The deadline to register as a candidate in the upcoming Municipal Elections on October 19th is today at 5 p.m.   Nominations can be filed with the Returning Office for the 6 municipalities in Pictou County — Municipality of Pictou County, and Towns of New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, Trenton and Pictou.

 

 

Nova Scotia Power says it knows it has to do better when it comes to making its grid resilient.

The Province’s utilities regulator again fined the power company for performance failures and slow progress on making its grid more reliable in a decision released yesterday for 2023.

The Utilities and Review Board issued a decision that levies a 1.25-million-dollar administrative penalty on the electricity producer.

The utility said yesterday it is hiring more people to work on strengthening the grid and has upped its spending on reliability to 230-million-dollars annually from 180-million.

 

 

Housing advocates and opposition parties say a loophole in Nova Scotia’s rental housing rules is making the provincial government’s proposed rent cap essentially useless.

Tim Allenby — of the housing advocacy group ACORN — says the province’s efforts to cap rents will not help renters so long as fixed-term leases are allowed.

A fixed-term lease — unlike a periodic lease — has a set start and end date and is not extended beyond the fixed period of time without the signing of a new lease.

The provincial rent cap covers periodic lease renewals and situations where a landlord allows someone on a fixed-term lease to sign a new agreement for the same unit — but it does not apply to leases signed with new tenants.

Allenby says this encourages landlords not to re-sign with a tenant and to instead rent to someone new so they can increase the rent well beyond the cap.

 

 

The largest children’s hospital in Atlantic Canada has received a huge donation.

The 25-million-dollar donation to the I-W-K Health Centre in Halifax came from Myron and Berna Garron.

Myron Garron, who is originally from Westport, Nova Scotia, made a fortune in the automotive parts business in Ontario.

The donation will be used to improve the care provided to those with mental health challenges and addictions.

 

 

Some international recognition for James H. Stewart, Town Crier for the Town of New Glasgow.  He brought home the ‘Best Dressed’ trophy from the British Championship of The Loyal Company of Town Criers held in Sleaford, England this past weekend