The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) announced $711,886 in funding on Monday in New Glasgow for 11 projects to revitalize communities and downtown cores around the Northumberland Shore.
Some of the funding is going to various projects in Pictou County:
The Town of Pictou is receiving $223,250 for three different projects.
The Pictou Landing Fire Department will get $60,000 to replace a damaged roof.
The Hector Arena Commission Association will receive $50,000 to replace the rink’s aging refrigeration plant.
And $33,825 will go to The Trenton and Area Minor Softball Association to make Scotia Park walking track more accessible and functional.
Nova Scotia will now cover the cost of the cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta for children ages six to 11.
This comes months after Health Canada approved the use of the drug for that age group in April.
Nova Scotians over the age of 12 with cystic fibrosis have been eligible for provincially funded Trikafta since November 2021.
Without a provincial program, Trikafta could cost patients as much as $300,000 per year.
Cystic fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disease in children and young adults in Canada, and it is estimated that one in 3,600 babies in Canada are born with cystic fibrosis.
Trikafta can be used to treat about 90 per cent of cystic fibrosis patients.
A former Mountie’s account that a 2013 call involving the Nova Scotia mass killer was about a routine disturbance, rather than a domestic assault is encountering contradictory evidence at a public inquiry.
Brenda Forbes, a former neighbour of the killer, gave evidence last week that she was told by an eyewitness that he pinned his spouse, Lisa Banfield, to the ground and choked her in Portapique in the summer of 2013.
She also testified that she spoke to two officers about the assault during a meeting in Debert, but nothing was ever done about the incident.
This contradicts the April 29 account from Const. Troy Maxwell, who retired from the RCMP last year.
He has told inquiry investigators that in fact Forbes called to complain the killer was “tearing around” the community in a decommissioned police car.
Maxwell, who is scheduled to testify under oath again Today, said if there had been any evidence of domestic abuse, he would have been arrested.
