Opinion

Speed on Highway

By Gina Dunn People are always complaining about drivers going too slow on Highway 107. Did you know that from where Highway 107 starts in Musquodoboit Harbour to the East Preston turnoff it is approximately 24.7kms? Many people complain that some drivers are driving too slow on the highway at only 90km/hour or even say 80km/hr. What if you drive 110km/hr or 120km/hr? How much time will you actually save driving from Musquodoboit Harbour to the East Preston turnoff?

June 15, 2017

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Clean Up HRM Elections With Public Funding

By Wyn Jones A local interest group has once again raised the subject of political donations at a recent HRM Council meeting. The group rightly questioned whether HRM Councillors should be accepting donations from local developers.

April 06, 2017

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Asbestos Concerns at Eastern Shore District High

To the Editors:In advocating for a new school to replace Gaetz Brook and Eastern Shore District High, the Community Campus Vision Association has recently obtained a coy of a hazardous materials assessment done on the former Gordon Bell High School in Cole Harbour, in 2010 – 2011.

January 22, 2017

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Let’s Replace ESDH Now

By Jean McKenna [Editor’s note: The following article is a shortened version of a longer report that the Community Campus Vision Association has put together. Jean McKenna is one of the founders of CCVA. The complete report is on the Cooperator’s website at CCVA Report December 2016. ] The Community Campus Vision Association has been advocating for a new school that would combine and replace Eastern Shore District High and Gaetz Brook Junior High. Our advocacy had included the concept of a shared facility concept, a “community campus,” to include a recreation complex and a senior's residential care structure. However, it has become increasingly clear that it is futile to “fight on three hills,” and it has also become clear that these two schools desperately need replacement. Our current focus is therefore entirely on school replacement.

November 29, 2016

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On Martinique Beach

By Wyn Jones On any given day in the year, Martinique Beach is magical. The combination of salted air and a foam-laden scent makes it a very special place. I happened to be walking along the strand one afternoon late last August, my dog Amber pounding in and out of the shallows as a warm and glowing sun set the ripples in the receding tide to a diamond sparkle. As it was mid week, we had the whole length of the beach to ourselves, or so I thought. But there suddenly just ahead of us, wading slowly, the water lapping around his knees, was a small rotund figure.

November 29, 2016

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Feds Trump Opponents of Lawrencetown Beach Cell Tower

By R Doyle Safire In Star Trek, Spock said, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” However when business transactions are struck in Canada, they are often done to benefit one individual or corporation, or in some instances both.

November 12, 2016

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When The Cows Comes Home

By Wyn Jones Earlier this week a friend drew my attention to a Provincial Government release. It was issued from the office of the Minister for Agriculture, Keith Colwell and declared that the government intends to amend the Fences and Detention of Stray Livestock Act. The amended act will remove the responsibility from municipalities to respond to situations involving stray livestock.

November 12, 2016

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Back to the Future

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.

September 03, 2016

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Down in the Weeds: Must Councillors Avoid Bias?

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.”

September 03, 2016

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Buying Local

As we head into the Eastern Shore Cooperator’s third year, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone—readers, advertisers, writers, photographers—who have gotten us this far, and to ask for your help in supporting more effective, more vibrant coverage of this wonderful part of the world we are so lucky to live in. It was some twenty years ago that the provincial government undemocratically foisted amalgamation onto the people of the Eastern Shore, creating a political unit whose very name—Halifax Regional Municipality—reflects the awkwardness of this artificial and inequitable union of urban and rural concerns.

July 07, 2016

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