October 2024 - Election on the way...

This month most of my time has been spent planning the type of municipal election coverage would be most helpful to our loyal readers. There was not much to be done with candidates until nominations closed September 10^th. Of course, our top headline on Page 1 contained a major error. We said nominations closed on September 9^th, when in realty it was September 10^th (Would have been best to be correct, but if a mistake was going to happen best to list a day earlier) Would have been more embarrassing, if we chose a date after the 10 and some one paid attention to us and missed the actual deadline.

Interest in the election seems higher than 2020. Of course 2020 was during the pandemic, which threw a monkey wrench into every facet of life. In 2020 four of the new councillors were women – Laurie Sandeson (District 2), Lisa Patton (District 8), Marie Benoit District 9), and Victoria Lomond (District 10), who actually joined via a by-election to replace 12 year council veteran, Tom Taggart, who vacated the position to run and win provincially becoming Colchester North MLA succeeding Karen Casey. Tim Johnson (District 5) was the sole male new councillor in 2020 succeeding Lloyd Gibbs.

In this election 22 people filed nomination papers 13 men and 9 women. Three of the women were acclaimed: Laurice Sandson (District 2); Lisa Patton District 8) and Sherry Martell (District 7), who replaced Mike Gregory who did not re-offer.

It was amazing to see five candidates vying for the District 10 council seat. It shows that rural people are starting to pay a greater interest in Municipal politics. The increasing population in rural areas may be playing a part. In years gone by rural area were suffering fighting to keep schools open; local stores and gas bars open, but now the population in some rural areas, across the province, including Colchester, has increased ]o much schools are bursting at the seams, Of course quality of rural life; better cell phone service and expanded internet service is encouraging younger professional families to choose rural lifestyle. Improved cell and internet service also permits more people to work from home, either as an employee or entrepreneurs starting a new business. There is a noticeable number of young professionals giving up urban living as cell an internet services evolved for the better.

Much of the pre-election time was spent composing the two questionnaires for candidates, one for councillor candidates the other for the mayoralty candidates. The challenge was to chose questions about matters of interest the most of the general public.

I mam not attempting to boast, but I suspect we will have the most extensive election coverage of any publication not only in Colchester, but of any print media across the province. The 2024 municipal election is probably the most import one for many decades. The reason being many rural areas are showing rapid growth and the pace of growth is going to increase substantially for the next decade. As a result it is very important the electors are engaged in order to be up to speed of the growth and changes coming to the municipality for the next 10-15 year growth cycle. I believe the rural areas of Colchester will show a 30% increase in population within the next decade. The immediate Debert area will almost double within seven years. If Scotia Port becomes reality all bets are off, because the promotors suggest 4,600 jobs within 20 years. If there is progress on improvements and expansion of the Debert Airport, look-out a number of larger international businesses will be knocking on our doors rushing to get established here. That’s why we need the best of the lot around the council table.

My hope, we will double the number of vote cast in this election compared to 2020

Vote October 19 - Maurice

Rees’ Pieces - April 2024 - A Worrisome Crossroad?

During the past five+ years Nova Scotia has been performing much better, and Canada-wide our economy has been out performing other provinces. This was particularly noticeable during the devastating CoVid years.

People from across Canada were purchasing their new-Nova Scotia home simply by viewing video footage from a real estate agent. Ironic as it might seem they weren’t buying where the lights are bright and neon signs are everywhere.

No they wanted small town, a peaceful rural area, or even farther remote, in areas where Nova Scotians would say, "we have to come out to hunt". It worked for them then and it worked for us, because on a Canada-wide basis, we developed a reputation based on: peaceful, friendly, less expensive and not overcrowded.

The positive attitude of Premier Tim Houston is one of the things that keeps us going today. He hasn’t gotten everything right, but he is not afraid to invest money to try to solve a problem, like healthcare, housing and other areas.

I must congratulate him on his opening paragraphs in his column on Page 5.

He writes, "Nova Scotia is a different province than it was 20, 10 and even five years ago. We are now seen as a province of opportunity – a place where young people can build their careers, and where businesses can thrive". I agree with him and could not have written it better.

If he had continued with another couple of sentences, I would have believed "he had read the tea leaves correctly". His next composition should have been, "Recently, there are looming very dark black clouds, which could be devastating for all non-urban and rural areas, and I am worried".

We know weather patterns have changed in the last five years. Recall, white Juan, wildfires, last July’s heavy rainstorm which washed out roads, flooded major areas, putting people in Bedford, Lr Sackville, Mount Uniacke and Windsor in great danger, then recently when all of Cape Breton, including Sydney received over 100 mm snow.

The worry, particularly for smaller towns and rural areas is how the print media world has been affected by social media platforms and two years of Covid. The real worry for those non-urban areas is the potential demise of the Saltwire publishing empire, with a debt load of $67-Million. They own all the dailies in Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland, plus all community newspapers in NFLD and most of them in Nova Scotia.

The real economic albatross is for rural areas. The dailies might be scooped up by an Ontario publishing group – speculation has Post Media, leader of the pact. the only prized jewel might be the Chronicle Herald, if the Saltwire team can’t find a solution. This could leave the weeklies and community newspapers among the ashes. Result: our largest towns, Amherst, Truro and New Glasgow without a newspaper.

It was 60 years last October when I entered this profession. The other day, I jotted down the names of almost 20 Nova Scotia Communities who proudly had a weekly / community newspaper. In New Brunswick, if I remember correctly there were 13 locally owned publications. I can’t remember all the names. At that time I knew all owners and senior staff by first name.

If you say, print media is dead, you are wrong. It is the only media, which delivers constituent provable results. If you were talking about the real big city media, they might have a shorter life span.

Rural areas need a local print media. Otherwise, they have no way to communicate with themselves or with adjoining communities to invite them to a church supper or know what is happening. Governments need local print media to communicate with taxpayers.

Imagine Truro without a newspaper to print photos of floats in the Santa Clause Parade.

Papers for rural areas can be profitable, but they have to be scooped up before the burn pile. Those who will force the issue are the rural residents whose concern will force governments, well healed business executives to make it possible so rural areas can be owners and make it work.

With fingers and toes crossed, here’s hoping. - Maurice

March 2024 - If unstoppable, let’s plan

If we learned one thing from the last five years it should be how we must learn to adapt to and enact basic changes from what we historically did. It would appear CoVid was the instigator of rapid changes and our need to adapt.

Primary areas of massive changes have been: attitude toward work; aggressiveness toward rate of pay; populist attitudes toward global situations and our tolerance toward one another – basically disrespect and lack of decency.

Let me start with more precise examples: since monthly CoVid payments began, we grew accustomed to receiving approximately $2,000 per month for sitting home and doing nothing. That resulted in wanting large increases in wages, when it was time to go back to work.

CoVid also caused us to have a totally different attitude to work, or the type of work we had been doing. Some left their traditional job and were seeking something else offering the "ultimate". A change so rapid there is nothing comparable since WWII.

The foregoing exodus resulted in certain job classifications without a supply of workers. Imagine coffee shops having to pay $5.00 more per hour for someone to operate the drive thru window. Not that I am against higher wages, but 33% increase in less than a year.

Maybe wages should have been at that level, but without CoVid the momentum for change would not have been there. Another strain on the economy is government is getting tough on demanding certain corporations and individuals repay the CoVid loans extended in time of need.

Currently, everyone is blaming "inflation" as the root of our massive contempt toward anything unpopular or costly. I’ll confine by thoughts to three areas:

Mortgages: For years, we overplayed our hand. Personal greed and desire to climb the social ladder, we forgot to factor in the devastating results if interest rates would rapidly climb from $2% to 6-7%. Because we thought ourselves as non-destructive, we bought more expensive properties than we necessary. Instead of buying property in the same classification of real estate, we decided to be more elegant. Had we stayed in the range of where we were we could probably handle the increased payments. (Example: buying property $100-150,000 less)

Petroleum: Government greed for more taxes and oil company greed have driven pump prices higher than when crude oil prices were $100+ per barrel, than current pricing. What is the justification for pump pricing being significantly higher at $75.00 per barrel, than seven years ago when per barrel prices were a bit over $100?

Housing: I can understand price increases due to supply shortages. But no executive would have the intestinal fortitude to massively increase prices beyond the norm. Other than "populist attitude" aggressiveness, there is no justification to doubling rents from $800 for one bedroom to $1700-1800 for similar property. Landlords have become brazen and greedy. Governments have failed to take action.

None of us advocate for government to become more involved, but thing have reached the stage, where on existing properties landlords should have to apply to increase rents beyond 2-3%. (They should have to apply demonstrating show/prove increased costs - taxes, heating, utilities, repairs, etc.) If improvements / major renovations are involved, the costs should be amortized over 7-10 years. This would eliminate most of the reno-viction.

New construction would be exempt, because what the market would bear would determine the pricing. With homelessness becoming rampant, we need to make basic changes there. Those who are homeless should be registered, and placed on list to be prioritized for municipal / government employment according to their ability and qualifications – taking into account: health, addictions, not wanting to work, down on their luck, etc. Where they are lacking skills, enroll in courses to upgrade and make employment ready.

If we think outside the box, a job can be found, or created for almost every case. Such programs might not be socially acceptable at the moment and would not help grow the economy, and in fact could cost more, but overtime, we would have built a society ready to work, and realize in order to receive you must contribute.

Are we ready to kick butt and make it happen? Maurice