Waste ban worries Atlantic mayors

New federal guidelines hot topic at Atlantic congress
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter
Sat. Apr 12 - 5:00 AM

Small-town mayors like Woodrow French worry they won’t be able to cough up their share of the cost to meet federal guidelines that will ban communities from dumping raw or partially treated sewage into the ocean.

Mr. French, mayor of Conception Bay South, near St. John’s, N.L., says part of the town of 24,000 has no water and no sewer system — residents are on individual wells and septic systems — and the other part has a treatment facility that’s on its last legs.

“I now have a sewage treatment plant that is worn out,” Mr. French told the Atlantic Mayors Congress in Halifax on Friday.

“I have no business base in my community and all the moneys that are raised are basically on provincial and federal funding and on taxation as well.

“I’ve got crumbling infrastructure. I’ve got no money and part of the problem, I am dumping all sewage into a pristine bay, Conception Bay, and I feel bad about doing this.”

Environment Minister John Baird said Tuesday the federal government is prepared to make an $8-billion investment in cleaner water and hopes Canada’s provinces and municipalities will also chip in $8 billion each.

Halifax Regional Municipality’s $330-million primary sewage treatment system, which is just now being finished, was designed so it could be modified to provide secondary processing. That upgrade is expected to cost about $100 million.

Carl Yates, general manager of Halifax Water, says his heart goes out to small towns that may be starting from scratch to get proper infrastructure in place to handle their sewage.

“It is a bit overwhelming for them,” Mr. Yates said. “It is a very difficult challenge, in particular recognizing this is coming just after what we call in the industry, the Walkerton way. There’s been a tremendous push for new regulations for drinking water, which we believe in. We think that’s appropriate.”

More stringent regulations for drinking water were introduced in the wake of the Walkerton tragedy, in which seven people died in 2000 in Ontario after drinking water contam-inated with E. coli bacteria.

Halifax’s inland treatment plants that discharge into fresh water already provide secondary treatment or better, and so does the Mill Cove plant on Bedford Basin. The three new Harbour Solutions plants offer advanced primary treatment and would have to be upgraded to meet the new rules.

Though the cost-sharing between the three levels of government to implement the standards is not yet finalized, Atlantic mayors agreed Friday the usual one-third equal share for each no longer cuts it for the municipalities.

“We cannot continue to operate on this concept,” Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee said.

While the mayors support the new guidelines and recognize the importance of protecting the environment, one thing not being looked at is the funding side, he said.

“We need, as a nation, to sit down and say who are we paying our taxes to and what are we getting for it?” Mr. Lee said.

“We know what the roles of municipal governments are in this country. This is the level that provides the services that everybody in this country depends on, on a day-to-day basis.”

“Who is the taxpayer paying the least amount of money to? It’s to this level of government.”

A recent expansion to Charlottetown’s waste-water treatment plant has meant the cost of operating it “is a lot higher this year than it was last year,” Mr. Lee said in an interview.

“We just brought down our budget for 2008 a few weeks ago and we had to increase the water and sewer rates in the city of Charlottetown (by four per cent) to provide what we provided last year,” he said. “And, actually, we had to cut some of the level of services of maintenance in our system to get the budget passed.”

Corner Brook Mayor Charles Pender said the Newfoundland town was caught off guard by this week’s announcement.

“Up to this point, absolutely, we had no consultation from the federal or provincial governments that this was coming,” Mr. Pender told his counterparts. “For us, it was an awful shock.”

“We had originally looked at about $24 million for sewage treatment for Corner Brook, using a combination of primary and some secondary,” he said.

“Now, we’ve had to go to secondary, which now means we would have to go from $24 million to $32 million. . . . By the time we get there then, we might be looking at $40 million to $50 million to deal with this one issue.”

Port Hawkesbury is ahead of the game with its $11-million regional sewage treatment plant, the second phase of which will open in two weeks.

“Basically, in Port Hawkesbury, we were very fortunate in the sense that five years ago we decided to do an assessment study environmentally to see just what we should put in place,” Mayor Billy Joe MacLean said in an interview.

“The laws we’re talking about today, five years ago, we thought that’s what the law should be and will be. So therefore we jumped on board and went ahead and did it.”

If the guidelines proceed, the mayors congress will work with municipal associations, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and provinces to ensure that federal funding to municipalities to meet the standards is included as part of the implementation strategy to enable all regions to comply.

The mayors are also calling upon the federal and provincial governments, in designing and developing the funding strategy, to address the capital and operating costs.

The congress, formed in 2001, consists of mayors from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

( sborden@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Halifax Chronical Herald,S Borden,Political Comment,Wast Cost,Mayors

COMMENTS

POST YOUR COMMENT

Frawin wrote:
As a Nova Scotian now living in a small town in Newfoundland, I am wondering what these small municipal units will do to meet the new guidelines. You become very aware of the outmigration in Newfoundland when you are living here. The jobs aren’t here nor the money. Our property tax and water bill went up 25% from last year - from $600 to $804. Does anyone really think that retired people can continue to come up with additional funds? I support the government’s efforts to keep pollutants out of water ways but how can people who live on retirement income in communities that are hanging on by a thread possibly be expected to cough up even more money?

Wingman wrote:
This going green and the enviornment is going to bankrupt everyone.

Will they ever learn? I doubt it!

By Les Muise, March 26/08 posted to www.myhalifaxca.wordpress.com & www.lesmuise.wordpress.com

Recently MLA Diana Whalen posed an interesting question in her Letter to the Editor of the Halifax Chronicle Herald that pointed at the shoddy handling of the ‘ Mainland Common Recreation Center by the staff and elected officials of the Halifax Regional Municipality. I’m in full agreement with Mrs Whalen’s position and the comments offered by Bette El-Hawary, P.A. Kidd, Rhonda Beers, Francis MacDonald, and Doug Boudreau each in their own Letters to the Editor, all of whom speak from their personal frustration with the whole process and lack of involvement by our elected leaders.

I have a few comments of my own but first some personal history.

Where to start?

This issue has been part of my world for as long as I can remember.

• I’ve lived between Meadowlark Crest.,Chadwick Place and Westridge Drive for 30 of the past 35 years.
• I attended Halifax West High School when it was on Dutch Village Road and was considered a New School with 1,500 students from the area now serviced by Halifax West, J.L. Ilsley & Sir John A MacDonald. All bussed in each day by a fleet of 50 buses and requiring 6 portable classrooms and split shifts in my grade 10 year.
• I remember when Lacewood Dr. stopped at Bayview, when the YMCA opened the Northcliff Pool with its inflatable roof, and when there was no Dunbrack Dr or Bayers Lake or Parkland Drive.
• I remember when the old city of Halifax took over the Northcliff Pool from the YMCA (they could not afford the upkeep of the roof) to serve a population of   20,0000 in its catchment area.
• I’ve witnessed the phenomenal growth of the community referred to as Clayton Park & Clayton Park West from a sleepy bedroom community, where new homes sold for $  28,000 to $35,000 as it grew into a dynamic, thriving, multicultural center with new homes in the $  250,000 to $ 500,000 range and a population in the service catchment area that is pushing past the  200,0000 mark. Most of that growth exploded into the area in the last 10 – 14 years.
• I have watched the change in what ‘we the people‘ want in our community. There is a much greater demand for municipal services that would not have been considered in the past.
• I have campaigned door to door with the candidate in the past two Provincial Elections and was campaign coordinator for a candidate in the past Municipal Election   & was at his side at every door, every day of that champagne and I have a pretty good idea of what this community was asking for at that time.
• I have attended Chebucto Community Council meetings on this issue when I was one of a dozen people in attendance & when the room was over filled with angry residence objecting to a proposed Recreation Center that resembled a resort with out the floating bar.
• I have attended ‘Town Hall’ meetings at the New Halifax West with a couple of hundred other concerned citizens where we were treated as unwanted interference and at one session managed and controlled as to what we were allowed to ask.
  • I have spoken out at every one of these sessions of my concern that the      City was not building a facility for the future of our community but was doing the minimal that it could get away with and ducking the responsibility.
• I have been involved with the Build It Right group from its inception as a public participant, a petition signature gatherer and I’ve attended meetings as a member with the Managers of both the Department of Planning        & Development and Recreation and Sport. where our concerns were treated with a rather condescending attitude.
• I have talked personally with those same Department managers where they have commented that ‘anything is possible if there is the political will’. And there is the biggest part of this problem, that lack of political will starts right at the top.
  • Every project with in the Recreation and Sport domain had been waiting with baited breath for a successful Commonwealth Games Bid. It was absolutely mind boggling the number of times that the Management of those departments commented that ‘everything depends on getting the Commonwealth Games and being able to tap into the ‘extra’ funding that would be available from the Federal Government because we were hosting an international event of this stature.
  • This logic came to a grinding halt the day that his highness Peter Kelley unceremoniously pulled the City’s support of that Bid. Not only was that decision an insult to the hundreds of bid participants in business community but it ended every one of those projects that had been using the strategy of waiting for the Holy Grail…. there was no plan B, so back to the drawing board we go…. effectively pushing each of those projects a year or two further down the road or in some cases off the road all together.

The Current Reality

After ten (10) years of public involvement it angers me that here we are seven     (7) months before the next Municipal Election and the City & Province are still stonewalling the public as to their plans for this facility.

• How can anyone be expected to believe that the huge amount of heavy earth moving that is currently being done on the proposed site is in preparation….without a plan!!! Talk about throwing money away! I f you believe that I’ve got some swamp land in Florida that you can buy for $1,000.00

From my perspective in this situation the ‘City’ lacks leadership and any firm vision & direction that would come as part of a strong Mayor & Council. There has been a deliberate effort to pacify the community by using the       HRM’s version of Public Consultation and much like what has been happening with the    School Review Process and lets be clear …. this attempt has failed.

By ignoring the the input of community based organizations like    Build It Right and the hundreds of voices heard at the many public meetings the ‘City‘ is setting its self up for ridicule, criticism and controversy.

The attitude of ‘Concerned Citizens’ has changed over the years. The hundreds of people from this community who have taken the time out of their busy lives to be involved in the process, to make their concerns known, ultimately   need to know that their voice was heard and taken into consideration.

Short of that, the process is flawed, the project will become a lightning rod for all the complaints that will be rightly aired.

The Missing Link

In all of the years that this situation has dragged through the painfully slow process, the missing component has been the political will of our elected representatives. The counselors for this area have resisted any objective input from the public and for the most part have avoided any involvement, despite repeated invitations. Not once have I seen, heard or read of Mayor Kelley having attended a meeting on this matter, nor has his opinion ever been expressed publicly although comments from staff as to the lack of Political Will starting at the top have made it clear what position        Mr Kelly has taken.

If Halifax wants to continue to grow and keep its youth, to keep some of the new graduates from our universities and have the young geniuses of the (RIM) technology world make this their home its time to face reality.

• Its time to invest in our youth by giving them a chance to grow to their potential with a ‘Center of Excellence’ .
• Its time to invest in a positive and healthy community by providing a community / recreation canter that promotes an active and involved lifestyle for all ages.
• Its time to invest in our communities by putting the services where they are convenient and stop using the logic that oh well you can do that over there … on the other side of the city …    45 minutes each way [by car  & 2 hrs by bus ... during peak hours]
• Its time for strong, aggressive leadership that chases all potential stakeholders and doesn’t stop till they get the best for Halifax. If Port Hawksbury can raise the funds…. you know the rest of that comment!
• Its time to make the changes in all of the processes to effective allow public participation    &   to speed up those processes thereby allowing Halifax to grow into the great city that it could be.

In Closing

Halifax is a great city & Clayton Park is a fabulous area in which to live.

To me the fix for this situation comes down to a change in attitude and a new approach. The key objective of any project undertaken by the Halifax Regional Municipal  should be;

• by using effective community consultation the project meets the needs of the community,
• all the participants can be proud of their involvement, proud of the facility      and proud of Halifax.

In reality it is a team approach with bottom up concept development combined with conciliation and facilitation, add some creative problem solving along with a consistently positive attitude by all involved. And that’s an approach will make the difference. I’ve been known to say on more than one occasion “give me the right attitude and anything is possible”.

Couple that approach & attitude with a strong leadership team that is willing to be involved in the community, to be transparent in its methods, accountable to the voters, and willing to promote Halifax as a great place to live at every opportunity and through every method and most importantly be ready & willing to fight for every ounce of funding that we are due.

No matter what Moncton says Halifax is the regional center and should start acting accordingly, on all levels. Invest in the infrastructure, the facilities and the people …. the rest will be here or come here.

Unfortunately it appears that the Mayor and Counselors have decided to go into the upcoming election with a [potentially] flawed proposed facility hoping to gain community support for their version of what is needed.

I wouldn’t want to be knocking on doors this fall with any of them…. its not going to be nice.

ON THE MOVE

Etruscan pours African gold bar
Tue. Mar 4 - 6:42 AM

ETRUSCAN Resources Inc., a Halifax-based junior mining company, says the first gold was poured this week at its 90 per cent-owned Youga mine, located in Burkina Faso, West Africa. A gold bar of approximately 100 ounces was poured from the smelting of concentrate. Ore has been processed intermittently at the mine since mid-February, with commercial production slated to begin in April. Etruscan president Gerald McConnell said the first gold pour at Youga is a major milestone on Etruscan’s path to becoming a mid-tier gold producer and should produce strong cash flow for the company. The company’s next gold producer will be located in Ivory Coast where a feasibility study will be completed this summer, with production to follow in 2010, said Mr. McConnell in a release.

•Lt.-Gov. Mayann E. Francis will honour a Dartmouth engineering firm today for its resourcefulness in the construction of a water treatment plant near Bridgewater. To deal with a tricky environmental situation that required the plant to meet one of the highest standards ever established for municipal wastewater treatment in Nova Scotia, the Dartmouth-based Terrain Group selected an innovative Canadian technology that cleans water by drawing it through a membrane filled with microscopic pores. The tiny holes are just big enough to let water molecules pass through, but small enough to exclude suspended solids and bacteria. Now in operation for a year, the effort earns the company the 2008 Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Excellence in Engineering. Terrain president Stephen Wallace said the company is already using the technology to provide wastewater treatment for a resort community under construction outside Louisbourg.

•Colin MacLean, formerly vice-president at Nova Scotia Community College, will become president and CEO of the Waterfront Development Corporation Limited (WDCL) on April 21. The agency is a provincial crown corporation responsible for planning, co-ordinating, promoting and developing properties, events and activities on the waterfront of Halifax and Lunenburg. Mr. MacLean’s most recent position was with NSCC as vice-president of People and Planning, where he was responsible for strategic planning, legal affairs, human resources, student services, applied research and international education.

•Kay Crinean, founder and first executive director of NovaKnowledge, and Paul Kent, former senior vice-president of Aliant and chief executive officer of xwave, have been appointed to the board of Maritime Tidal Energy Corporation, a Halifax-based ocean resources company with a particular interest in the electric power potential of Bay of Fundy tides.

•The Radisson Suite Hotel in Halifax was recognized recently with the chain’s 2007 President’s Award. The downtown all-suites hotel is managed by Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc. of Halifax. Hotel manager Bill Harrison said the operation has been “a star” in the chain since it opened in 1996. The President’s Award is presented annually to the top performing of the 200 hotels in the Radisson system.

•Dan Jennings has joined Deloitte and Touche’s Atlantic financial advisory practice as a vice-president of corporate finance. He will be the company’s lead financial advisory practitioner in the region and have technical responsibility for business valuation services throughout Atlantic Canada.

•Tony Charles, a professor of management science and environmental studies at Saint Mary’s University, has been elected president of the International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade, a forum for discussing and networking on a broad range of issues related to natural resources and how people and oceans connect together. Mr. Charles is a Pew Fellow in marine conservation and specializes in the interdisciplinary analysis of fisheries, aquiculture and coastal issues. He is the author of a wide range of publications.

On the Move is a weekly column highlighting hirings and promotion of area businesspeople. It also acknowledges professional and corporate awards of national or regional importance. Send announcements to On the Move, P.O. Box 610, Halifax, N.S., B3J 2T2 or e-mail them to business@herald.ca.

Coalition sought on mental health

Advocates want patients’ needs higher on priority list
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter
Tue. Mar 4 - 5:43 AM

Sheila Morrison and her husband James have been told too many times to step aside and keep silent when their mentally ill daughter could not speak for herself and give doctors her medical history.

“Too many times when staff shortages have been apparent, we have not been allowed to hold our daughter’s hand when she was terrified,” Ms. Morrison told a crowd of 200 Nova Scotians who gathered Monday in Halifax to discuss creating a mental health coalition.

“Too many times, a police or security officer or a doctor or a nurse have insisted they know best and moved too quickly to intervene in an inappropriate manner, leaving us to deal with the aftermath of her physical and psychological trauma for years to come.”

Among those attending Monday’s meeting at Dalhousie University were mental health patients, family members, health-care providers and representatives of community agencies who assist people with mental health issues.

Ms. Morrison’s daughter, now 34, developed a chronic mental illness when she was 18 or 19 and has been in and out of hospital over the last 15 years.

For privacy reasons, Ms. Morrison did not give her daughter’s name.

Ms. Morrison said a province wide coalition would provide a supportive community where people can speak on issues that affect mental health patients and work for change.

Her daughter spent time at the Abbie J. Lane Memorial Building of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre before she was transferred last September to an acute-care room at the Nova Scotia Hospital.

“She went to a very, very good unit and she’s had excellent care, and the reason it’s been good is because the staff there have been very open to having us included as part of the team, and that makes a huge difference,” Ms. Morrison told reporters.

“And the physician in charge was excellent in that regard as well, very, very, respectful of us. So it was a very pleasant few months. And now she’s home and about to move into her own place. . . .

“”We’re in the process of negotiating what she will need in order to live independently.”

Advocates of the proposed coalition want to put mental illness and mental health higher on the provincial health-care agenda. They also hope to push for improved mental health services.

“I think the time of working in isolation of one another as organizations, as government departments, as service-delivery individuals has come to an end,” Carol Tooton, executive director of the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Mental Health Association, said in an interview.

“If we’re going to accomplish what we need to accomplish, we need to combine our efforts. . . . We need to increase our voices so people understand what the issues are and we can address them.”

Stephen Ayer, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, said he also hopes the coalition will help the mentally ill in other ways by reducing the criminalization of those needing treatment, reducing poverty, addressing primary health-care needs, providing safe and affordable housing, and supporting cost-effective and evidence-based research into treatment for schizophrenia and psychosis. (sborden@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Mental health Coalition,Halifax

Banker helps drive home N.S. message

By Roger Taylor
Sat. Mar 1 - 4:47 AM

NOVA SCOTIA unleashed its secret weapon while meeting with corporate leaders in New York earlier this week to help drive home the province’s positive business message.

Bob Kelly, CEO of the Bank of New York Mellon Corp., hosted a reception in New York for Premier Rodney MacDonald and his entourage from the provincial government. They were in the Big Apple to promote Nova Scotia as a good location for financial services companies looking to extend their operations outside New York.

While the New York financial elite listened to the sales pitch from the premier and other provincial officials, I’ve been told by some who were in attendance at the reception that it was Kelly, a Halifax native and Saint Mary’s University graduate, who seemed to make the biggest impression.

Already a widely respected banker, Kelly wasn’t shy about talking on the subject of Nova Scotia, its educated workforce, its proximity to New York and its welcoming attitude when it comes to attracting new business. Kelly’s new address is 1 Wall St. in New York, which is right next door to the New York Stock Exchange. The reception was held on the 49th floor of the BNY Mellon building, and the room has been described to me as providing the perfect backdrop for Nova Scotia to try to persuade even more financial services companies to come to this province.

MacDonald also rang the closing bell for the exchange on Tuesday to celebrate the news that hedge fund company Citco Group would create as many as 325 jobs over the next six years at a new IT support centre in Halifax.

Nova Scotia Business Inc. is offering a payroll rebate of up to $7 million to be paid over six years as the company achieves hiring targets. The Economic Development Department has also committed $1.47 million to support start-up costs and training.

Citco, which has a financial services operation on George Street in Halifax, announced in a separate deal in 2006 that it plans to create 350 financial services jobs in the city over the next seven years. This project too will have the help of $7 million in payroll rebates from by Nova Scotia Business Inc.

The company expects to be able to work out of its current office space downtown for the time being but will need to look for a new location to house its newly expanded operations within a couple of years.

I’ve been told one of the big selling points for Halifax is that the Atlantic time zone is one hour ahead of New York, which allows the operation in Nova Scotia to handle much of the pre-market prep work before the New York offices open.

Security is another factor in Nova Scotia’s favour. New York investment firms learned from the 9-11 disaster that they must have backup operations outside New York so that the U.S. financial sector is diversified enough geographically not to fall victim to terrorist attack.

Add a deep pool of educated workers who are two hours from New York by plane; a stable political environment; and the simple fact that it is cheaper to operate in Halifax than in New York, and you’ve got a winning combination of assets.

Sometimes it doesn’t take an acclaimed actor or a hockey star to sell Nova Scotia to the rest of the world; a well-placed banker with an appreciation for his home province can sometimes achieve much more with an elite business group. Chances are, playing the Kelly card will pay off for Nova Scotia in the long run. ( rtaylor@herald.ca)

Note from Les Muise:

Bob Kelly, CEO of the Bank of New York Mellon Corp., is well known to Saint Mary’s University … way back in 1972 he started his undergraduate career in the Bachelor of Commerce program & has always maintained his connections with Halifax, Saint Mary’s and his classmates from those years. 

The Class of ‘72 was a time for growing up, finding a future and living life to the fullest. Any one who met Bob … back in the day [like myself] knew instantly that he was destined for success in whatever he chose to do.. Bob has always had an amazing understanding of finance, banking and economics. He is a talented artist [I hope he kept that skill growing] I can remember sitting between Bob & Steve Abases [Cook Sales ltd.]  in  Accounting and being mesmerized by their ease at sketching incredibly detailed objects & individuals.

Our Gang was made up of …. Bob Kelly, Bill Linton, Dave MacKinnon, Brian Smith, Charley Walker, Jeff Power, Allen  McGilvary, and myself. Some of us found our wives, our lives and our futures in those years …. we’ve all had our successes and some disappointments over the years & although we may not see each other often … the friendship is still strong. 

Technorati Tags: Bob Kelly,Rodney Mac Donald,New York,New York Mellon Corp.,Saint Mary’s University

Partnership is a real no-brainer

 

Dal-Harvard to work together on brain repair By JOHN GILLIS Health Reporter Thu. Feb 21 - 5:36 AM

The links between Halifax and Boston include Christmas trees, baseball heroes and now the quest to repair brains.

The heads of Dalhousie University’s Brain Repair Centre and Harvard University’s Center for Neurogeneration Research signed an agreement Wednesday to formalize a collaboration between two East Coast facilities known around the world for their innovation.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Halifax neurosurgeon Dr. Ivar Mendez said after the ceremony at Dal. “They have an expertise that is complementary to ours. Together, we will be able to move farther and faster in terms of the goal of repairing the brain.”

	Dr. Mendez and Dr. Ole Isacson, director of the neuroregeneration centre at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, heaped praise on each other’s work. The two centres have been working together for five years. “I have to compete with Europeans
Dr. Ivar Mendez, chairman of Dalhousie University’s Brain Repair Centre, shakes hands with Dr. Ole Isacson, director for the Center for Neuroregener­ation Research at Harvard University, during a news conference on Wednesday in Halifax. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)	who want to take Ivar’s time for collaborations,” Dr. Isacson said. Dr. Harold Cook, dean of Dalhousie’s medical school, said geography, the historical relationship between

Boston and Halifax and the shared goals of the two centres make for a natural partnership.

“This is an example where the borders break down, and we just get down to business,” he said.

Dr. Isacson said researchers at the Harvard centre have developed ways of producing the cells that die in Parkinson’s disease from a dish of stem cells, and may even be able to transplant a patient’s own skin cells into the brain to reverse the effects of the disease.

Dr. Mendez said this approach could provide a road map for the treatment of other neurological diseases or damage to the brain caused by stroke and injury.

By working together more closely, the two teams may fundamentally change how medicine tackles what are now life-altering conditions, Dr. Isacson said.

“We’re certainly talking within a decade to change the very nature of treatment of these diseases, perhaps away from some drug treatments to real surgical applications with cell implantations or even regeneration of brain connections,” he said.

Dr. Isacson noted that the two centres will be able to tap separate American and Canadian sources of funding as they pursue separate goals.

He said his Boston facility uses Dal-designed equipment that is at the forefront of neurosurgery technology. He said Harvard’s links to the scientific community could help put such tools into wider use.

Many people will benefit, Dr. Mendez said.

“At the end of the day, what we want is to provide not only patients in Nova Scotia and Boston, but the patients of the world with world-class care—the best type of medical care possible.”

( jgillis@herald.ca)

’It’s a no-brainer. . . . They (Harvard) have an expertise that is complementary to ours. Together, we will be able to move farther and faster in terms of the goal of repairing the brain.’

 

Technorati Tags: Dr. Ivar Mendez,Halifax Neurosurgeon,Brain Repair Center

Two heads better than one as Dal, Harvard team up on brain research

By JOHN GILLIS Health Reporter
Wed. Feb 20 - 4:45 PM

The links between Halifax and Boston include Christmas trees, baseball heroes and now the quest to repair brains.

The heads of Dalhousie University’s Brain Repair Centre and Harvard University’s Center for Neuroregeneration Research signed an agreement Wednesday to formalize a collaboration between two East Coast facilities that are known around the world for their innovation.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Halifax neurosurgeon Dr. Ivar Mendez said after the ceremony at Dal.

“They have an expertise that is complementary to ours. Together we will be able to move farther and faster in terms of the goal of repairing the brain.”

Dr. Mendez and Dr. Ole Isacson, director of the neuroregeneration centre at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, heaped praise on each other’s work. The two centres have already been working together for five years.

“I have to compete with Europeans who want to take Ivar’s time for collaborations,” Dr. Isacson said.

Dalhousie medical school dean Dr. Harold Cook said geography, the history between Boston and Halifax and the shared goals of the two centres make for a natural partnership.

“This is an example where the borders break down and we just get down to business,” he said.

Dr. Isacson said researchers at the Harvard centre have developed ways of producing the cells that die in Parkinson’s disease from a dish of stem cells, and may even be able to use a patient’s own skin cells to transplant into the brain to reverse the effects of the disease.

Dr. Mendez said this approach could provide a road map for the treatment of other neurological diseases or damage to the brain caused by stroke and injury.

By working together more closely, the two teams may fundamentally alter what are now life-changing conditions, Dr. Isacson said.

“We’re certainly talking within a decade to change the very nature of treatment of these diseases, perhaps away from some drug treatments to real surgical applications with cell implantations or even regeneration of brain connections,” he said.

Dr. Isacson noted that the two centres will be able to tap separate American and Canadian sources of funding as they pursue separate goals.

He said his Boston facility uses Dal-designed equipment that is at the forefront of neurosurgery. He said Harvard’s links to the scientific community could help put such tools into wider use.

Many people will benefit, Dr. Mendez said.

“At the end of the day, what we want is to provide not only patients in Nova Scotia and Boston, but the patients of the world with world class care — the best type of medical care possible.”

(jgillis@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Brain Repair Center,Mendez,BRC,Dalhousie,Harvard

Bedford voters may face two trips to polls this year

Sun. Feb 24 - 5:16 AM

Municipal voters in Bedford should go to the polls twice this year, a municipal staff report recommends.

The report said a Bedford byelection, necessitated by the death this month of Coun. Gary Martin, can be held May 3. Advance polls are to run April 26 and 29.

Mr. Martin, a former Halifax police officer, died Feb. 10 at age 53 after a battle with cancer.

Cost of the planned byelection is about $35,000, according to the report, which will be presented to regional council Tuesday. Councillors are to vote on the expense and the date.

The general municipal election is set for October. That means the successful Bedford candidate could have a short political career if he or she is voted out of office five months later.

Those eligible to run in the byelection must be Canadian citizens, 18 years old at the time of nomination and residents of Halifax Regional Municipality six months before nomination day.

Mr. Martin joined regional council in August 2006 when he won a byelection after former Bedford councillor Len Goucher was elected to the provincial legislature. Since the Bedford seat is vacant, other councillors are responding to concerns and comments from area residents.

The most recent municipal byelection was in December in the Woodside-Eastern Passage district, when fewer than 1,300 of 12,000 of those eligible voted.

In Bedford, there’s a move afoot to try to find a different municipal government model to serve local householders and business operators. A new group, the Bedford Community Council Association, heard several complaints from residents at a meeting earlier this month. More than 200 people attended the session.

Bedford’s population has grown to about 20,000 from 6,000 in the past 25 years, and its commercial and residential tax base has increased to about $1.6 billion from $877 million.

( mlightstone@herald.ca)

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Condo projects proceeding despite signs of instability

 

Condo projects proceeding despite signs of instability

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist

Fri. Feb 8 - 6:22 AM

Despite delays caused by a shortage of skilled tradespeople, which among other things has helped to increase construction costs, the metro condo and apartment market seems to be going full steam ahead.

The continued building boom has some people wondering if there is economic justification for the construction or if it may be part of some kind of building frenzy in the metro area.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the agency that tracks these things, told a conference earlier this week that it expects about 900 condo units will be built within the urban part of Halifax Regional Municipality over the next two years — 200 units on the Halifax peninsula, 400 on the Halifax mainland, 200 in Dartmouth and 100 in Lower Sackville.

Wunderkind developer Joe Metlege of Halifax says he has changed his mind about trying to sell his $15-million, seven-storey, 97-unit Palace Royale project in Clayton Park as condos and has instead decided to rent the units out as “condo-quality” apartments beginning in September.

“The condo market is not too stable right now, so we’re going to finish it like a condo with granite countertops, six appliances, large spacious rooms, key card access for the units,” the 25-year-old told me in a recent phone conversation.

According to CMHC, in addition to the condos that will be built in metro, there are also a healthy number of apartments about to come on the market in the next couple of years.

It is projecting there will be an additional 1,250 apartment units available in metro by 2010.

About 225 apartment units will be built on the Halifax peninsula, 525 on the mainland, 450 in Dartmouth and 50 in the Bedford/Sackville area, according to analysts at CMHC.

As almost everyone knows, location is the key to the success of any real estate transaction and the market for apartments and condos is no exception.

Metlege is president of Jono Developments Ltd. and is also the president of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia. In addition to the Palace Royale project, he has embarked on an even more ambitious project on the periphery of Halifax’s downtown.

He recently acquired the property that’s home to Trinity Anglican Church at the corner of Brunswick and Cogswell streets. That’s where he plans to construct a $50-million, mixed-use, 19-storey building.

Work on that project could begin as early as this fall, he says. The church called for proposals for the site last year and Metlege says the package he offered won the bid.

In exchange for the church and the land downtown, Metlege is building a new church in the Clayton Park area near his Palace Royale project.

There was a cash payment to the church as well.

There is no heritage claim on the existing downtown structure and there are no height restrictions in that part of the city either, so Jono Developments can proceed with its plans without having to go through the costly and time-consuming appeals process faced by many downtown development proposals in recent years.

He says the site is strategically located and should become even more valuable once the city proceeds with plans to tear down the often-criticized Cogswell interchange to allow for even more development.

Metlege says plans for the building have not been finalized but one idea is to set aside part of the building as a four- or five-star hotel. The top floors would be apartments. Plan B for the site would eliminate the hotel component and replace it with about 150,000 square feet of office space.

In addition to having to have vision about what type of construction project will become a successful investment, under today’s conditions, developers also have to have a lot of guts.

( rtaylor@herald.ca)

Roger Taylor’s column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Technorati Tags: Condo Development,Halifax,Market Conditions

Daily News demise like a death in the family

 

By PETER DUFFY
Thu. Feb 14 - 5:26 AM

In its heyday, the Halifax Daily News was feisty and full of spunk, and made other Nova Scotia media outlets sit up and take notice. (Eric Wynne / Staff)

THE ANNOUNCEMENT hit like a bomb.

The Daily News has folded!

We were stunned. Had we heard correctly? Unfortunately, we had.

Monday morning, our competitor down the street, the tabloid we’d known affectionately as the Daily Snooze, went under. Just like that. Hardly a ripple. Gone, taking with it a history reaching back more than 30 years.

It happened so fast. The owners didn’t even allow the poor thing a chance to print its own obituary.

It was a shock and yet, not really. Here at The Chronicle Herald, we’d had an inkling its days were numbered for some time and so, I’d be willing to bet, did most of the men and women who worked there. At the very least, they must have been toiling with one eye over their shoulder.

Three different corporate owners in slightly more than a decade will do that to you.

The hard reality was the tabloid’s audience never came close to matching ours, no matter what imaginative new ideas it came up with to attract readers. But the curious thing was, it always seemed more.

Our stubborn competitor seemed to be everywhere. It was hard to go anywhere without seeing copies lying on tables, on counters, in coffee shops, fast-food joints and service stations.

Whenever I came across one, I’d grab it and read it, and therein lay the problem. Too many of us were in the habit of reading someone else’s copy; not enough of us were buying our own.

Not that our own circulation had been growing dramatically; it hadn’t. But it wasn’t draining away, either. Whatever we were doing, it seemed to be working because we were holding our own, bucking a national downward trend.

These are tough times for newspapers everywhere. Not only are advertising dollars in short supply but the pack of media outlets competing for them is larger and hungrier than ever before. Circulations are stagnant, fragmented or shrinking and, most worrisome of all, more and more readers, especially younger ones, are getting their daily fix from new media like the Internet.

Like The Herald, the Daily News was trying to find its bearings in cyberspace and, by all accounts, it wasn’t doing too badly. It boasted Canada’s first online edition and, when the end came, its readership was larger than for the newspaper itself. The problem was all those eyeballs weren’t translating into sufficient revenues to keep everything afloat.

Personally, I think the paper lost its way. Its various owners ignored its history; they were careless with the precocious spark that had been passed down by its predecessor, the feisty Bedford-Sackville Daily News.

Now there was my kind of newspaper! It was loud, boisterous and fearless from the start. It went after the kinds of stories that shook walls and rattled windows around metro. It championed the little guy and challenged authority with all guns blazing.

When I arrived in Halifax in 1980, I was so impressed with its spunk that I applied for a job. It was the first place I tried. (Co-founder David Bentley gave me an interview but never did get back to me. To this day, I still don’t know why.)

Now, to be fair, The Herald wasn’t ignoring all the juicy news flying around back then, but it moved at its own pace and reported in a much more restrained fashion. It was the paper of record, trying to be all things to all people across the province. It was an institution and, like all institutions, it needed time to evaluate this new day dawning and make the changes.

And change it did. In my time here, the roles of the two papers have almost reversed. The Herald has become the conscience of the community, the chronicler of injustice, the anticipator and exposer of official skulduggery.

And more. We’ve overcome our shyness and learned to make a joyful din about Nova Scotia, its people and their accomplishments. Heck, we’ve even developed a sense of humour!

Frankly, I believe much of the credit goes to the example set by the Daily News, when it was young, exciting and trailblazing.

The thing was, as we were emerging from our shell, the tabloid was becoming more subdued. Sure, it still went after the stories but its heart didn’t seem to be in it any longer. It was like the fire was going out.

Instead of yelling, it began to whisper. Scoop-wise, the paper had long since ceased to be our competition. That role had been assumed by Steve Murphy and the crew at CTV.

Which isn’t to say the Daily News didn’t continue to have an impact on us; it did. It showed us the way with its Sunday edition; it consistently put together excellent sports and entertainment packages; and its use of graphics and colour were in a class by themselves, until we invested in the technology to put on an impressive showing of our own.

Here in The Herald newsroom, Monday’s announcement felt like a death in the family. There was no cheering, no high-fiving. Instead, our mood was muted, reflecting the anguish we felt for the 90-plus staffers involved, many of whom we knew.

Those poor people, we murmured.

And as we mourned, we felt a sudden chill.

We shivered for the Daily News. We shivered for newspapers. And we shivered for ourselves.

( pduffy@herald.ca)

Peter Duffy appears Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

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