NS AUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORT ON FRAUD READINESS NOW AVAILABLE
Acting Auditor General Terry Spicer’s report is lengthy and detailed, but it does deal with a number of provincial government departments, agencies and taxpayer-funded services in how they’ve prepared themselves for cases of fraud. For instance, the Chignecto-Central Regional Centre for Education, which governs our local school system, has no formal anti-fraud policy, even though it has managed to assess the usefulness of a fraud hotline. When it comes to formal government departments, less than half have had their provincial employees complete anti-fraud training. That includes the Public Prosecution Service, Intergovernmental Affairs and the Public Service Commission.
The report is now available on the Auditor General’s website at https://www.oag-ns.ca/
NOVA SCOTIA RCMP LAY OUT WHO’S BEEN CHARGED WITH WHAT DURING COVID-19
RCMP say 308 people have been charged for violating COVID-19 restrictions since the final week of March. Sixty-seven of those people were charged under the Emergency Management Act and 241 people were charged under the Health Protection Act. Officials says province-wide, the majority of tickets issued were to everyday people who failed to self-isolate to keep COVID-19 from spreading, or follow the social distancing requirements laid out by law.
Other tickets were issued to business operators and individuals who failed to comply with some of the provincial closure orders that have been well-publicized since early last spring.
TRAFFIC NOTE –
Access to MacCulloch Education Centre will be by Division Road today as they do the final paving in that neighbourhood within the Town of Pictou.
FREELAND SAYS CANADIANS NEED TO KNOW ECONOMY WILL COME “ROARING BACK”
After running a deficit of more than $380 billion in the fight against COVID-19, the government is pledging to spend as much as $100 billion more to ensure the pandemic’s economic damage doesn’t become permanent.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presented the numbers in her long-awaited fiscal update late yesterday in the House of Commons, promising to ensure Canada is positioned to come out of the pandemic stronger. She says 80 per cent of Canadian jobs lost in the first pandemic wave have bounced back, as people take safety precautions, and others carry on their duties from home. Her plan is to make sure that our economy is not wounded, so that we can – in Freeland’s words – “come out of this crisis roaring back.” With COVID numbers on the rise, Freeland says Canadians should know that there is real a plan to get the country back to normal. (Photo Credit – National Post)
16 NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES IN NOVA SCOTIA
The news on coronavirus is that there are 138 active cases this morning across Nova Scotia. Public Health is reporting 16 new cases in the update from Sunday, which is the latest count, and includes the case from the school in Canning that made headlines yesterday.
COLCHESTER COUNTY WOMAN IN HER 50’S MISSING
RCMP in Colchester County are trying to locate a missing 57-year-old woman, so they’re asking us to stay on the look-out. Shelley Whidden was last seen Saturday in Beaver Brook on Highway 236. Whidden is described as white, 5’5″ and 200 pounds, with long blond hair and hazel eyes. Police say there’s no clothing description available. Whidden might be travelling with two dogs in a grey Toyota Rav4 with dog stickers on the back window. The Nova Scotia Licence plate number of her vehicle is FDV 559. (RCMP Photo)
PEI FERRY SERVICE REDUCED
There will be no service on the boats to PEI today because of the winds. But when they do begin operating on Wednesday, ferries to PEI will be tapering back to two crossings a day – given the end of the Atlantic Bubble that’s now seriously curtailing inter-provincial travel in the Atlantic Region. It means boats will sail from Caribou to the Island each day at 130. They’ll sail from PEI to Caribou each morning at 8. And those two daily crossing will only take place Monday through Friday until the season ends later this month.
A Sipekne’katik band councillor has been charged with unsafe operation of a vessel during the September confrontation over the Mi’kmaw fishery in the waters off Saulnierville, Digby County. 34-year-old Brandon Alexander Maloney goes to court in February. He was band fisheries manager at the time of the incident. Police reports show it took place on Sept. 17th — four days after the band launched its moderate livelihood lobster fishery in St. Mary’s Bay, which has since made headlines almost every week since then.
A Digby County man has also been charged with violating an interim court injunction banning any interference with a First Nation’s lobster fishery. RCMP got a report on October 23rd of a vessel steaming toward another vessel, which had to manoeuvre to avoid a potential collision on St. Mary’s Bay. Police say 42-year-old Dale Richard Wagner is charged with disobeying an order of the court. The Sipekne’katik First Nation obtained the court injunction after tensions over its moderate livelihood fishery boiled over into a series of violent clashes and vandalism.
An RCMP Service Dog has located an 85-year old man reported missing from Kings County last Thursday as part of a team effort. The man was reported missing from a home near New Minas around 11:00 o’clock that night, Police say the dog and another police canine tracked the man for about four kilometers through fields and wooded areas before he was found safe, bringing forth a happy ending.
Halifax Regional Police have arrested a suspect after getting a report of a man threatening people with a knife. That was just before 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. (Monday) Luckily, no one was hurt. The suspect had already left the area by the time police arrived, but officers arrested a man nearby.
