The Province of Nova Scotia Liberal Majority- spring budget 2015
New Halifax farmers' market a hit on opening day
The smells of fresh bread, strong wood and baked
goods wafted through the Halifax Forum’s bingo hall Saturday as the new
farmers’ market opened for the first time.
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CHRONICLE HERALD- READER’S CORNER
Frenzied, fast-tracked fish-farming bill
I think I might be a whiplash victim. I am awaiting the official diagnosis, but I suspect it is from watching the legislative process. The reform of provincial regulation in open-net pen aquaculture wasn’t even on the radar screen 10 short days ago. But in the last week, a bill before the legislature was quickly introduced and is moving at the speed of light. Following this frenzied process may not be good for life or limb.
For those who will recall, the Doelle-Lahey report was issued prior to Christmas. It called for the absolute reform of open-net pen aquaculture and its sloppy regulation. Government members said they were open to these improvements, but not a peep did they express for nearly four months.
Suddenly, last Tuesday on federal budget day, with absolutely no notice and attention largely elsewhere, the sludge hit the fan — if you will forgive the unfortunate phrase. The minister discussed pending changes in a lateafternoon media scrum, a bill was introduced in the legislature, and the entire process is now in the legislative express lane.
Given that Doelle and Lahey recommended a thoughtful, comprehensive process and required that community engagement and transparency would be its underpinnings, it is concerning — to say the least — that this process would now be madly rushed to the finish line for reasons no one quite understands.
The stakes are extraordinarily high for wild fisheries, coastal communities and the environment in this province. The trust in government is extraordinarily low when it comes to doing the right thing on net pens in the ocean.
Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Keith Colwell has mused that more leases could be approved as early as the summer, and meanwhile, the legislative sausage-making is not a pretty process. As we watch this rush to legislation, the minister should be reminded of his oft-repeated mantra: more than anything, “We’ve got to get this right. . . ."
Stewart Lamont, Tangier
http://thechronicleherald.ca/letters/1283688-reader%E2%80%99s-corner-a-frenzied-fast-tracked-fish-farming-bill
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READER’S CORNER
Fisheries bill total betrayal
Changes to the Fisheries Act that the Liberals are trying to push through will be devastating for coastal communities and do not resemble at all the recommendations of an exhaustive panel study conducted by Doelle-Lahey.
This study was supported by communities, commercial and recreational fishers, tourism operators and conservationists around the province. The report, which supposedly was even supported by the marine-based finfish industry, acknowledged the many concerns of all the stakeholders and called for a complete overhaul of the regulatory system and a change of attitude in government, whereby community concerns would be heard throughout the regulatory process.
The report also acknowledged that no trust would ever be built between communities and the industry/government, which have acted as one, unless the voice of Nova Scotians was heard.
Communities are again blocked out by this bill. The government is still promoting the industry with complete lack of regard for its regulatory role and the health of coastal communities. The minister has called on leaseholders of over 160 dormant sites to again make application without meaningful review and public participation. Many of these sites are not operating, as they are failed experiments.
Cooke Aquaculture is preparing to restock a site at Jordan Bay that just suffered a massive fish kill. Meanwhile, communities are living with dead and diseased fish on their shores, displaced lobster fishers, dead zones in their harbours that do not recover, equipment debris tangled in lobster traps and polluted harbours.
To add insult to injury, the bill is proposing that the public has no right to know about fish health from the provincial government because it believes this would be a breach of business confidentiality rights. We do have the right to know how an industry affects the health of our communities, our water and the food we eat.
You cannot grow healthy food in polluted harbours. And we cannot sustain a healthy lobster and tourism industry when our harbours are used as dumping grounds. It took years and much suffering before the government decided to clean up Boat Harbour and the Sydney tar ponds. Do we have to wait until our harbours are dead before you hear our voices?
Wendy Watson Smith, president, Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore
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WORDPRESS BLOG:
Canada’s most iconic – Lobster- Come Visit Nova Scotia – go fishing with r fishers-church suppers- Canada’s Ocean Playground- recipies- Maritime Lobster Panel Report- Canada’s Atlantic Nova Scotia has the most frigid waters 4 Lobster – why their shells are perfect all year round- Largest lobsters ev-a photos/fisher videos…
https://nova0000scotia.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/canadas-most-iconic-lobster-come-visit-nova-scotia-go-fishing-with-r-fishers-church-suppers-canadas-ocean-playground-recipies-maritime-lobster-panel-report-canadas-atlantic-nova-scoti/
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Catherine MacKinnon- Farewell 2 Nova Scotia
Stan Rogers- the Queen of the Grand Banks Schooners
Bluenose
fiasco: Why is no one walking the plank?
KEVIN LACEY
Published May 1, 2015 - 5:38pm
Published May 1, 2015 - 5:38pm
Project
lead Wilson Fitt and naval architect Ian Tulloch give a demonstration of the
new hydraulic steering system aboard the Bluenose II on last December. (RYAN
TAPLIN / Staff)
If we want a government
that protects taxpayers’ money and promotes accountability, we need politicians
with the guts to enforce those reasonable standards.
No project needs an
injection of accountability more than the Bluenose restoration.
Three months have passed
since the “scathing” report from the auditor general on the Bluenose
restoration project. The AG described the government’s handling of the project
with words such as “baffling,” “disappointed,” and “failure.” Premier Stephen
McNeil even referred to the project as a “boondoggle.”
The language used to
describe the project is unlike the plain and bland terms more typically used in
an auditor general’s report. Not even the MLA expense scandal rustled up this
type of language from the previous Nova Scotia auditor general. In that case,
five MLAs were ultimately convicted of crimes related to their expenses.
The AG’s report flagged
problems with the Bluenose rebuild including that the Department of
Communities, Culture and Heritage did not plan well enough for the Bluenose
project, the roles/responsibilities were not clear for those involved and the
timelines and budget were not realistic.
To be sure, the government
deserves some credit for pledging to implement the recommendations of the AG.
One recommendation — to move the responsibility for the project from Department
of Communities, Culture and Heritage to the Department of Transportation — was
acted on immediately. This was a positive move, given the Department of
Transportation is used to dealing with infrastructure projects like this one.
It’s a step in the right
direction, but taxpayers should expect more when their money is mismanaged to
the extent it was with the Bluenose. As of yet, the total number of people held
to account for the millions wasted, bad decisions and ineptitude that led to
the Bluenose sinking from the pride of our nation to the butt of jokes, is a
big fat zero.
We don’t know of anyone who
has been fired, demoted or even reprimanded.
If this had been a private
company, would anyone expect those responsible to still hold a job afterwards?
Doing nothing sends the
message that it’s perfectly fine for government workers to waste and mismanage
taxpayers’ money. The project one government worker screws up will be moved to
another government department for someone else to fix.
The issue of accountability
is important today because the final chapter of this saga has yet to be
written. There are still plenty of questions left unanswered:
•How
much more will we spend on consultants like the MHPM project managers who
signed a $375,000 contract but have already billed the government $1.6 million
and are still charging $120 an hour?
•What
are the government’s plans once the ship is completed?
•When
will it sail?
•Will
it ever be certified to sail?
And of course, what will
the final cost be?
After all these years, and
all the money that has been spent, the final cost of the project is still a
mystery.
It would be like going to a
car dealership, bringing home a car, parking it in the driveway but never
knowing how much you have to pay for it or if it will ever work.
Nor do we know who will pay
the outstanding bills — the government, the builder or other consultants on the
project that the government once threatened to sue?
What has happened to the
Bluenose is nothing short of a tragedy.
It would be nice to move on
and allow the Bluenose to have a second chance to do the job it was meant to do
as our province’s sailing ambassador. But before that can happen, taxpayers
deserve accountability. Without proper accountability, the Bluenose saga will
continue.
Kevin Lacey is Atlantic
director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (taxpayer.com)
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JANUARY 13, 2015-
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE-
PASSIONATE ACTIVIST
Re: Ryan Taplin’s photo accompanying the Jan. 9 article by reporter Bill Power, “Groups urge aquaculture action." Please put a name to a face. Longtime community activist Susan Hauer of Wolfville, and Great Island in Queens County, is the unnamed woman holding a sign in support of the recently released final report of the Independent Aquaculture Regulatory Review for Nova Scotia. Ms. Hauer’s sign reads, “People from the Valley support the report. It is time to act NOW!"
Mr. Power notes that 400 people were present from community organizations across Nova Scotia. Although not formally linked to any one of these groups, Ms. Hauer learned of the meeting from her son Ned Zimmerman in Montreal and she and her husband, William Zimmerman, drove into Halifax on their own dime.
They represent many more Nova Scotians who stand together on an issue that concerns all who value pristine coastal waters and who seek to protect them “NOW!" I’d like to applaud all those who drove miles in cold weather to attend the news conference at the Lord Nelson Hotel.
And thanks to The Chronicle Herald for now putting a name to a fierce and a beautiful face.
Laura McLauchlan, Little Harbour, Shelburne County
AND..
UNITED AQUACULTURE FRONT
They’d planned for 150, apparently. They’d hoped for 200 secretly. They would have been thrilled with 300, undoubtedly. But when 400 Nova Scotians walked through those doors of the historic Lord Nelson, organizers of the news conference in support of the Doelle-Lahey aquaculture reform report knew something significant was happening.
There were wild salmon enthusiasts, lobster fishers and dealers, university professors and citizen activists. They came from communities all over Nova Scotia, from Cape Breton to Digby Gut. They were as inclusive a group as you could possibly muster in this remarkable province surrounded by water. It made one proud to be a part of it.
They were upbeat. They were respectful. They were engaged and focused. And they had a heartwarming message on the coldest day of the year. That message was incredibly straightforward and not a bit nuanced for the government: Doelle-Lahey reforms should be embraced and enacted and ultimately enforced with a regulatory passion. And let’s strike right away while the iron is hot.
Stewart Lamont, Tangier
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE-
PASSIONATE ACTIVIST
Re: Ryan Taplin’s photo accompanying the Jan. 9 article by reporter Bill Power, “Groups urge aquaculture action." Please put a name to a face. Longtime community activist Susan Hauer of Wolfville, and Great Island in Queens County, is the unnamed woman holding a sign in support of the recently released final report of the Independent Aquaculture Regulatory Review for Nova Scotia. Ms. Hauer’s sign reads, “People from the Valley support the report. It is time to act NOW!"
Mr. Power notes that 400 people were present from community organizations across Nova Scotia. Although not formally linked to any one of these groups, Ms. Hauer learned of the meeting from her son Ned Zimmerman in Montreal and she and her husband, William Zimmerman, drove into Halifax on their own dime.
They represent many more Nova Scotians who stand together on an issue that concerns all who value pristine coastal waters and who seek to protect them “NOW!" I’d like to applaud all those who drove miles in cold weather to attend the news conference at the Lord Nelson Hotel.
And thanks to The Chronicle Herald for now putting a name to a fierce and a beautiful face.
Laura McLauchlan, Little Harbour, Shelburne County
AND..
UNITED AQUACULTURE FRONT
They’d planned for 150, apparently. They’d hoped for 200 secretly. They would have been thrilled with 300, undoubtedly. But when 400 Nova Scotians walked through those doors of the historic Lord Nelson, organizers of the news conference in support of the Doelle-Lahey aquaculture reform report knew something significant was happening.
There were wild salmon enthusiasts, lobster fishers and dealers, university professors and citizen activists. They came from communities all over Nova Scotia, from Cape Breton to Digby Gut. They were as inclusive a group as you could possibly muster in this remarkable province surrounded by water. It made one proud to be a part of it.
They were upbeat. They were respectful. They were engaged and focused. And they had a heartwarming message on the coldest day of the year. That message was incredibly straightforward and not a bit nuanced for the government: Doelle-Lahey reforms should be embraced and enacted and ultimately enforced with a regulatory passion. And let’s strike right away while the iron is hot.
Stewart Lamont, Tangier
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FISH FARMING REPORT EXCELLENT....
The Doelle-Lahey report is available at www.aquaculturereview.ca.
and..
NO MORE PRETEND FISH DESTROYING OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR FISH- USING NOVA SCOTIA TAX $$$$ -LIKE COOKE- 4 God's sake look at the mess of China-
More than 400 call for new rules on fish farming in Nova Scotia
BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTER
Published January 8, 2015 - 6:17pm
Last Updated January 8, 2015 - 11:00pm
A woman holds a sign in support of the recently released final report of the Independent Aquaculture Regulatory Review for Nova Scotia during a news conference at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax on Thursday. Hundreds of people representing dozens of community groups and organizations from around the province attended the conference. (RYAN TAPLIN / Staff)
More than 400 people from community organizations across Nova Scotia turned out for a rally in Halifax on Thursday to issue a joint call for aquaculture reform.
The head table at a news conference organized by the Nova Scotia chapter of the Atlantic Coalition for Aquaculture Reform included dozens of representatives of conservation groups, commercial fisheries organizations and even tourism operators.
It was a massive show of support for the final report of the Independent Aquaculture Regulatory Review for Nova Scotia panel, released Dec. 16.
“We do not want these critical recommendations to languish in some bureaucratic backroom,” Raymond Plourde, with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, told participants.
There were repeated calls from a series of speakers for the province to adopt all recommendations included in the report, which Dalhousie University law professors Meinhard Doelle and William Lahey wrote.
“This is government’s opportunity to demonstrate leadership in producing a world-class regulatory system,” said Gloria Gilbert of Coastal Community Advocates.
The Doelle-Lahey report recommended protection of wild fish and lobster from the negative affects of fish farms.
It included, among other things, a call for regulations favouring aquaculture operations with low environmental impact and high economic value to the province.
“The report attempts to balance environmental concerns with the need to have a strong economy, and we support its immediate implementation,” Wendy Watson Smith, with the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, told participants.
The coalition organized the rally as a prelude to a strategy session for the organization in Halifax on Friday.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell said at the legislature a departmental review of the report was underway and due for completion in April.
“We’re very happy with the recommendations put forward, and we’re reviewing every item.”
Colwell said it was too early to comment on the coalition’s call for provincial adoption of all recommendations for regulatory reform recommended in the report.
The Doelle-Lahey report is available at www.aquaculturereview.ca.
With Michael Gorman,
provincial reporter
----------------------
EDITORIAL: Aquaculture report nets a consensus
THE CHRONICLE HERALD
Published January 9, 2015 - 5:29pm
A woman holds a sign in support of the recently released final report of the Independent Aquaculture Regulatory Review for Nova Scotia during a press conference at the Lord Nelson Hotel on Jan. 8. Hundreds of people representing dozens of community groups and organizations from around the province attended the press conference. (RYAN TAPLIN/Staff)
Darrell Dexter got a failing grade from voters as premier. But he did have a knack for picking commissions and panels that produced good work on important, thorny issues — for the next government.
The Ivany commission on economic renewal and the Wheeler panel on fracking are two examples, with different outcomes. Ivany’s advice was embraced by the Liberal government that replaced Mr. Dexter’s NDP. Wheeler’s balanced recommendations on shale development were regrettably ignored when the Liberals chose the politically expedient route of a hasty fracking ban.
But there’s a third jewel in this good-advice crown — the regulatory review on aquaculture conducted by Dalhousie law professors Meinhard Doelle and Bill Lahey, who handed their report to the government in December.
The excellence of their work was plain to see Thursday at a gathering of the Nova Scotia Coalition for Aquaculture Reform at the Halifax Lord Nelson Hotel.
Dozens of community, fishing and conservation groups and hundreds of people who want open-pen fish farms banned were there to call on the government to adopt Doelle-Lahey’s framework for regulating aquaculture — even though it doesn’t recommend banning open-pen farms.
These critical stakeholders were saying they’re prepared to give the “regulatory excellence” proposed by D-L a chance to prove itself — as long as the government doesn’t cherry-pick the recommendations.
They have good reason to want the report left whole. D-L’s regulatory framework is an impressively comprehensive effort to ensure aquaculture has a “social licence” (i.e., takes the interests of its neighbours seriously) and achieves the big goal of becoming a low-impact, high-value industry.
The report, for example, proposes a proactive rating system to determine which coastal sites are suitable for fish farms and which are not — independent of any licence applications.
It also recommends legislated rather than discretionary licensing requirements, better containment systems to prevent interbreeding and spread of disease to wild fish, tougher rules on chemicals, and separation of government promotion and oversight of aquaculture.
It advocates transparent reporting on performance, and, indeed on all aspects of regulation.
It would require fish farms to meet water-oxygen standards. That limits the number of healthy fish a site can support.
D-L says a regulatory advisory committee should include community stakeholders. The public should have a process to seek revoking of licences when there is a pattern of non-compliance. Licences should be terminated for ongoing violations.
The head table at Thursday’s conference seemed as long as the carrier USS Nimitz — and the message it repeatedly launched was a feeling that D-L consultations seriously listened to community concerns. “We finally felt we were being heard,” said Wendy Watson Smith of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore.
For Doelle-Lahey to convince this broad swath of Nova Scotia to give credible aquaculture regulation a chance is a real achievement, given the strong opposition to open-pen farms. The government, too, should give the full D-L package a chance to create an industry that does live up to the low-impact, high value ideal.
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BLACK: Fact-based decisions best fish-farming model
BILL BLACK
Published January 9, 2015 - 5:24pm
The final report on aquaculture by Dalhousie professors Meinhard Doelle and William Lahey says a fundamental “overhaul of the regulation of aquaculture” in Nova Scotia is needed. (ADRIEN VECZAN / Staff)
Aquaculture represents one of the best opportunities for sustainable development in Nova Scotia. It can be a valuable source of jobs in rural communities.
It needs effective regulation that is open and transparent to communities, ensures acceptable impact on the coastal environment and other users, and nevertheless facilitates healthy growth in the sector.
The final report on aquaculture by Dalhousie professors Meinhard Doelle and William Lahey provides an excellent framework for achieving these goals.
The aquaculture industry has expressed its support for the direction of the recommendations. Some environmentalists would have preferred a ban on marine-based salmon farms, but they also feel that the process leading to the report was good and the proposed direction represents a big improvement. They are emphatic that they would like the recommendations implemented without exception.
Minister Keith Colwell of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture says that the government is in broad agreement with the recommendations and accepts that the more robust proposed regulatory framework will need greater funding.
All this can lead to decisions about growing the economy while respecting the environment being made by knowledgeable people working with the needed information.
It does not always work that way.
Consider, for example, the important business of regulating what goes into a sewer. Triangle Petroleum has for several years been looking for a way to properly dispose of the wastewater left from its fracking operations in 2007 and 2008. Some of the water has been treated with a process called reverse osmosis that leaves the potential contaminants behind and brings the water to drinking quality standard. They proposed to then dispose of it through Amherst’s sewer system.
One would think that flushing drinking water down the toilet would not represent much of a risk to a municipal sewer system. But the citizens of Amherst, which would have benefitted to the tune of $500,000 under the proposal, would have none of it.
Mayor Rob Small, supported by knowledgeable experts, tried to explain the process at a town meeting last fall seeking public input. The crowd, animated by a Facebook campaign replete with misinformation, voted almost unanimously against.
One attendee nicely summed up the crowd’s perspective: “I want to hear what they have to say, but there is not a thing they could tell me that would convince me otherwise.” This is just as illogical as it sounds.
The environment is much worse off if the fluid is left untreated in holding ponds than if it is managed as proposed.
It is in this context that we should examine the Doelle-Lahey recommendations. The principal focus is on marine-based finfish, primarily salmon, which is the area of both greatest economic opportunity and potential opposition on environmental grounds.
The report is clear that the present regulatory process at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA) is neither adequate, nor transparent, nor sufficiently engaged with communities where aquaculture is proposed. It recommends that all citizens have access to the application and relevant information at every stage of the approval process, and that they be invited to provide representations to DFA as part of that process.
That decision on each application should be based on compatibility with other uses of coastal resources, environmental sustainability and socio-economic benefits to the community.
The DFA would be required to explain how its decisions address these licensing principles and any other issues raised by communities.
Not on the list of factors is a count of how many people demonstrate for or against the project at a town meeting. In other words, the decision is ultimately to be based on a knowledgeable evaluation of the relevant facts.
Appeals would be possible. The report is unsure whether these should be to the minister or to an independent aquaculture review board (with a final appeal to the provincial Supreme Court available in either case).
Appeals through an independent board are much to be preferred. Appeals to the minister could start a whole new round of political lobbying to undermine an otherwise well-constructed process.
For example, the Liberals’ former minister of energy, if allowed, would have overridden the recent decision by the Utility and Review Board on electricity rates, even though that decision was supported by the facts and by all representatives of customers at the hearing.
The general direction of the aquaculture report has been known since August. No new salmon farms can be developed until the new regulations are in place. It is disappointing that the minister cannot confidently predict completion of those regulations before the end of 2015.
But at least we are pointed in the right direction.
Any good regulatory process for resource industries should insist on the right of citizens to provide their input, whether well-informed or wilfully ignorant. But the process should then make and communicate a decision based solely on the relevant facts, and the policy framework recommended by Doelle and Lahey.
Done well, this process can boost rural employment in aquaculture and set the example for development of other resource industries.
comment:
It really is too bad such a good opportunity to try and prevent rural NS from sinking has become a lightning rod for well monied sophisticated hypocrites linked to NIMBY. The truth is, NS needs economic growth more than overregulation of an industry that is facing tough challenges. It would be great to have economic viability along with a gold standard environmental regime, I doubt if we can have both. Truth is, other users of the ocean are polluting as much or more everywhere, there is a lot of garbage dumped by the fishing industry, around wharf areas and waterfronts, including petroleum, sewer from cottages, farm manure, and point source leakage into marine areas remains a big problem, but that is OK . Huge areas remain closed to shellfish harvesting, but not from aquaculture. The actual inherent cumulative footprint impact is small, far less than Bedford Basin and really, even if the industry was unregulated, the overall impact would be minor compared to the desperate need for anything that can exist in rural areas. With power rates, taxes and labour rates and regulations as they are, the on land concept often pointed to is a red herring, it can't work, unless the market prices for a product would be extremely high. So we will grind it into the dust slowly but surely.
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AQUACULTURE REGULATION
D-L report nets a consensus
Darrell Dexter got a failing grade from voters as premier. But he did have a knack for picking commissions and panels that produced good work on important, thorny issues — for the next government.
The Ivany commission on economic renewal and the Wheeler panel on fracking are two examples, with different outcomes. Ivany’s advice was embraced by the Liberal government that replaced Mr. Dexter’s NDP. Wheeler’s balanced recommendations on shale development were regrettably ignored when the Liberals chose the politically expedient route of a hasty fracking ban.
But there’s a third jewel in this good-advice crown — the regulatory review on aquaculture conducted by Dalhousie law professors Meinhard Doelle and Bill Lahey, who handed their report to the government in December.
The excellence of their work was plain to see Thursday at a gathering of the Nova Scotia Coalition for Aquaculture Reform at the Halifax Lord Nelson Hotel.
Dozens of community, fishing and conservation groups and hundreds of people who want open-pen fish farms banned were there to call on the government to adopt Doelle-Lahey’s framework for regulating aquaculture — even though it doesn’t recommend banning open-pen farms.
These critical stakeholders were saying they’re prepared to give the “regulatory excellence" proposed by D-L a chance to prove itself — as long as the government doesn’t cherry-pick the recommendations.
They have good reason to want the report left whole. D-L’s regulatory framework is an impressively comprehensive effort to ensure aquaculture has a “social licence" (i.e., takes the interests of its neighbours seriously) and achieves the big goal of becoming a low-impact, high-value industry.
The report, for example, proposes a proactive rating system to determine which coastal sites are suitable for fish farms and which are not — independent of any licence applications.
It also recommends legislated rather than discretionary licensing requirements, better containment systems to prevent interbreeding and spread of disease to wild fish, tougher rules on chemicals, and separation of government promotion and oversight of aquaculture.
It advocates transparent reporting on performance, and, indeed on all aspects of regulation.
It would require fish farms to meet water-oxygen standards. That limits the number of healthy fish a site can support.
D-L says a regulatory advisory committee should include community stakeholders. The public should have a process to seek revoking of licences when there is a pattern of non-compliance. Licences should be terminated for ongoing violations.
The head table at Thursday’s conference seemed as long as the carrier USS Nimitz — and the message it repeatedly launched was a feeling that D-L consultations seriously listened to community concerns. “We finally felt we were being heard," said Wendy Watson Smith of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore.
For Doelle-Lahey to convince this broad swath of Nova Scotia to give credible aquaculture regulation a chance is a real achievement, given the strong opposition to open-pen farms. The government, too, should give the full D-L package a chance to create an industry that does live up to the low-impact, high value ideal.
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https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nwf.org%2F2014%2F08%2Fthis-pristine-and-glorious-wilderness-is-at-risk%2F&ei=-8NDVaCAGoOPyASU_IGQDg&bvm=bv.92189499,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNGpAvDokCPjkkLqb1ixb9xuRK9zjQ&ust=1430590790375473
BLOGSPOT:
CANADA'S SOCKEYE SALMON'S courage distinction verging on extinction-is teaching what us Climate Oldies have been preaching - each and every Canadian must actually GET INVOLVED IN CANADA'S NATURE- do something physical- not just dumb protests that cost $$$billions- go out and save our nature-our salmon teach us who we were and what we are losing...imho/OLD CANADIANS UNDERSTAND THIS- we grew up in WWII severe poverty and saving and using everything and always respect the land and sea- please get don't wave a poster- get actually involved- our nature's dying
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/11/canadas-sockey-salmons-courage.html
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BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS- Nova Scotia Provincial Liberal majority- taxes, taxes and more taxes- nailing unions, arts, students, environment and seniors (sound familiar Canada- same old sheeet in different package)/Terry Fox/ Nova Scotia Gov. horrific Environment betrayal on back of same dogma of NDP and Tories?? ...sigh April 16, 2015
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2015/04/canada-military-news-nova-scotia.html
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Joe South -1970 - Walk a Mile in My Shoes
NOVA SCOTIA- Bernard burns most
vulnerable as budget creates hardships
EVAN COOLE Published May 1,
2015 - 5:16pm
Community Services Minister
Joanne Bernard should remember that her office’s “clients,” as her staffer
referred to them, are also her constituents, writes Evan Coole.
Can you imagine having to
gather a mountain of documentation before sitting in front of a panel of civil
servants and an adjudicator to get your child a dental procedure? How about
having to check with two government employees and go through months of meetings
and arbitrary tests before applying for a job or training program?
I have seen this and more in
my work advocating for people on social assistance, which is why I accompanied
a group of Dartmouth North residents to Joanne Bernard’s MLA office to demand
to know how she can support a budget that makes life worse for unemployed and
disabled people. After this visit, we know her office is acutely aware of the
problems, but she is choosing to support the budget anyway.
Minister Bernard’s office
staff informed us she routinely sees people getting denied funding for
essential health needs like diabetic diets and medical equipment. She echoed
our sentiments that the burden the Department of Community Services places on
people who are ill and disabled to prove they are ill and disabled is unfair
and onerous.
Her staff also mentioned
that an issue she sees frequently is people with disabilities having their
rights violated by one of the many unscrupulous landlords in Dartmouth North. I
would imagine this is the kind of issue People First, a self-advocacy
organization for people labelled as having intellectual disabilities, would be
happy to take on had their meagre funding not just been slashed by Ms. Bernard.
Throwing film workers out of
their jobs, cutting health care and education, freezing social assistance,
deregulating tuition fees and trampling workers’ rights — there is something in
this budget to make everyone unhappy. Everyone except John Risley and perhaps
the other handful of billionaires in Nova Scotia.
Being a billionaire in Nova
Scotia entails receiving public benefits more generous than any individual on
assistance would even dream of having access to — loans, tax breaks and
outright handouts.
I would suggest they do as
Finance Minister Diana Whalen said Nova Scotia’s university students should and
be willing to “pay to play.” Instead, the poor are expected to suffer further
so people like Mr. Risley can continue to enjoy his wealth.
While enrolled at Mount
Saint Vincent University, Ms. Bernard accessed income assistance to support
herself and her child while earning her degree. Because I provide legal support
to people on social assistance, I can empathize with how hard she must have
struggled to get by.
That said, the public
benefits she received in the 1990s were much more generous than what social
assistance provides now. She enjoyed lower tuition than any student coming
after her, and important to note is that her ministry makes it much harder to
access education while on assistance than during her time. I find it hard to
understand why she supported a budget that further erodes what she enjoyed
herself.
She should remember that her
office’s “clients,” as her staffer referred to them, are also her constituents.
If she won’t take a stand, I’m sure the low-income residents of Dartmouth North
would be happy to find someone who will.
Evan Coole is a legal aid
worker. He was the founding staff organizer of Nova Scotia ACORN, an
organization of low and moderate income people, and is a member of Solidarity
Halifax.
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Water- Canada’s glorious water…./Canada history… /Canada let’s preserve our water better and drink from taps instead of killing whales and wildlife with plastic eh?/ NOVA SCOTIA CANADA’S MI’KMAQ PEOPLES OF NOVA SCOTIA- ATLANTIC CANADA.... SHOWED US IMMIGRANTS HOW 2 FIND WATER, HUNT, FISH AND SURVIVE/ International Water Day March 22, 2015
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CANADA AND NOVA SCOTIA- please stop pimping booze, gambling and tobacco 4 ur profit- ur killing us...ur killing us...(UVE CREATED HORRIFIC HOMELESSNESS) . Every Political Party in Canada and Nova Scotia PROMISED 2 ELIMINATE- GAMBLING.... every one.... and ...u ...doubled...it...Seriously.... /CANADA HAS A RACISM PROBLEM (Well don't all Nations) -love u Winnipeg 4 stepping up 2 this and First Nations needs 2 protect their women and children and $$$$ goes 2 their First People instead of Chiefs and Band Councils-/Canada and Nova Scotia pls. fix the underbelly of booze, gambling and tobacco...and by the by First Nations own their lands and their taxes
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2015/01/canada-and-nova-scotia-please-stop.html
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Little bit of Canada history- Canadian Geographic
Canadian Geographic articles
The Grizzly Bear
By A.M. Pearson
April 1972
April 1972
Written in 1972, A.M. Pearson’s article on the grizzly bear shines with his fascination for the great omnivore of North America.
The grizzly is a purely North American term, and this bear belongs to the brown bear family, which has members in Russia and Japan, among others. More interesting than this, there are delineations between geographic populations of the bear on this continent, called ecotypes (they’re not genetically separated enough to be called separate species). This allows the bear to be separated into six different populations, including the northern interior grizzly, most famous for its large size (up to 544 kg!).
Tracing the seasonal habits of bears, Pearson describes the grizzly as an omnivorous creature, living off of scavenged berries and other edible plants as well as small animals during the summer and sleeping for the winter. Females, while hibernating, give birth to their cubs. With great attention to detail, the full life cycle and habits of the grizzly are supplemented with pictures of the author and summer students measuring weights, tagging and tracking the bears.
Scientific in nature, the article’s overall aim is to demystify the grizzly as a fearsome beast. Pearson’s curiosity allows him to show the bears as great creatures of North America, our last living megafauna on this continent. His concern for the future of the bears is voiced at the end of the article and, though written over thirty years ago, has great relevance today.
Hungry as a bear
By Stephen J. Krasemann
December 2008
December 2008
Focussing on the fall feast of grizzlies on the salmon of the Fishing Branch tributary, Stephen J. Krasemann writes about his experiences while photographing the annual convergence of up to 50 bears on a tributary.
Located near the Arctic Circle, Fishing Branch (which eventually joins two other tributaries to form Porcupine River) is inundated with spawning salmon every fall that swim up from the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, the bears have figured this out, and just before they go down for their long winter nap, they enjoy a pre-hibernation meal of fish.
This is not to say they are the only animals that benefit from the salmon, either. The writer describes watching wolves, bald eagles, martens and other carnivores fish in the tributary as well.
The article is supplemented with beautiful pictures of the bears, birds and the landscape.
If you do not have Acrobat Reader®, please click on the following link Adobe Reader to download it from the Adobe® Web site.
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Russia furthers
Arctic dreams while America sleeps
BOGDAN
KIPLING
Published May 1, 2015 - 5:49pm
Last Updated May 1, 2015 - 5:49pm
Published May 1, 2015 - 5:49pm
Last Updated May 1, 2015 - 5:49pm
In this
2011 U.S. navy photo released by the U.S. navy, crew members look out from the
USS Connecticut, a Sea Wolf-class nuclear submarine, after it surfaced through
ice in the Arctic Ocean. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — There is no
place on Planet Earth where opportunities for strategic economic interest are
as great as in the Arctic, said an American politician a week ago — and she
knows what she’s talking about.
Senator Lisa Murkowski is
from Alaska. Her roots are deep in the frozen land and her passion for it is
red hot. The Arctic, she says, is America’s and Canada’s treasure trove of the
future.
Don’t look for the exact
words — I compressed down to essence the message she sent from the podium of
the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington’s premier think
tank.
Murkowski, a Republican
politician born and bred in Alaska, aimed her words directly at President
Barack Obama: Wake up and notice how important the Arctic is to the United
States and, as a subtext, how busy Russia is in the power play for the Arctic’s
enormous resources.
Forty billion barrels of
recoverable oil and gas are there, she said, and Washington had better get busy
to ensure the safety of America’s share.
She is pushing Obama, his
White House policy mavens and yes, Congress, to be quick and bold in securing
America’s interests before President Vladimir Putin — Czar Vlad in my
vocabulary — stakes his claims far beyond Russia’s legitimate rights.
Murkowski did not make
these specific points. I have distilled them from what is going on in the
U.S.-Russia struggle playing out in Ukraine and Russia’s rapid mili-tarization
of its northern waters.
I am not engaging in silly
Russia-bashing. I am scared stiff when I read, in The Globe and Mail, that
Putin has appointed Dimitri Rogozian as head of the Kremlin’s new Commission
for Arctic issues.
Rogozin is Russia’s former
ambassador to NATO and a former deputy prime minister. He is also noteworthy as
holding the view that in selling Alaska to the United States, Czar Alexander II
committed a “betrayal of Russia’s power status.”
An aside: the year was 1867
and the price $7.2 million. But wait, there is more. A year ago, Rogozin wrote
that Russia has the “right to reclaim our lost colonies.”
Putin appointed him to
chair a new committee for Arctic affairs and protecting Russians living abroad.
Scary? You bet.
What is true about
America’s Arctic interests is doubly true for Canada’s. America’s Arctic is
small compared with Canada’s vast domain. But the hardest circumstance is that
while the United States has the muscle to stand Putin off, Canada does not.
This is not some Canadian
sin of omission but merely a fact of life: Even with total sacrifice, Canada is
incapable of fielding the military power needed to defend our Arctic land,
islands and waters.
Murkowski’s starting point
in her presentation was that the United States should have prepared for
assuming the chairmanship of the Arctic Council but did not. The United States
took over the two-year position from Canada last Friday.
She did not spell out her
important second point: What Putin grabs may be hard to reclaim.
She did point out
emphatically that the biggest hurdles in Washington doing what it must do in
the Arctic are exclusively American-made. In fact, she allowed, Washington has
no Arctic policy worth the name.
Obama and, I imagine, his
predecessors would never admit any such failure. Why, last Friday, Secretary of
State John Kerry, the Arctic Council’s new chairman, stated the president’s
Arctic policy. It is coping with climate change, period.
Only a fool would argue
that climate change is not important, but no informed and sensible man or woman
would agree that it is the only concern.
Her subtext here boils down
to this: whatever Obama may say, he and his predecessors have left a huge
Arctic policy void.
Murkowski focused on
today’s realities — i.e., the Arctic’s open waters as a cheap transportation
route for Asia, Europe, Russia and North America.
But unlike the Obama
administration, she includes the need for money, not only to defend the Arctic,
but also to advance in every way the opportunities for the Arctic’s many
people.
Obama, the president of all
Americans, doesn’t show any signs he comprehends the Arctic’s importance. If he
did, he wouldn’t be slashing spending crucial to the region.
Without money, all the talk
of the Arctic’s local, national and international role is just pig’s piddle.
Bogdan
Kipling is a freelance journalist in Washington.
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