So, let me see if I understand this correctly. Nova Scotia’s Department of Motor Vehicles takes in $120 million a year to register vehicles, peddle license plates, test drivers, promote highway safety, etc. The DMV costs $30-35 million a year to operate, meaning it nets the provincial treasury $85-90 million a year. But the DMV’s […]
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
- 07/27/2015
- StephenKimber
- 4 Comments
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Flora MacDonald, Canada’s first female Secretary of State, died today (July 26, 2015). She was 89. In the fall of 1979 — the year she became Secretary of State — I spent a few days following the North Sydney, NS, native around her adopted hometown of Kingston, ON, for a profile in the November 1979 issue of Atlantic Insight magazine. […]
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
There is something rich — and richly ironic — hearing Stephen McNeil fret about the number of voters who didn’t bother to cast ballots in last week’s three provincial by-elections. McNeil, after all, chose the date. He could have called the by-elections for late spring when voters might conceivably have been more engaged. Instead, he picked […]
- 07/20/2015
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Let’s begin with a worst-case-scenario hypothetical. A young woman attending last weekend’s Evolve Music Festival — Antigonish’s three-day “celebration of music, culture, and social awareness” — decides she wants to alter her mind with some mind-altering substance. She asks around, discovers a guy selling what she thinks she wants to buy. She buys. She takes. […]
- 07/13/2015
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
The United Way’s report on what it takes to live in Halifax, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s knee-jerk response to the report and the need for an open, honest debate… So what’s the difference between minimum wage and a living wage? In Halifax, about $10 an hour. That was the recent surprise-but-no-surprise conclusion […]
- 07/08/2015
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Who killed Mills Brothers? The iconic Spring Garden Road women’s retailer — which launched in 1919 when “carriage trade” was still more literal than metaphorical — shuttered its sliding doors Tuesday. It disappeared into receivership, putting 20 employees — some of whom had greeted customers for 30 years — out of work. Perhaps it’s because […]
- 07/06/2015
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
The Halifax Partnership, the community economic development organization set up to — ta-da! — “bring private and public sector stakeholders together to create prosperity,” says Halifax needs to “focus on creating opportunities for recent graduates, both domestic and international, to enter the local labour force.” That’s the key take-away — perhaps penetrating glimpse into the […]
- 06/29/2015
- StephenKimber
- 2 Comments
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
On Friday, the government issued a request for proposals for a $1.5-million study to figure out whether to twin eight sections of 100-series highways and — as importantly — how to raise the $1.5 billion that will be needed to complete what Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Geoff MacLellan calls a “once-in-a-generation set of mega-projects.” […]
- 06/22/2015
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Quick now. Name me 10 things Nova Scotia’s 10 partisan, unelected senators have done in the past 10 years to influence federal laws or policies to protect Nova Scotia’s interests in ways that, say, our 11 partisan, politically elected members of parliament have not. Okay, five things in five years? One in one? Too difficult? […]
- 06/15/2015
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Really? Last week, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank, published a meticulously detailed, 62-page, 72-footnote report commissioned by Halifax’s United Way. Its purpose: to determine how much it takes for someone in Halifax to be “Working for a Living, Not Living to Work.” Which is when the small business hit the […]
- 06/08/2015
- StephenKimber
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STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books
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