The Town of Stellarton has seen the greatest voter participation rate so far among the six municipalities within Pictou County in the municipal elections.  As of Tuesday morning, 30% of voters in Stellarton had cast their votes already.  In the Town of Trenton, 27.8% of electors had voted.  Voter participation rates in the other municipalities are 21% in New Glasgow; 26% in the Town of Pictou; 17.6% in the Municipality of Pictou County; and 22.9% in the Town of Westville.

Statistics Canada says the national annual inflation rate continued to slow in September as drivers paid lower prices for gasoline than they did last year.  The agency said Tuesday its consumer price index for September was up 1.6 per cent from a year ago compared with a year-over-year increase of two per cent in August.  It was the slowest annual pace for inflation since February 2021 when it was 1.1 per cent.  The inflation report is the last major piece of economic data before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision on Oct. 23. Nova Scotia’s annual inflation rate in September was 0.9 percent.

 

 

The Association of Atlantic Universities is reporting an almost three-thousand-student drop in international enrolment this academic year.  The group is attributing the drop to the “devastating effect” of the federal government’s policies to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in the country.  Compared to last academic year, Nova Scotia recorded an almost 21-hundred drop in international students.

 

 

The Nova Scotia government says it will soon start building a 500-metre-long berm to protect a low-lying land link between the province and New Brunswick.

The Chignecto Isthmus is prone to flooding and other climate-change-related damage, and the total cost to upgrade the narrow strip of land is estimated to be 650-million dollars.

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have gone to court to get the federal government to pay for all of the project, while Ottawa says costs should be shared.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says that in the meantime, the province will build a four-metre-high soil barrier for two-million dollars to act as backup for the existing “aging and eroding” dike.