PICTOU COUNTY IMPAIRED CHARGES LAID BY RCMP
Pictou District RCMP arrested a 46-year-old man and a 48-year-old man for impaired driving over the weekend. Late Saturday afternoon, somebody in Enfield complained and the driver had continued through Colchester County and into Pictou County before being stopped by local RCMP near Exit 19 on Highway 104. Corporal Ron Bryce tells us the 46-year-old man from Dartmouth blew into the breathalyzer at more than three times the legal limit. He’ll be in Pictou Court on June 10th. The second drunk driving call of the weekend for Pictou RCMP came as an officer stopped a 48-year-old man in the town of Pictou at 2 o’clock Sunday morning. A 48-year-old man from Lucasville appears in Pictou Provincial Court on June 24th.
CELEBRATING SPECIAL OLYMPICS SATURDAY EVENING
Some results are from an important local weekend fundraiser. And it was a very successful Casino night as they raised $15,000 in support of Special Olympics Pictou County at Summer Street on Saturday night. They’re putting out a special thank you to the NS Gaming Corporation, Casino NS, all of the Special Olympics volunteers, sponsors and the Pictou County business community for their auction items. And they’d also like to thank everyone who came out for a fun evening as they raised that impressive amount.
FEDERAL MONEY FOR LOCAL MUNICIPALTIES
Central Nova M-P Sean Fraser has clarified how much money is going to each of the local municipalities as a result of Ottawa’s $2.2 billion top-up to the federal Gas Tax Fund. Pictou County’s share of that comes to $1.08 Million, and Warden Robert Parker says he knows it’s a one-time investment, so they’ll spend it wisely over a wide swath of Pictou County, including making high-speed internet a county-wide priority, which could leader to new industry coming in. For Antigonish County, the extra cash totals $666-thousand. The Towns of New Glasgow and Antigonish get $815-thousand and $325-thousand respectively. The of Pictou picks up $229-thousand. Westville gets $234-thousand dollars and the Town of Trenton receives just shy of $158-thousand. That new federal money can be used by local municipal leaders for projects that include rebuilding roads and water systems to prioritizing high-speed internet services in rural areas, as well as the construction of sidewalks and sports facilities.
Last week’s big news that it could take another year to get a more detailed look at Northern Pulp’s major effluent pipeline into the Strait has some people questioning the mill’s long-term viability. The province has given Northern Pulp until April of 2020 for a Focus Study on the proposed effluent line to be complete. The company says approval and set-up time are now likely to be a 2-year process, which could force temporary or permanent closure of the mill. If that happens, Paper Excellence says 330 direct jobs and more than 11-thousand forestry jobs are on the line. But it says unless the province extends the Boat Harbour shutdown date past Jan 31st of next year, there’s no way to have a substitute system ready.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former right-hand man Gerald Butts has sent more material to the Commons’ Justice Committee to counter Jody Wilson Raybould’s latest salvo. And A lot of Pictou County political watchers took 17 minutes out of their weekend to listen to the Jody-Wilson Raybould’s secretly-recorded conversation with former Privy Council Clerk Michael Werner. In it, Werner mentions several times that Prime Minister Trudeau is firm and determined about an optional penalty for SNC-Lavalin, but at no time does he threaten Wilson-Raybould with being fired or demoted as Attorney-General. It’s only Wilson-Raybould who ends the conversation by saying that she’s quote “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Analysts say since she recorded the conversation without Werner’s knowledge and inserted that comment at the end, it could be seen as pretty self-serving on her part. Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu says she has never recorded a colleague’s phone conversation and would never do so covertly. The Minister says it’s unethical and deceptive. Political pundits point out that at no time did Werner even raise his voice, let along make threats about her job. Liberal insiders, including Sheila Copps have been calling it a case of Raybould directly trying to back-stab or destabalize the Prime Minister. Some Liberals are questioning if it’s Wilson-Raybould’s way of eventually trying to make a play for the federal Liberal leadership.
Today is the day the minimum wage rises by 50 cents an hour in Nova Scotia. For the next 6 months, it’ll mean Nova Scotians earning the basic wage will have the 4th highest minimum in the country. But other provinces are expected to raise their minimum wages in the fall, putting Nova Scotia workers trying to buy groceries and pay bills on that money, back near the bottom of the heap. The minimum for experienced workers rises to $11.50 an hour as of today. In PEI, the minimum wage is rising to $12.25 an hour this morning.
As a result of the federal carbon tax, gas prices are up by more than 4 cents a litre in New Brunswick this morning, making that province’s gas prices the highest in the region. The Trudeau government says people in the provinces affected will get tax rebates to make up for the new carbon tax. Nova Scotia is exempt from the tax as a result of moves over the past decade to bring down this province’s carbon footprint.
A Canadian woman who’s been missing in West Africa for several months has reportedly been kidnapped and taken to Mali. Edith Blais of Quebec and her travel companion, Luca Taccheto of Italy, went missing in December while travelling in Burkina Faso. They were travelling by car in southwestern Burkina Faso en route to Togo, where they planned to do volunteer work with an aid group. In a January statement, Burkina Faso’s government referred to the pair’s disappearance as a kidnapping. The Canadian government did not confirm the information, but said it was not ruling out any possibilities. However, a recent report by Human Rights Watch indicates that they were indeed abducted.
SPORTS
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) will be no more as of May 1st. That announcement was made late yesterday by its board of directors.
The board says the business model has proven to be economically unsustainable. The CWHL was founded in 2007 with the mandate of growing women’s hockey and went on to attract many of the world’s best female hockey players, spawning the careers of many, including Stellarton’s Blayre Turnbull. Turnbull says “As players, we will do our best to find a solution so this isn’t our last season of hockey”… but she says “it’s hard to remain optimistic.” The latest sports rumour over the last few hours in that the Canadian league might end up announcing a merger with its American counterpart this week. We’ll be watching for that. one.
Brody Blair had another victory Saturday night in front of a home town crowd on Saturday Night at the Wellness Centre.
NHL
N.Y. Rangers 3 Philadelphia 0
Detroit 6 Boston 3
Calgary 5 San Jose 3
MLB
Detroit Tigers 4 Toronto Blue Jays 3 (11 innings)
Congrats to the Pictou County Lightning U-14 Boys Division 1 who are BRONZE MEDAL winners this morning, making them 3rd in the province. Congrats to the players and coaches Robbie MacGregor , Aaron Smith and Craig Sutherland.
