Diesel prices dip after interrupter invoked again

Diesel prices went down 6.4 cents per litre overnight in Nova Scotia.  The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board invoked the interruptor clause to make an unscheduled adjustment in diesel prices due to significant shifts in the market price of diesel oil. The minimum price for diesel is now 248.1 cents per litre locally.  The price of gasoline is not affected.  Nova Scotia is revising a contentious non-resident property tax that was passed last month as a way to ease the province’s housing crunch.

 

Nova Scotia scales back non-resident property tax after criticism it was ‘unfair’

Premier Tim Houston says the non-resident owners of properties such as small cottages will now be exempted from the tax on the first 150-thousand dollars of the home’s assessed value.  Houston says a 0.5 per cent tax will apply on the tranche of value between 150-thousand and 250-thousand dollars, adding that the tax will rise to two per cent of a property’s value above 250-thousand dollars.  As well, active members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be exempt from the tax, as part of changes included in regulations to be released this spring.

 

Nova Scotia mass shooting gunman drew police attention 10 years before killings

A new document released Tuesday shows the gunman who killed 22 people in rural Nova Scotia had been on the radar of police up to a decade before his two-day rampage in April 2020.  The report by the public inquiry into the killings says he was the subject of police investigations on at least two and possibly three occasions.  The foundational document also contains details about the gunman’s arsenal that was built up over years at his home in Portapique.  Witnesses including family members described weapons such as high caliber pistols, assault rifles and shotguns.  Meanwhile, the husband of a pregnant woman killed in the rampage says the public inquiry into the mass killing hasn’t told him anything he didn’t already know.  Nick Beaton says he has lost faith in the inquiry after it released an interim report that contains little new information.  Sandra McCulloch, one of the lawyers representing many of the affected families, also says the report says nothing about the evidence that’s been collected and handled to date in any meaningful way.  The Mass Casualty Commission says the next phase of the inquiry will work to answer what happened leading up to, during, and after the mass shooting. (The Canadian Press)

 

The Province is updating workplace first aid requirements, fulfilling a commitment to bring its rules in line with other jurisdictions in Canada.  Nova Scotia committed to harmonizing its training requirements and workplace first aid kit requirements based on a new Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standard. The amendments help to modernize first aid requirements and consolidate them in Nova Scotia under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations.  The regulations are part of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and apply to all employers in Nova Scotia.

 

Ground Digging of the new North Nova SPCA

A ground digging ceremony is set for today for the new North Nova SPCA. After 50 years in the same building in Pictou County, and through the generosity of a land donation from the Town of Stellarton, the region of North Nova will be getting a new facility that will offer veterinary services, and programs like adopting and fostering, as well as a social-enterprise thrift store.  It means animals and families in the regions of Pictou, Antigonish, Port Hawkesbury, and Guysborough counties will soon have a new hub to turn to in times of need.

 

Over 150 bands and other acts take over Fredericton, New Brunswick for the next week as the city hosts the annual East Coast Music Awards.  For the first time since 2019 all the performances are happening live and in-person, after COVID-19 forced the annual event to go online for the last two years.  CEO Andy McLean says it’s a busy week with performances on 14 stages in the city.  The annual awards ceremony is set for Thursday evening at the Aitken Centre.