The information below is a copy of a section of the Eastern Shore (West) Land Use By-law for the R-6 (rural residential) zone. The 100-foot frontage on local roads requirement has been on the books since 1996. HRM has admitted granting at least 9 building permits that violated this provision, and Save Rural HRM estimates that there are many more. HRM now says that all of these permits were issued in error. The Cooperator has asked city officials for an explanation of why HRM decided to start enforcing this by-law after ignoring it for 20 years. Thus far, HRM has not provided an explanation.
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Surveyors were one of the groups which HRM failed to give any notice about its decision to begin enforcing the 100-foot frontage bylaw. Local surveyor E.J. Webber sent the letter below to an HRM planner about the lack of notice and the impact of the change.
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Adrien Blanchette, one of the founders of the “Musquodoboit Harbour St. Philip Neri Cath. Church & United Church of Canada Refugee Sponsorship Committee,” reports that the Abdurrahman family have been settling in nicely since they arrived in late June from a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey.
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What do Caribbean fishermen, Icelandic settlers, and a pioneer forester have in common? They are all subjects of films made by Rex Tasker, a documentary filmmaker, editor, writer, producer, and director who worked for the National Film Board of Canada for thirty-two years. Over the course of his career, he was involved in over 200 films, and received a number of awards, including a Genie, and a nomination for an Academy Award!
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In a move that would severely impact Nova Scotia’s lobster industry, Sweden has asked the European Union to ban the import of all U.S. and Canadian lobsters (homarus americanus). Sweden claims that the imported lobsters are an invasive species that threatens the smaller European lobster (homarus gammarus).
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By Wyn Jones
The Halifax Regional Municipality came into being on April 1st, 1996 after a torturous and, at times, acrimonious birthing. It brought together the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford, and the Municipal County of Halifax. At the time, the Canadian media were portraying the process as an example of how not to proceed with the amalgamation process. The initial costs of the amalgamation were forecast to bring in big savings when in actual fact the costs proved to be close to triple the budgets allotted.
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Winding down Bayers Mill Road in my friend’s van, I voiced the question: “Do you think many people in this area know that some of Nova Scotia’s best rock climbing is in their own backyards?”
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A recent rash of more than a dozen blue bag rejection notices along East and West Petpeswick in Musquodoboit Harbour got Cooperator readers wondering whether HRM Recycling was targeting the area. Coming home and finding your trash still sitting there is bad enough, but people reported that although there were rejection tags on their bags, in many cases there was no indication of what was offensive in the bag.
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[I heard the story below from Gerald Webb, a natural-born Shore storyteller who reminds us of how much life has changed since the 1950s.This story was told at Gerald and Joyce’s 5 -year Anniversary Party, and the laughter and applause brought the house down.]
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In a letter-to-the-editor in this issue, Richard Buggeln, a member of Concerned Residents of Porters Lake, Lake Echo, Preston, and Mineville, argues that the role of a city councillor should be “to channel the public sentiment as a moral and ethical commitment to his representative function in the HRM government.”
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