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Selecting a New High School Site

By Richard Bell Bits and pieces of the Department of Education’s new school siting policy are finally beginning to dribble into view, more than a year after Minister Zach Churchill announced that the province would be building a replacement for Eastern Shore District High School.

May 29, 2019

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What is Atlantic Gold Afraid Of?

By Richard Bell As the June issue of the Cooperator was heading to the printers, we got word that an RCMP officer had violently arrested a local environmentalist who was attending a public meeting that Atlantic Gold had called in Sherbrooke on Thursday, May 23 to do a presentation on the disposal of mine tailings, the massive amounts of material left over after gold has been extracted from the pulverized rock. The failure of tailings dams at mining sites around the world has been the cause of massive environmental damage and the deaths of people living downstream from the tailings dams.

May 29, 2019

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Making Trails for our Shared Future

By Mona Bordage People in the Gaetz Brook area might have noticed recent changes on the path behind the Legion. Shore Active Transportation Association (SATA) Trails volunteers have been out in force raking and clearing brush along the Gaetz Brook Greenway despite cold rainy spring weather. Under a letter of authority from the Department of Natural Resources, SATA is restoring the rail bed through Gaetz Brook to be used as an “active transportation” (AT) trail, a trail that will be open to bikers and walkers, but closed to motorized vehicles. (See “Overflow Crowd at ATV Meeting” in this issue for a different perspective.)

May 29, 2019

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Overflow Crowd at ATV Meeting

By Richard Bell The Nova Scotia Share Our Trails Association (NSSOTA) took a major organizational step forward at a meeting on May 22 at the Lake and Shore Community Centre in Porters Lake. An overflow crowd of more than 200 people heard from the leadership of NSSOTA, as well as from HRM Councillor David Hendsbee, MLA Kevin Murphy, and MLA Barbara Adams.

May 29, 2019

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Will DFO Ban Fish Farms in MPAs?

By Richard Bell In an interview during his visit to East Ship Harbour last week, DFO Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said DFO might very well end up including fish farms on the list of industrial activities that would be banned in marine protected areas (MPAs). Given the long history of opposition to fish farms on the Eastern Shore, the addition of fish farms to the list of banned activities could make the MPA proposal more attractive. And the ban would throw a monkey wrench into the plans of the provincial government and major aquaculture companies for a huge expansion of fish farming around Nova Scotia.

May 18, 2019

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Debating the Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area

Updated: April 20, 2019. Welcome to the Cooperator’s web page on the debate over establishing an Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area. Here you will find all of the Cooperator’s stories about MPAs, plus links to a selection of documents, podcasts, and videos from other sources that we believe are helpful in understanding the debate over the proposed Eastern Shore MPA. If you have a document that you think should be included, please email the link to richardbell@easternshorecooperator.ca. Most recent additions: DFO's Wilkenson on MPAs: Community Management, No Deadline, Eastern Shore Cooperator web, May 12, 2019 Report on the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest: a report on a flawed proposed Marine Protected Area, March 11, 2019, Stephen Richardson BSc. author. MPA Opponent Rips "Group of Three," Eastern Shore Cooperator, April 2019 DFO Director General: No "Imposed" MPAs, Eastern Shore Cooperator, April 2019 Tasmania and Nova Scotia Sign MOU on Aquaculture, Eastern Shore Cooperator, March, 2019 Is DFO Really Listening, Tammy DeWolfe, Letter to the Editor, Eastern Shore Cooperator, March, 2019 Quick Overview: The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced on March 22, 2018 that a 2,000 square km area off the Eastern Shore as a new “Area of Interest” (AOI) under the provisions of the Oceans Act Marine Protected Area (MPA) program. The proposal encompasses the waters around the 30km of islands between Clam Harbour and Mushaboom. Since then, a fierce struggle has emerged, birthing a new society, the Association of Eastern Shore Communities Practicing Environment and Historical Access (AESC-PEHA)that opposes going forward with the current MPA process. AESC-PEHA has held several well-attended meetings, and has plastered Highway 7 with large and small NO-MPA signs.The Eastern Shore Fisherman's Protective Association has also come out against the MPA as proposed by DFO.

May 12, 2019

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DFO’s Wilkinson on MPA: Community Management, No Deadline

By Richard Bell In a surprise visit to the Eastern Shore on Wednesday, May 8, Jonathan Wilkinson, the current Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, indicated that he was seriously considering a radical change in DFO’s entire approach to the hotly contested Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area (ESI-MPA): community management. And he noted several times during the course of the 90-minute meeting that the entire ESI-MPA proposal might never happen.

May 12, 2019

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Feds Moving to End Rural Hospital Injustice!

By Richard Bell The Cooperator’s investigation of the injustice of HRM’s rural residents being denied access to a federal loan forgiveness program for family doctors and nurses has resulted in a major step towards righting this injustice. If all goes well, HRM’s three rural hospitals will be getting a powerful new tool for recruiting more doctors and nurses to end their frequent emergency room closures for lack of staff.

April 28, 2019

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DFO Bans Industrial Activities in MPAs

By Richard Bell Six months after the release of the Final Report of the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards, DFO Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced today, April 25, that the government would adopt the Panel’s recommendation to prohibit four industrial activities in all new federal MPAs: oil and gas activities; mining; dumping; and bottom trawling.

April 25, 2019

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Cooperator Investigation Reveals Surprise Opening for Recruiting Doctors in Rural HRM

By Richard Bell An investigation by the Cooperator has uncovered a route for making it easier for the three rural hospitals within the boundaries of HRM to recruit doctors and nurses.

April 10, 2019

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