Another big drop in diesel prices in Nova Scotia overnight as the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board invoked the interrupter clause. Diesel prices went down by 23.5 cents per litre overnight, just one day after a 10-cents per litre decrease. The minimum pump price for diesel is 213.5 cents per litre locally. The price of gasoline is not affected by the interruption.
Meanwhile, in New Brunswick the prices of both gas and diesel increased this morning. Gasoline prices increased 9.6-cents per litre in that province overnight, putting the cost of regular self-serve gas at 212.0 cents per litre in New Brunswick. Diesel prices increased 17.1 cents per litre overnight in New Brunswick to 254.4 cents per litre.
The public inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting that claimed 22 lives heard Wednesday about problems R-C-M-P faced because of poor radio service. The critical incident commander based at a firehall west of Truro says his portable radio lacked the power to allow him to announce his presence over the police radio network after he arrived. Jeff West says he only managed to make the announcement four minutes later when he stood next to a window. Kevin Surette – a retired staff sergeant who was supporting West – testified that in his decades of responding to major incidents, poor radio service in crisis situations had been his experience.
Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro resumed elective surgery and diagnostic imaging services on Wednesday following a flood in the hospital earlier in the week. The services were temporarily interrupted on Monday after a pipe burst in the ceiling of the hospital’s medical device reprocessing department. That’s the department that sterilizes surgical instruments used in all surgeries performed at Centre.
The wait to get a long-term care bed in Nova Scotia is longer than ever before. Recent data shows that nearly four-thousand-300 people are waiting to get a spot in a long-term care home. The previous record waitlist was four-thousand people in 2015. The Executive Director of Nursing Homes of Nova Scotia Association says this isn’t surprising, and she expects the wait will only get worse.
Nova Scotia’s unionized paramedics say a wage increase is needed soon to help retain workers who are leaving because of low pay. The union’s business manager Kevin MacMullin told the legislature’s health committee on Tuesday that 13 paramedics quit last month alone. MacMullin says the loss of experienced paramedics has a significant impact on operations. He says a good first step would be to bring wages up to par with paramedics in the rest of the country in order to remain competitive.
Antigonish County District RCMP have charged a 31-year old Tracadie man with Mischief over $5,000, Theft under $5,000 and Failure to Comply with Conditions of a Release Order. The charges stem from a theft early Tuesday morning, at about 5:30am, at a convenience store on Main St. in Antigonish. RCMP say a man had entered the convenience store, told the clerk that he wanted the cash in the cash register, which the clerk provided, and then he ran off. Police say no one was injured, violence was not threatened, and there was not a weapon involved. In their investigation, police determined that the same suspect had attempted to break-in to an ATM at a bank on College St. before going to the convenience store. The ATM was damaged but was not successfully broken into. On Tuesday afternoon shortly after 3:00pm, the suspect was located by police and safely taken into custody.
