High winds knocked out power to tens of thousands of electricity customers across the three Maritime provinces on Monday night.

Wind gusts of between 80 to 100 kilometres an hour hammered the region, and the bulk of the power outages were here in Nova Scotia – mainly in the northern part of the province along with Halifax and the Annapolis Valley.

As of 4:00am this morning, Nova Scotia Power was reporting over 520 outages across the province, affecting more than 29-thousand customers.

There are dozens of scattered outages this morning in the Pictou County area affecting thousands of customers.

 

 

Because of the conditions this morning, Northumberland Ferries has cancelled this morning’s 8:30 am crossing from Wood Islands, PEI and the 10:00 am crossing from Caribou.

Most of the scheduled sailings on Monday had to be cancelled because of the windy conditions.

 

 

New Glasgow Regional Police have charged a man after a robbery at a gas station / convenience store on Marsh Street in New Glasgow.

It happened on Sunday at about 8:30 p.m., when a store employee had been confronted by a man who pointed a gun at the employee and demanded money.

The man fled the gas station on foot with cash.

A description of the man was provided by the employee and confirmed through video surveillance.

With assistance from the RCMP Police Dog Services, officers contained the area and located and safely arrested a 39-year-old man shortly after 2am on Monday.

The man has been charged with Armed Robbery; Use of a firearm while committing an offence; Pointing a firearm.; and various other firearms offences.

Police say a second person was also involved, and New Glasgow Regional Police are investigating his identity.

 

 

Premier Tim Houston and the other Atlantic Premiers met virtually and discussed a number of issues, including health care and housing.

The Premiers discussed immigration as key to meeting the region’s growing labour demands and bolstering economic growth.

The Premiers also talked about the integral role of the federal government in ensuring the dependability of ferry service in the region.

 

 

A forestry consultant says there is a natural long-term solution to the threat of wildfires posed to city dwellers.

Mike Lancaster says much of the one-thousand hectares that ignited in May — destroying 151 homes and businesses in Halifax’s western suburbs — was young, dense, coniferous woodland that had grown after decades of intensive logging.

Lancaster says Nova Scotia should plan for centuries of restoration rather than continuing a cycle of encouraging highly combustible trees and frequent cutting.

Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton says changes are needed and one aspect could be improved forest management at the edge of urban areas to decrease fire risk.