was flawed because the clerk would keep the winning ticket to hand over to ALC. Many believe the clerks were handing back small amounts on tickets which were worth more. The new system is meant to give consumers a sense of confidence when claiming their prize.There will also be controlled numbers printed on both the ticket and the validation slip so you can verify the slip is actually yours.Auditors have found that store owners were winning more than statistics said they should. ALC's old system had no way of tracking the amount actually handed back to the customer which made it impossible to track down the crooks (assuming they existed). ALC was not the only company to make headlines over h ...

Gas Price Prediction For August 10th 2007 2007-08-09 05:52:00 It is Thursday again which means gas prices change for the people of Nova Scotia tomorrow. Here is my prediction for gasoline prices on August 10th 2007.I predict gas prices will drop by 2-3 cents per liter.Gasoline Prices In New BrunswickAugust 2nd 2007 - 104.1August 10th 2007 - 101.4Difference - -2.7To find out which zone you are located in, check out the map provided by Service Nova Scotia. You can also get a copy of the latest gas prices across the province by viewing the official report release. This prediction is in no way official and should only be used as informational. Any decision to purchase or not to purchase gasoline on any given day rests with you. All prices are based on self serve regular unless otherwise specified. ...

Gay Pride Flag Will Not Fly In Truro 2007-08-08 05:25:00 The Truro council has voted 6-1 in favor of not allowing the gay pride flag to fly at the town hall during the gay pride activities. The flag is normally displayed to show respect to the community during events supporting the movement. The town has since been labeled as disrespectful and non accepting to homosexual persons.Since the town is allowing the activities to take place with no objections I would be hesitant to call the entire city disrespectful. The decision was made by seven people only and not a popular vote so do not judge the residents.The real dispute came when Mayor Bill Mills stated the following:"God says I'm not in favour of that and I have to look at it and say, I guess I'm not either,""If I have a group of people that says pedophiles should have rights, do we raise their flag too? I don't want to lump them in with homosexuals, but that's the point, the issues, and that's my feeling."This was an unfair comparison between the gay community and those who commit il ...

Commenting Rules 2007-08-07 20:24:00 I figured it was time I created some rules on comments posted on this site since I was blind sided once before. First of all I encourage the use of the comment section and hope everyone takes advantage of it. Below is what will not be permitted and will cause a deletion of a comment:Any message which is offensive or discriminatory in natureAny comment which is off topic and considered as spamAny personal attacks on other readers commentsAny comment with foul languageI am keeping these basic because I do not want a controlled environment but rather one where everyone can speak their mind and not be worried about any backlash. I hope there are no objections to this policy and if necessary they could change at any time. ...

Animal Cruelty 2007-08-07 06:37:00 There has been an alarming trend in Metro over the last few weeks. Cats have been killed in front of their owners or hung from trees as a form of enjoyment. One person has been charged in the latest incident but many more are forgotten about. This could end up being a big concern another 10 years down the road.Killing animals has been known as the first step to becoming a human killer. The act shows a blatant disregard for life in general and for some is like giving a dog it's first taste of red meat. It could lead the person down a very slippery slope and be a gateway for more crimes in the future. This is why actions against animals needs to be treated very seriously.Not only is it a warning for future actions, killing an animal is terrible all by itself. Normally they are innocent creatures which act only out of instinct Any harm they cause is not intentional, it is simply what is built in to them. Would anyone ever kill a baby because it would not let the parents sleep at night? W ...

Family Forced To Relive Soldiers Death 2007-08-06 06:32:00 Kevin Megeney's family went away on vacation and returned to an article inside the Mother Jones magazine describing in depth about the death of their young soldier. Dr. Kevin Patterson wrote about the attempt to save Megeney's life which ultimately failed. An advance copy of the issue was sent to the family however their vacation caused them to miss the warning from the magazine.Megeney (from Stellarton Nova Scotia), was shot in the chest last March in Khandar by a member of his platoon. He did not survive.The family is upset that they were not notified before and also concerned about the graphic detail the article contained. Some have even claimed this could breach the Doctor-Patient confidentiality laws. This claim is doubtful since the confidentiality laws do not apply after death has occurred, however it was morally wrong.The magazine should have verified that the family was aware of the article and prepared for what was to be written. They also should have made certain that it w ...

NSP Plant Spews Ash 2007-08-03 20:41:00 A power plant in Cape Breton sent ash flying through the neighborhood which covered the homes of residents. A boiler leak played havoc with the pollution controls which is being blamed for accident.Residents were greeted by Nova Scotia Power employees who offered to clean up the mess left on automobiles and outside furniture. This is not the first time an incident such as this one has happened. The infamous Tuff's Cove plant has created similar situations over the last few years.Since the industry was privatized there have been an increasing amount of power outages, constant price increases and incidents such as this one. They have been criticized for their lack of communication and, until recently, their unwillingness to move to renewable energy sources.But there have been some positive moves by the company recently which include no rate increases for 2008, plans to reduce emission levels and proposals to create wind turbines for energy creation. All great changes which may show that ...

Minnesota Bridge Collapses (How Nova Scotia Compares) 2007-08-03 14:13:00 A great story about the condition of our bridges has been posted on HawkEyeNews. He goes in depth on the condition of our bridges as compared to the one which collapsed in Minnesota. I wrote about the bridge in Sheet Harbour earlier on my post entitled "East River Bridge Is Falling Down".Check out his post titled "Minnesota - 4 Nova Scotia - 0" ...

Gas Price Prediction For August 3rd 2007 2007-08-01 22:10:00 It is Thursday again which means gas prices change for the people of Nova Scotia tomorrow. Here is my prediction for gasoline prices on August 3rd 2007.I predict gas prices will stay the same or change by less than 2 cents per litre either way.Gasoline Prices In New BrunswickJuly 26th 2007 - 105.0August 2ns 2007 - 104.1Difference - -0.9To find out which zone you are located in, check out the map provided by Service Nova Scotia. You can also get a copy of the latest gas prices across the province by viewing the official report release. This prediction is in no way official and should only be used as informational. Any decision to purchase or not to purchase gasoline on any given day rests with you. All prices are based on self serve regular unless otherwise specified. ...