The Province is lifting some evacuation orders but a wildfire in the Annapolis Valley remains out of control.  It’s been three weeks since the Long Lake fire forced the evacuations of about 500 homes.  More than half of those will be allowed home today.  But the province’s Natural Resources Department says some evacuation orders could be reinstated if fire threatens those areas again.

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Nova Scotia Power  has reached a tentative agreement with customer representatives that could see residential electricity rates rise by 8.2 per cent over the next two years.

Nova Scotia Power issued a statement Tuesday saying the proposal is subject to approval from the independent Nova Scotia Energy Board.

The privately owned utility says the proposal calls for residential rates to rise by 4.1 per cent as of January 1st, 2026, and then rise again by another 4.1 per cent in January of 2027.

The customer representatives included the province’s consumer advocate, the small business advocate, an industrial group and a number of electricity commissions.

 

 

Seniors needing help with health-care costs can now apply for the Nova Scotia seniors care grant program.  The province says the program offers grants of up to 750-dollars.  People in Nova Scotia aged 65 and over with an annual household income up to 45-thousand dollars can apply.  The province says people can use the funds for home heating, phone and internet services, prescription deliveries and more.

 

 

Senior Nova Scotia government officials are responding to concerns that they are falling short on a commitment to treat intimate-partner violence as an epidemic. Nicole Johnson-Morrison, with the province’s Status of Women council, says the government’s declaration that it was an epidemic was a critical step in acknowledging the severity of the issue.  She told a legislative committee that the budget includes more than 100-million-dollars for initiatives related to intimate-partner or gender-based violence.  Since October 18th, there have been seven women in Nova Scotia allegedly killed by their male partners.

 

 

Federal officials are limiting the movement of oysters in Atlantic Canada and Quebec to contain the spread of two diseases.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it is declaring that the diseases M-S-X and dermo are present or very likely to be present in the waters around Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec.  The inspection agency says commercial-size oysters that have been processed are still permitted to be exported outside the affected regions.  However, oysters that are still growing are no longer allowed to be transferred outside the Atlantic region or Quebec.

 

 

In sports,

In Maritime Junior Hockey league exhibition action, the Pictou County Weeks Crushers host Amherst tonight at 7:00pm.