The latest numbers on COVID-19 are in, and they show another day with no new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. There are still 5 active cases in the Central Health Zone. Despite that, insiders in the health care field say Nova Scotians should not be feeling too smug, and only have to look at the more than 100 COVID infections in New Brunswick last week, to see how quickly things can change.
COVID-19 may have slowed down a project to connect experienced seniors with younger people looking for local mentorship, but it hasn’t stopped it. More than a dozen retired folks are at Glasgow Square today for the first orientation to prepare them to mentor young people fresh in their careers or businesses. The Mentoring Plus Strategy is a four-year pilot funded by Ottawa through the New Horizons for Seniors Program. While the government’s aim is to help seniors stay healthy, happy and involved in their communities, it’s also a win-win helping young people with valuable advice for their careers and businesses. Orientations are also being planned for the project’s other two pilot locations in Colchester and Kings counties.
IGNITE SETS UP IN NEW GLASGOW, WINS NATIONAL AWARD
IGNITE Atlantic has moved to a new facility in Pictou County at 352 East River Road to further support entrepreneurs and the innovation community in Atlantic Canada. IGNITE is a local innovation hub where it says new business ideas become reality. Entrepreneurs, small businesses, and large industries all benefit from the structure, with mentorships also provided. IGNITE is encouraging everyone to explore how they can make change possible in their communities. IGNITE, with $300,000 in help from ACOA, says it’s creating a local culture of innovation. Meanwhile, IGNITE Atlantic has just received a major national award. They’ve picked up the CANIE Social Innovation Award presented by Sovereign Insurance. That award is for outstanding achievement in Canada’s entrepreneurship and innovation community
It’s only been a year since IGNITE started in this region and with their space along the New Glasgow riverfront, IGNITE is hosting over a dozen startups, several student entrepreneurs, and has a dedicated area for community use, co-working, and a living lab. The building housing IGNITE is now known as the “Innovation Cluster” and also hosts partner organizations like Nova Scotia Business Inc., the DEANS Tourism Association, Pictou County Chamber of Commerce, Y-Reach and Velsoft.
NEW GLASGOW REGIONAL POLICE RESPOND TO PAIR OF ACCIDENTS
New Glasgow Regional Police saw a busy day responding to two car crashes, one each in New Glasgow and Trenton yesterday. A Hyundai Accent collied with Honda Civic at the intersection of North Main Street and Trenton Connector around 930 yesterday morning. The 68-year-old woman driving the Civic sustained non-life threatening injuries. The 20-year-old man driving the Hyundai Accent is charged with failing to yield the right of way. Both vehicles had to be towed away.
The second crash took place at 1:23 yesterday afternoon, when a Hyundai Accent collided with a Ford Fusion on Stellarton Road near the corner of George Street in New Glasgow. Luckily no injuries in that one.
A dispute over the scope and composition of a House of Commons committee will come to a head today in a vote that could trigger a federal election in the midst of the second deadly wave of COVID-19. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared that the vote on a Conservative motion to create a special anticorruption committee will be test of confidence in his minority Liberal government. The Conservatives are willing to drop “anticorruption” from the name of their proposed committee but the intent remains the same: to create a disproportionately opposition-dominated committee to investigate the WE Charity affair and other issues the official Opposition maintains reek of the government funnelling pandemic-related funding to Liberal friends. The motion would give the committee broad powers to call witnesses, including the prime minister and other ministers, and to demand documents on a range of issues, including the speaking fees earned by Trudeau’s mother and brother over the past 12 years. The Liberals claim it would just re-hash what’s already public knowledge.
Pictou Mayor Jim Ryan says the two new members of Town Council will be sworn in on November 2nd. The mayor says key spending decisions are in store for things like the DeCoste Cultural Hub and Library and whether the town can afford to commit to more money for the Ship Hector’s refurbishment. Another project on Pictou’s wish-list is cost-sharing with Ottawa and the Province on a new breakwater. Because of COVID-19, the swearing in ceremony for the Town of Pictou’s new council will be by invitation, with social distancing in place at the Decoste Centre.
A 33-year-old Colchester County man is facing drug and weapons charges after a number of arrests in vehicles, and in the Bible Hill suburb of Valley. Two men and two women were taken into custody following a traffic stop on Friday. RCMP say in addition, two more women were arrested after a home was searched on Sandy Place in Valley. That’s where officers say they seized firearms, weapons, explosive fire bottles, and drugs. Timothy Charles Gower Bond is facing ten charges, including possession for the purpose of trafficking and 6 weapons charges. He was put in jail pending his court case one week from today (October 28th). The four women have been released.
Fire has damaged a bungalow on King Street in central Truro. Two adults have been displaced by the flames. The fire was reported around 2 o’clock yesterday morning, (Tuesday) and the Red Cross volunteers are helping the pair with food, clothing and lodging.
An Amherst woman is speaking out after her husband’s cancer surgery was cancelled because the ambulance that was supposed to transfer him to a surgeon in Moncton failed to show up this week. Sharon Duffy’s 68-year-old husband, Wayne, was admitted to hospital 47 days ago with congestive heart failure. He’s been there ever since, and a CT scan also revealed a tumour on his bladder. A Moncton surgeon told the couple last month that his surgery was needed as soon as possible. But his surgery this past Monday got cancelled when a Nova Scotia-based ambulance couldn’t take him to Moncton on time. The head of EHS says too many ambulances in this province were tied up offloading patients at emergency departments at the time. Paramedics say the situation is way too common and it needs to be fixed.
What’s likely to be the final session of the Nova Scotia legislature with Stephen McNeil as Premier is expected to be a short one, and kind of disjointed. That’s because MLAs will be spending a lot of time shifting in and out of the chamber as they debate bills and put questions to cabinet ministers. All three parties have agreed to new pandemic rules that will limit the number of MLAs in the chamber to 29 at any given time, rather than the usual 51 members who make up the legislature. Debate will be halted every hour to give MLA’s waiting in the wings a chance to swap seats with those in the chamber, in order to give as many MLAs as possible a voice. The last time MLAs sat at Province House was back in March.
A wrongfully convicted man whose heart is weakening says he fears he’ll die before he can receive government compensation for 17 years of imprisonment. Glen Assoun of Halifax says he doesn’t have much energy and cites warnings from his doctor that his heart is operating at one-third of its normal capacity. He figures the Prime Minister’s office is just waiting for him to die. A Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruling in March 2019 reversed Assoun’s 1999 conviction for the murder of Brenda Way in Halifax.
Top defence officials have ordered Canadian troops to keep up their guard against COVID-19 while painting a gloomy picture of how the pandemic could affect the military and country. The order is in a new directive to Canadian military personnel and Defence Department officials from chief of defence staff General Jonathan Vance and Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas. The two say complacency about physical-distancing, mask-wearing and other public health measures are the greatest threat to the military when it comes to COVID-19. At the same time, they suggest the pandemic will get worse before it gets better, with expectations it could last another 12 months or longer and manifest in a number of waves across the country. (Cdn Press)
