Nova Scotia, New Brunswick hire project manager for Chignecto Isthmus project
Contract with Colliers Canada expected to cost about $500K in total
The governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have signed a contract with a project manager to oversee the strengthening of the Chignecto Isthmus.
But Public Works Minister Kim Masland cannot say how the two provinces will split costs related to that contract with Colliers Canada or any other future work connected to the project.
The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding last April.
"It basically says that we will continue to work together to make sure this project is done," Masland told reporters at Province House on Thursday.
She said "it's too early to ask" how the two provinces will determine who pays for what.
The minister said that for now each province will cover the cost of work that falls within its borders. To date, Nova Scotia has spent about $1 million related to the isthmus.
Masland said the contract with Colliers Canada will be paid as a billable rate expected to be worth up to $500,000 in total.
While the two provinces attempt to figure out how they'll pay their bills, they're in a public fight with the federal government over whether they should pay anything at all.
Money could go elsewhere
Federal cabinet ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Sean Fraser recently wrote to New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston. They told them that if they don't agree to accept $325 million from Ottawa for the project via the federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, they risk that money going elsewhere.
Ottawa has said it is willing to pay 50 per cent of the cost and have New Brunswick and Nova Scotia split the other half. Nova Scotia has asked the province's Court of Appeal to rule on whether the isthmus and work related to it is entirely a federal responsibility.
Higgs has told Ottawa that he would take the money but continue to fight the federal government in court. Houston has refused to confirm if he would do the same.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"The governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have signed a contract with a project manager to oversee the strengthening of the Chignecto Isthmus.
But Public Works Minister Kim Masland cannot say how the two provinces will split costs related to that contract with Colliers Canada or any other future work connected to the project.
The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding last April.
"It basically says that we will continue to work togethe'r to make sure this project is done," Masland told reporters at Province House on Thursday.
She said "it's too early to ask" how the two provinces will determine who pays for what.
I suspect this why we have not heard from little Lou today EH?
"files from The Canadian Press and Global News"
Higgs went to ‘very dark place’ with Liberal joke, opponent says
A joke about a deceased Liberal supporter has landed New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs in hot water — mere hours after the province’s election campaign kicked off.
Higgs shared the anecdote, which he told the crowd was a “true” event, at the end of his campaign launch speech Thursday evening in Quispamsis, N.B.
He relayed the story — to the crowd of party supporters and candidates —
Reply to Eileen Kinley
This part is particularly humorous: "Higgs has told Ottawa that he would take the money but continue to fight the federal government in court."
Reply to Lynette Browne
Reply to Lynette Browne
Reply to Lynette Browne
Reply to John Raymond
Reply to John Raymond
Reply to David Amos
Reply to John Raymond
Day after Day it emerges that The Science of The Pandemic was not in fact Science. Yet once again those that believed then now believe again.
Science was and is manipulated by those with an agenda.
Bob Leeson
Reply to William Murdoch
Yeah, the secret dark force make it all up so that people had to temporarily wear a mask at Walmart. Smh
William Murdoch
Reply to Bob Leeson
You haven't seen News lately. Paid posters on social media spread mistruths and propaganda as those that knew otherwise were shuttered from commentary. The Narrative was followed through on to make very few people wealthy as the biggest wealth transfer so far was perpetrated on the masses.
Bob Leeson
Reply to William Murdoch
Oh, you work there? What's the pay like?
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
So, you are one of those paid posters then.
I see....
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
Who are "those with an agenda"?
David Amos
Reply to William Murdoch
Methinks I should ask why you are permitted to post your opinions N'esy Pas?
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
Those like you from the BCWC.
William Murdoch
I read An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore claimed way back then that Florida would now be under water.
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
That's why you should listen to SME's and scientists, not politicians.
William Murdoch
Reply to Lynette Browne
I encourage you to read the book. Al Gore makes his claims based on the Science of Scientists.
David Amos
Reply to William Murdoch
FYI If I were to call Ron Klain right now he would know me by my voice
David Amos
Reply to William Murdoch
Perhaps you should read what I wrote to Al Gore before he came out with that silly movie
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
I have.
I can continue to encourage you to not listen to politicians.
William Murdoch
Reply to David Amos
Excellent idea.
William Murdoch
Reply to Lynette Browne
What leads you to believe that I listen to politicians?
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
Al Gore.
William Murdoch
Reply to Lynette Browne
I have never listened to that guy. He is although some claim a God for some like you. When did Florida Flood?
Jack Bell
Reply to William Murdoch
As requested in a previous thread.
A NB election results map in an article talking about the linguistic divide.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7336956/new-brunswick-linguistic-divide/
... and a NB Linguistics make up map:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/2019003/m-c/m-c-eng.jpg
William Murdoch
Reply to Jack Bell
Who requested that. I merely stated that those maps are not an accurate reflection of the wins of McKenna and Hatfield.
William Murdoch
Reply to David Amos
I wish I had time to but I do not have time to.
David Wilson
Reply to William Murdoch
The sea level is rising steadily.
Jack Bell
Reply to William Murdoch
"Who requested that. I merely stated that those maps are not an accurate reflection of the wins of McKenna and Hatfield."
You do now how votes were recorded in the past is nothing like how votes are recorded now, do you not?
David Amos
Reply to William Murdoch
Yea Right Its a 5 minute read
William Murdoch
Reply to David Wilson
Where is sea Level Rising Steadily?
William Murdoch
Reply to David Amos
I am due back soon at my Mainway Post.
Lynette Browne
Reply to Jack Bell
His expertise is in thermometer placement.
Jose Sartoz
Reply to William Murdoch
Too many YouTube videos to watch eh...
David Amos
Reply to William Murdoch
Why is it that I do not believe you?
Ed Franks
Reply to William Murdoch
Your first mistake was listening to a politician
David Amos
Reply to Jose Sartoz
No doubt he heard what I said at the 42 minute mark of this debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwqnxIGV1g
Holley Hardin
So now you are going to fight natural erosion?....Oh right it must be climate change...
David Amos
Reply to Holley Hardin
Perhaps you should confer with the ghosts who built the dikes hundreds of years ago
Jack Bell
Reply to Holley Hardin
...so we just let the sea wash away the road and build a 5 kilometer long bridge?
That should be super cheap.
Holley Hardin
Reply to David Amos
Oh so been a problem over a hundred years ago...you do know that doesn't help with the climate change argument...don;t you?...
David Wilson
Reply to Holley Hardin
It's is climate change.
Jack Bell
Reply to Holley Hardin
ah yes, the old there were warm days in the past so how could yearly record breaking temperatures be climate change
William Murdoch
Reply to Jack Bell
You do now how temperatures were recorded in the past is nothing like how temperatures are recorded now, do you not?
Jack Bell
Reply to William Murdoch
Is it as painful for you to write that as it was for us to read it?
William Murdoch
Reply to Jack Bell
Who is your "us" this time?
Lynette Browne
Reply to Holley Hardin
Yes, even a hundred years ago the land was basically at sea level.
Not to difficult to figure out that now with climate change the potential for flooding has to be tackled again.
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
Me for one......
Lynette Browne
Reply to William Murdoch
The invention of the thermometer makes climate change irrelevant.
William Murdoch
Reply to Lynette Browne
So then you will soon exit the thread and permit others to then speak for you?
Jack Bell
Reply to William Murdoch
My two thumbs us means more than one person agreed.. so us
David Amos
Reply to Holley Hardin
I was born and raised in the area and the local NB MLA is my cousin I am 72 now and my grandchildren live in Amherst Trust that the dikes existed hundreds of years before I was born
William Murdoch
Reply to Jack Bell
Well there now. That sure clarified your thinking.
Jack Bell
Reply to William Murdoch
Either we fix the problem when it's small or fix the problem when it's big.
Which will it be?
William Murdoch
Reply to Jack Bell
Firstly there is not now a problem. Well other that the problem that is some still believe Global Warming is Real.
Jose Sartoz
Reply to William Murdoch
Tinfoil, is in aisle 15. FYI.
When conservative premiers are more worried about picking fights with the feds the getting work done the peoe suffer.
Tim Houston is literally fightingt the feds on a universal lunch program in schools in a province with the highest or near highest child poverty rates in canada.
The conservative way
Art Rowe
Content Deactivated
Reply to Denny O'Brien
"Sad it is when 2 premiers cannot come to an agreement on an issue that seriously affects both provin..."
David Amos
Reply to Art Rowe
Relax and enjoy the circus we will be paying for it anyway
Art Rowe
Reply to David Amos
I agree David this will end up being a cluster for sure. Think 6 monkeys and a football.
N.B. election: Higgs went to ‘very dark place’ with Liberal joke, opponent says
A joke about a deceased Liberal supporter has landed New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs in hot water — mere hours after the province’s election campaign kicked off.
Higgs shared the anecdote, which he told the crowd was a “true” event, at the end of his campaign launch speech Thursday evening in Quispamsis, N.B.
He relayed the story — to the crowd of party supporters and candidates — that a canvasser working for him during his 2014 campaign in Quispamsis was knocking on doors to speak to constituents.
He said the volunteer spoke to a woman who assured her that she was voting for Higgs. When the volunteer began to make her way to the neighbour’s door, that’s when the joke took a controversial turn.
“And the lady said, ‘Oh, you don’t need to go there. She passed away a few weeks ago,'” Higgs said.
“And this campaigner — you know, very passionate individual — said, ‘I’m so sorry. Was she sick long? Or what happened?’ And the lady just said, ‘Oh, don’t feel too bad. She was a Liberal.'”While the audience laughed at the joke, Liberal Leader Susan Holt said it demonstrated “a complete lack of judgment on the premier’s part,” especially since Higgs himself prefaced the joke by saying his wife had advised him not to say it.
“I don’t think it’s becoming of the person who’s supposed to be leading our province. It’s a worry that we’ve had for some time now because we’ve seen the rhetoric and particularly the partisan nature that’s directed towards partisans,” Holt said Friday.
Holt said there has been division in the legislature, when “typically, in New Brunswick, we’ve had political parties that get along.”
“When the premier’s talking about dead Liberals and laughing at it, it certainly creates the temperature that’s concerning,” she said.
Green Party Leader David Coon told reporters he not only thought the joke was “inappropriate,” but that he thought Higgs was “descending into a very dark place.”
“I don’t know what happened to the man, but he’s certainly a different person from the man who was elected (premier) in 2018,” Coon said.
Higgs officially launched the election campaign Thursday morning, after a visit to Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy at her official residence in Fredericton.
At dissolution, Higgs’ Progressive Conservative Party held 25 seats, the Liberal Party had 16 seats and the Green Party had three seats. There was one independent MLA and four vacant seats.
Under the province’s fixed-date election law, the vote will take place on Oct. 21.
Low approval rating
Higgs, who became premier in 2018 and is seeking a third term, is starting this election campaign with the lowest approval rating of any premier in the country.
The latest quarterly Angus Reid Institute survey released Thursday showed that Higgs has an approval rating of 30 per cent, just below Ontario Premier Doug Ford at 31 per cent.
While the Liberals and Greens are mostly focusing on pocketbook issues such as housing, health care and education, the Progressive Conservatives are looking at social issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, also known as Policy 713.
A series of well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members resigned last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Silas Brown
Federal cabinet ministers chastise Houston, Higgs over Chignecto Isthmus funding
Ottawa plans to cover $325 million and wants N.B. and N.S. to cover other half
A disagreement over who should foot the bill for the work necessary to protect the Chignecto Isthmus has devolved into a war of words between Ottawa, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
On Tuesday, the federal government made public letters from two federal ministers, Dominic LeBlanc and Sean Fraser, blaming premiers Blaine Higgs and Tim Houston for jeopardizing that work by not agreeing to share in the cost to repair or replace the aging dike system.
Those structures help protect the stretch of land between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from flooding that could sever that link. With millions of dollars of trade passing through the corridor each day, along with a rail connection and transmission lines between the two provinces, the concern is that a major storm could cut Nova Scotia off from the rest of the country.
"We must act now to protect the Chignecto Isthmus against the increasing threat of severe weather events and flooding," Fraser noted in a letter to Houston dated Sept. 16.
"Officials from all three governments continue to work collaboratively, and are awaiting the political signal to begin next steps — a signal which does not seem to be forthcoming from either Nova Scotia or New Brunswick."
LeBlanc's letter to Higgs is less pointed, but also noted Ottawa was prepared to cover what it saw as half the cost of the project, $325 million.
"A commitment from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to jointly fund the remaining 50 per cent of the project costs would allow this project to move forward under the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund," wrote LeBlanc. "Without such a commitment, the project will be ineligible for support through the program."
The letter went on to say that if Nova Scotia and New Brunswick don't cover half of the cost, Fraser "will be required to reallocate the funding to other communities who are willing and ready to comply with the program's requirements."
Nova
Scotia Premier Tim Houston, right, and New Brunswick Premier Blaine
Higgs, left, are being accused by federal ministers of not paying their
share of costs to protect the Chignecto Isthmus. (Radio-Canada)
Both LeBlanc and Fraser implored the provinces to agree to chip in "before it is too late."
The two provincial governments have signed an agreement for how they will work together on the early planning stages required in the lead up to the upgrade of the isthmus. They recently announced a project manager who will oversee work that includes data collection, regulatory measures, stakeholder meetings and archaeological reports.
Court action started in 2023
The Houston government has asked the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to rule on whether this work is entirely a federal responsibility. It initiated court action in July 2023 but submitted the reasoning for its claim last Friday.
Houston then sent a copy of the province's factum to Nova Scotia's Liberal members of Parliament imploring them to lobby their own government on the province's behalf.
"I ask that you use your position to urge your government to reconsider its position and take full responsibility for the costs of the Isthmus," wrote Houston. "The province will be there to support with design and in any practical capacity."
The alternative would mean a lengthy court case, said Houston, who added he was "confident the province will be successful."
'A dollar that is taken away from health care'
On Sunday, Houston went a step further, issuing a news release accusing the federal government of "inaction."
"While project priorities continue to be met and tenders issued, every dollar that the province spends on this is a dollar that is taken away from health care, other provincial priorities and Nova Scotians," said Houston.
He said that is why the province has gone to court to determine what level of government is responsible for paying for the work.
Fraser referenced Houston's claims that the project could impact plans for a new seawall in Halifax, upgrades to the Lunenburg waterfront as well as health-care spending.
"I would remind you that the current federal government has provided some of the largest Canada Health Transfers to Nova Scotia in our history," said Fraser.
"There is no good justification to threaten a reduction in health-care spending, particularly when so many Nova Scotian households live with real anxiety over health needs that continue to go unmet."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The plot thickens before 2 provincial elections
David Amos
Reply to David Amos
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/fixed-election-dates-tories-liberals-ndp-1.7228291
David Amos
Reply to David Amos
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/liberals-launch-campaign-election-1.7316773
Dan Wilkinson
Reply to David Amos
... and federal (wink, nudge) next spring.
David Amos
Reply to David Amos
"Local government leaders, including Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers and Sitansisk Chief Allan Polchies, were in attendance on Sunday.
Rogers declined to comment, while Polchies said he believes in Holt's policy direction."
However
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/higgs-ftn-council-meeting-1.7325212
David Amos
Reply to Dan Wilkinson
Thats up to the Bloc
wayne tighe
Reply to David Amos
Why would you recognize a separatist party . Things have to change here .
Dan Wilkinson
Reply to David Amos
and after yesterday we can pretty well imagine what their thought process will be.
Jake Newman
Content Deactivated
at least soon Fraser and LeBlanc will be voted out from being in power.
David Amos
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They can waste a lot of money in the meantime
Robert Snider
feds built a new bridge in Montreal without charging tolls...don't need any tolls for their responsibility to ensure two provinces are linked properly.
David Amos
Reply to Robert Snider
Well put
Our trip to Hell is going to need a bigger handbasket or cart.
David Amos
Reply to Hugh MacDonald
C'est Vrai
"$1.7B to clean up orphaned and abandoned wells could create thousands of jobs"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/federal-oil-and-gas-orphan-wells-program-1.5535943
Is it weird the fed will give $1.7 Billion to bail out the oil industry when they don't clean up their own messes but only $325 million to try to fix the problems created by burning fossil fuels?
Buford Wilson
Burning oil has nothing to do with the state of the Chignecto Isthmus, Jack.
Jack Bell
Reply to Buford Wilson
You seem to have missed the very first 2 sentences Buford... that's OK, I'll post it here so someone can read it to you.
"The Chignecto Isthmus is the strip of land that connects New Brunswick and mainland Nova Scotia. It's an integral trade corridor and is vulnerable to flooding from the effects of climate change"
David Amos
Reply to Buford Wilson
Welcome back to the circus
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