Check out a summarized list of the most recent articles relating to employment in Nova Scotia. Updated on an ongoing basis, the CEI Media Scan provides readers with a quick glance of the latest employment headlines:
March 2019 – May 2019
29-May-19
Could ‘physician-extenders’ ease Nova Scotia’s health-care woes? A Halifax woman who works at Toronto Western Hospital says she would happily move home and help fill healthcare gaps — but her job isn’t recognized in Nova Scotia. Brittany Belair is a physician assistant, or PA. It’s a job the health department says has merits and may one day be established in the province.
28-May-19
Scotiabank supporting NSCC entrepreneurship with $150,000 donation. A $150,000 donation by Scotiabank will be used to support entrepreneurs at the Nova Scotia Community College. Beginning this fall, the new three-year Scotiabank entrepreneur-in-the-making program will support up to 14 startups annually at each NSCC campus. There will be a particular focus on women and those from underrepresented groups.
28-May-19
Port Hood native to serve as Cape Breton business adviser for Centre for Women in Business. Courtney Schmidt is the latest in a long line of family members with an entrepreneurial-focused mindset. And she’s had strong female role models to rely on. That includes her mother, Joanne Schmidt, who owns and operates Galloping Cows Fine Foods in Port Hood. Her husband, Ron, is a partner in the company that sells jams, butters, spreads and baked goods. “I come from a background of three generations of women in business,” Schmidt, 24, said in an interview Tuesday.
28-May-19
Lack of Internet killing South Shore businesses? Shanna Joudrey knows what’s at stake; the survival of her business, like many entrepreneurs along the South Shore, depends on the Internet. “I do the majority of my business online,” she said of her wedding planning service, Details Events & Design Studio, which she operates from her home in Branch LaHave. “Having that social media presence is definitely where I get the majority of my work done.”
24-May-19
Techsploration aims to encourage girls to get into tech and science careers. Women are under-represented in tech careers. That’s why one program is geared towards presenting young women with their career options early. Grade 9 girls from around the province gathered at Acadia University, to ask questions and get hands-on training at different jobs.
24-May-19
Government provides funding to help immigrants get credentials recognized. The federal government is providing almost $4 million for a new project to help 3,000 internationally-trained immigrants in Atlantic Canada get their credentials recognized so they can gain work experience in Canada. In a news release, Halifax MP Andy Fillmore said skilled immigrants often face challenges in finding work in their fields because of a lack of recognition of their education and training from abroad.
23-May-19
Recruitment efforts for rural nurses ‘worn out,’ says health authority CEO. The Nova Scotia Health Authority is going back to the drawing board to find new ways to recruit nurses to rural parts of the province. The need for nurses is so big, some services in the Canso area have been temporarily cut until new help can be found.
22-May-19
Irving to build two more Arctic patrol ships in Halifax. Ottawa’s purchase of two more Arctic and offshore patrol ships will likely lessen concerns about layoffs at Halifax Shipyard. The federal government announced Wednesday that the Irving-owned yard will build two of the vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard on top of the six it is building for the Royal Canadian Navy.
21-May-19
Pan Cape Breton Food Hub planning processing facility. Ahead of a formal funding request to each municipal partner, the Cape Breton Food Hub unveiled its current state and plans for the future, including a new processing facility. During the committee-of-the-whole meeting of Richmond Municipal Council on May 13 in Arichat, the Pan Cape Breton Food Hub’s Alicia Lake and board member Kari Easthouse explained their organization and how it helps food producers throughout the island.
21-May-19
Seafood storage facility to create jobs for Eskasoni First Nation. Eskasoni First Nation has teamed up with a fish processing group to create a new cold storage venture in Sydney, N.S. Eskasoni Cold Logistics is housed in a former Co-op food handling facility. It officially opened Tuesday with a funding announcement from the federal and provincial governments.
21-May-19
Halifax firm Solid State Pharma expands, adds 25 jobs. A Halifax-based pharmaceutical company is expanding its business and creating new 25 jobs and moving to larger space on the waterfront, more than three times larger than what it has at its current space in Innovacorp Enterprise Centre.The federal government announced on Tuesday it will be contributing a $700,000 low-interest loan to Solid State Pharma Inc., based on the company’s success selling its products around the world.
21-May-19
Employing people with a disability focus of Sydney Event. Internationally renowned human rights advocate Mark Wafer will speak at a luncheon to recognize National Accessibility Week later this month. The event, hosted by the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Horizon Achievement Centre, is inviting the business community to the 11:30 a.m. keynote address at Centre 200 on Monday, May 27.
17-May-19
Forum focuses on progressive partnership between Paqtnkek, Antigonish County. There are First Nations-Municipal Community Economic Development Initiatives (CEDI), then there is the relationship which has been formed between Paqtnkek First Nation and the Municipality of the County of Antigonish over the past three years. A strengthening relationship/partnership which was officially embraced last year, with the signing of a Friendship Accord, and one that was celebrated and discussed during the First Nation-Municipal Regional Economic Development Forum, held in Paqtnkek May 14.
16-May-19
Sydney port marketer teams up with NYC private equity firm. A New York City-based private equity firm is partnering with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners to see a proposed deep-water container terminal built on a 500-acre parcel of dredged material near the mouth of the harbour.
15-May-19
Australian Gold Producer St Barbara to acquire Atlantic Gold. St Barbara Ltd., an Australian gold producer, has agreed to purchase Atlantic Gold. Vancouver-based Atlantic Gold is operating and developing open pit gold mines in Nova Scotia… Atlantic Gold began producing last year at the Touquoy site at Moose River Gold Mines, about 40 kilometres inland from Sheet Harbour, N.S. Three more sites — Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill and Fifteen Mile Stream — are in development nearby and will start producing in 2021-2022, pending environmental assessments.
15-May-19
Just Us Coffee on sail: N.S. coffee co-op goes old school to go green. There is a saying that everything old is new again. On Tuesday, the German schooner Avontuur arrived at Pier 25 in Halifax, but unlike most tall ships that call on Halifax these days, this one was carrying cargo. Just Us Coffee found Timbercoast, the operators of the Avontuur, just over a year ago and the opportunity was just too good to pass up. According to representatives from the Grand Pré coffee cooperative, for Just Us the opportunity was to transport the green Arabica coffee beans using a low-carbon footprint.
12-May-19
Why a N.S. lobster plant is building a daycare in a bid to attract workers. A lobster plant in southwestern Nova Scotia is so desperate for workers that it’s planning to build a daycare to help attract workers and accommodate their families. Riverside Lobster International in Meteghan employs more than 300 workers — nearly half of whom are from Mexico, Chile, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines. “Our labour issue is a major issue,” said corporate affairs officer Frank Anderson. “We’re short labourers big time, every day.
12-May-19
Pizza place owned by first Syrian refugee to the Maritimes delivers slice of success. Less than four years after coming to Halifax as a refugee, Mohammad Al Habash is running a pizza restaurant. “Canada gave us more than Syria. We have to pay this country back by hard work,” Al Habash says.
10-May-19
Mental health program offered to Nova Scotia Truckers. The Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association is offering a training for the industry that addresses mental health and reduces its stigma in the workplace. No other truck transportation association in the country offers qualified trainers for mental health wellness programs. “We are helping companies and individuals to ensure the workplace is respectful and inclusive of all employees including those with mental health problems and mental illnesses. This, in turn, increases productivity,” the association’s executive director Linda Corkum said in a release.
9-May-19
ENTREVESTOR: New venture fund invests in SalesRight. Halifax-based SalesRight has raised $250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Concrete Ventures, the first investment made by the new Atlantic Canadian venture capital fund. Concrete Ventures, which has more than $17 million to invest, offers investments from $100,000 to $750,000 to pre-seed companies in Atlantic Canada.
9-May-19
SMU student 2019 Student Entrepreneur National Champion. Ross Arsenault, owner of Ashored Inc. and full-time student at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, has been named 2019 Student Entrepreneur National Champion. Arsenault won $10,000 from Canada’s largest student leadership development organization, Enactus Canada, and HSBC Bank Canada.
8-May-19
Work permit requirements reduced for spouses of Atlantic program immigrants. A federal program created to attract more immigrants to Atlantic Canada is making changes to allow more spouses of the immigrants to come into the region. An announcement from the Atlantic Immigration Pilot on Wednesday says spouses can apply for an open work permit in areas such as food and beverage, servers or long-haul truck drivers.
7-May-19
Downtown Sydney regeneration project winds down. Sydney Downtown Development Association looking to pick up the slack after two-year pilot program ends. The downtown Sydney regeneration pilot program that aimed to rejuvenate the core of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality will close out its work with two final projects this summer. The two-year program began in May 2017 with the purpose of working with residents and the local business community on projects that would have significant economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits.
7-May-19
Eastern Canada’s largest container terminal sold to Singapore-based port operator. Macquarie Group Ltd. says it has reached a deal to sell the largest container terminal in Eastern Canada. The Australian investment bank says it has finalized an agreement to hand over the Halterm terminal at the Port of Halifax to PSA International Pte Ltd. The Singapore-based port operator will also acquire Penn Terminals in Philadelphia from the Australian firm. Both terminals are currently owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a fund managed by a Macquarie Group subsidiary.
7-May-19
Business Innovation Summit in Rural Nova Scotia. Business and community leaders from across the province will gather in Truro today, May 7, to celebrate new and better ways of doing things. About 150 Nova Scotians will attend the Planting Seeds Innovation Summit at Nova Scotia Community College’s (NSCC) Truro campus, showcasing business innovation in key sectors like agriculture and food.
3-May-19
Drink local: winery owner partners up to create juice, mineral-water drink from Nova Scotian Fruit. A lunch in Halifax for Hanspeter Stutz this week reinforced to him the belief that his new business venture is on the right track. Stutz, the owner of Domaine de Grand Pre winery, has partnered with Ted Grant to create Viveau, a company that is combining Nova Scotia fruit juice with mineral water to make a healthy drink for export and the domestic market.
2-May-19
Nova Scotia to add 173 staff to support inclusive education: Churchill. Nova Scotia is spending another $15-million to bolster services and programs for students with special needs in the classroom, pledging to hire 173 more inclusive education specialists, teachers, and non-teaching staff this September.
2-May-19
KIMOTHY WALKER: Advice for entrepreneurs: ‘If you want to go far, go together’. As a recipient of a place with Start Up Canada’s Global Entrepreneur Cohort for Canada I started to think about how naïve I was when I left a great job as a TV Anchor exactly five years ago. How hard could it be to start your own business, right? After all, 2.3 million Canadians are entrepreneurs. At the time, however, I didn’t realize how many fail — almost 96%. That’s probably research I should have done sooner!
1-May-19
Inclusive Opportunities – New Consignment shop opens to rave reviews by scores of shoppers in Middleton. Jaymee-Lynne Dowell thought she was ready, but the rush of shoppers May 1 at the new shop in Middleton was maybe more than she anticipated. It was busy! More Than A Label Consignment will help people labeled with disabilities an opportunity to gain workplace experience so they can eventually get jobs that pay real wages – just like everybody else.
30-Apr-19
Vital Conversations with Entrepreneurs. Tuesday’s panelists are Bryan MacDonald, Danielle Johnston and Danielle Patterson. All three of these individuals are entrepreneurs filled with passion and drive for making Cape Breton thrive as much as possible.
26-Apr-19
$350,000 project includes roof for Annapolis Royal’s Farmers and Traders Market. Annapolis Royal’s Farmers and Traders Market is getting a roof, and a former bus garage just across the street is being refurbished into public washrooms and a retail space. Federal and provincial funds were announced Tuesday by West Nova MP Colin Fraser and Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil.
26-Apr-19
100 cars a-day off the highway for 100 days’ Nova Scotia Spirit Co. gets set for a big summer. In 2015 Alex Rice arrived at his newly purchased building just outside of Trenton “and there was a job ad on the front door.” In 2017 Rice’s company would be ranked 13th on the Startup 50 list of Canada’s fastest-growing new companies.
26-Apr-19
HOWATT: Mental fitness versus employee engagement. Last week, I was talking to a CEO about mental health and what their organization is doing to prevent mental injuries and to promote mental health.
The chief executive was open to the question and appeared to be honest and caring about their employees’ mental health.
26-Apr-19
Christmas tree growers get funding to improve trees, expand export markets. Christmas tree growers in the province are getting $750,000 to help with research and development, the creation of quality standards, export market research and the development of a sustainability plan. The money is going to the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia over three years.
26-Apr-19
Co-op to build new lobster pound. The North Bay Fishermen’s Co-op, based in Ballantyne’s Cove, is installing a 100,000-pound lobster holding system, with technology to chill the water for long-term storage, to extend its season and hire more people. ACOA is providing a $450,000 loan. The federal fisheries department and Nova Scotia are providing $284,260 in “conditionally repayable” support through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund.
26-Apr-19
Nova Scotia’s building construction sector hot. Construction investment in Nova Scotia was up 40.5 per cent year-to-date, the fastest growth in the country, according to data collected by Statistics Canada.
26-Apr-19
ENTREVESTOR: Martell growing his business Inside Out. One reason Jason Martell has grown his business Inside Out Cleaning Services so strongly in recent years is his partnerships with Halifax-area startups, which have helped him to adopt a growth strategy and new technology.
11-Apr-19
NSCC culinary arts class showcases cultural diversity. Aleshia Simpson uses fitting words to describe the face of the culinary arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Akerley campus in Dartmouth: a big, nice melting pot.
Of the 136 students enrolled in the program last fall, 66 identified as being international, black Canadian or Indigenous.
10-Apr-19
7 surprising things that could change the job market by 2030. Everyone expects automation and other tech advances to eliminate some jobs and create others. But in a new report, Canadian futurists say there’s a far wider range of trends that could influence the types of skills that are likely to be in demand — or not — in the future.
Focusing too closely on the impact of technological change alone could create blind spots that leave Canadians unprepared to handle changes to the labour market, says the report, released Wednesday and entitled Turn and Face the Strange: Changes Impacting the Future of Employment in Canada.
10-Apr-19
West Hants confirms Lindsay Construction as main contractor for $15 million sports complex. During council’s April 9 meeting, following an in-camera session, West Hants council passed a motion to award the construction of the West Hants Sports Complex to Lindsay’s Construction.
In a press release, the municipality said they will be cost sharing the $15 million project, the largest such investment in municipal infrastructure ever, with the federal government, which is providing $4.4 million and the province, with an additional $3.6 million.
10-Apr-19
Sea snails project 1 of 11 fisheries projects to get government cash. A shrimp processing plant in Arichat, N.S., is going to use some new federal and provincial funding to start processing sea snails.
Wayne Fowlie, plant manager at Premium Seafoods in Arichat, said the $96,000 will be used to purchase equipment needed to process the underutilized species.”
The money was announced Tuesday by Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
9-Apr-19
Province adds to mineral exploration fund. The Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines announced on Tuesday that it is raising the Mineral Resource Development Fund by $700,000.
It is great news that the fund has been expanded,” said Saint Mary’s University professor Jacob Hanley who has used the research fund last year. “We need to highlight the immense value minerals play in society and this is an opportunity to do research in an area that is going to advance our technical capabilities in the province, and help secure resources for our future as Nova Scotians.
8-Apr-19
Nova Scotia unveils new buildings at three community college campuses. The Nova Scotia government has unveiled $24 million in expansion projects for the province’s community college system. The projects announced Monday include an IT Innovation Centre at the IT campus in Halifax, and residences at the Lawrencetown campus in the Annapolis Valley and the Port Hawkesbury campus.
6-Apr-19
TO THE POINT: Nova Scotia must do more to grow population before baby boomers retire. If Atlantic Canada leads the country in any category, it’s having the highest unemployment rates. Historically, Atlantic Canada has suffered from too much labour supply and too little demand for that labour. Chronic under-employment and unemployment have been constant for decades. High unemployment rates – generally driven by low growth – are bad for the economy, and is, in part, the consequence of little or no population growth since the 1990s. This has been particularly the case over the last decade or so; between 2008 and 2018, there has been little real job growth in Nova Scotia.
5-Apr-19
Canada lost 7,200 jobs in March, ending 6-month streak of gains. Canada’s job market shrank by 7,200 positions in March, but the jobless rate held steady at 5.8 per cent. Statistics Canada reported Friday that while five provinces posted job gains, they were offset by large decreases elsewhere, notably in Quebec and Ontario.
5-Apr-19
Nova Scotia communities sharpen pitch for doctor recruits. One year after the provincial health authority came under harsh criticism for not attending the largest conference in the country on rural and remote medicine, the Nova Scotia Health Authority and communities from around the province are prominently featured at this year’s event, which is being held in Halifax and has attracted almost 800 people.
4-Apr-19
A way to connect: High speed Internet for all Canadians by 2030. Bernadette Jordan has heard it before. Multiple times.
“Something I have heard coast-to-coast-to-coast is, ‘How do you expect us to grow, be vibrant and stay in a community if we don’t have (Internet) access,” says Jordan, federal cabinet minister of rural economic development.
And one of the biggest struggles for many people living in rural Canada, including places like Benton, N.L., and Cumberland County, N.S. is access to such high-speed Internet service.
4-Apr-19
From pulp and paper to marijuana, the re-branding of Queens County. Queens County in Nova Scotia is embracing a new type of crop cultivation. For decades, the forestry sector was the biggest employer in the area. But in 2012, the Bowater Mersey pulp mill was shut down and hundreds of people were suddenly out of a job. Seven years later, there’s a cannabis production facility on the former mill site and 50 people are working there.
3-Apr-19
Manulife’s Canadian CEO bullish on Halifax. Clients are not judging Manulife simply against other Canadian life insurance companies, says Manulife’s Canadian CEO Mike Doughty. Today, customers are comparing their experience dealing with the insurance giant against the best customer service providers in any industry. NSBI will create another 600 jobs in the province over the next five years.
1-Apr-19
The cost of having children — women lose earnings for 5 years after birth: RBC. Having children comes at a “significant” cost for a woman’s career, according to a recent report from the Royal Bank of Canada, which says women are paid less than they would otherwise have been for up to five years after giving birth. In the year following the birth of a first child, women aged 25 to 34 saw their earnings fall by almost half compared to women with no children.
1-Apr-19
OPINION: Deep bonds with seasonal foreign farm workers. In 2014, about 9,200 people were employed in agriculture in Nova Scotia and 15 per cent were foreign workers. Despite that, 500 jobs were left unfilled, which led to $15 million in lost sales due to labour shortages. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is vital to addressing and filling the labour gap in the agriculture industry. What may not be common knowledge are the rules and regulations that employers must follow under the program.
29-Mar-19
Cooke unveils ambitious fish farm expansion plans in Nova Scotia. Cooke Seafood is re-floating its proposal to build a salmon processing plant in Nova Scotia, as the New Brunswick-based seafood farming giant moves to expand in a province where it has been treading water for years. In a rare public appearance Thursday in Halifax, CEO Glenn Cooke outlined the company’s plans, which include the first new open-pen salmon farm in Nova Scotia since a moratorium was imposed in 2013 and lifted three years later.
27-Mar-19 Nearly 30% of Grade Primary students show signs of developmental challenges. Programming needs are often tied to family incomes, lack of jobs and kids in homes with other social challenges such as abuse and drugs. It all makes them potentially vulnerable and is a trend playing out across the province. New data shows as many as a third of Grade Primary students in Nova Scotia are showing increased signs of developmental challenges and missed milestones as they enter school.
26-Mar-19 Inverness County backs Northern Pulp’s bid to extend deadline. Inverness County council is urging Premier Stephen McNeil to accept Northern Pulp’s request for a one-year extension to construct its new treatment facility. The Pictou County mill must close its current treatment facility by Jan. 31, 2020. The company employs 300 people at its operation in Abercrombie Point. Northern Pulp has stated it needs a one-year extension in order to work through environmental assessments and for the construction of the treatment facility
26-Mar-19 The numbers you need to know about from Nova Scotia’s 2019 budget. Nova Scotia’s government revealed its fourth straight balanced budget on Tuesday, tabling a document they say focuses on health care, education and the province’s communities and will allow for balanced budgets for the next three years.
26-Mar-19 Nova Scotia budget sees $200M boost in health-care spending. Premier Stephen McNeil’s government will spend almost $200 million more on health care in the coming fiscal year as part of its 2019-20 budget, helped along by major funding increases from Ottawa. The budget tabled Tuesday by Finance Minister Karen Casey, the fourth-consecutive balanced document from the Liberals, estimates $10.98 billion in expenses, with a surplus of $33.6 million.
25-Mar-19 Poll finds Nova Scotians want increased health-care spending. Four of every five Nova Scotians forcefully prescribe a major funding infusion for health care. In a recent MQO survey, 84 per cent of the 300 people polled said increased health-care investment is a very important requirement for Tuesday’s provincial budget. One of the people clamouring for more health-care dollars is Mike Nickerson, president of the Nova Scotia paramedics union local that represents the province’s 1,100 paramedics. Nickerson described as accurate the numbers quoted at a recent legislative health committee meeting calling for 30 additional ambulances and 200 more paramedics province-wide.
21-Mar-19 200 gold bars have now been poured at Moose River mine in eastern Nova Scotia. Close to $150 million in startup costs are now behind Atlantic Gold Corp. at its Moose River gold mine, a project now in full swing and which has brought hundreds of jobs to a remote part of Nova Scotia. During the first 18 months of production at the open-pit mine roughly 40 kilometres inland from Sheet Harbour, N.S., about 200 gold bars, some worth nearly $1 million each, have been poured.
21-Mar-19 Donkin coal mine looking for underground workers. Nova Scotia’s Donkin coal mine, which has been operating at limited capacity since January due to safety concerns, is looking for more workers willing to go underground. Recruiting firm Gardiner Mining and Resources plans to hold a job fair Friday in Sydney. A newspaper ad from the recruiter says experience is not required, but training will be provided.
21-Mar-19 Sobey family empire donates $18 million to Saint Mary’s University. The Sobey family empire has donated $18 million to Saint Mary’s University — the single largest gift in the school’s history — aiming to boost business education in Atlantic Canada and position the Sobey School of Business among the country’s top commerce faculties. The money will go towards attracting top students to the school’s commerce program, expanding its faculty, and a new building dedicated to entrepreneurship and innovation.
20-Mar-19 Sydney workshop ready for public. A workshop space dedicated to entrepreneurs, crafters, artisans and even students will open at the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation next week after a lengthy delay. The Nova Scotia Makerspace is housed in the gymnasium of the former Holy Angels High School, which now comprises the New Dawn Centre.
15-Mar-19 Attracting, hiring newcomers: who’s making a difference in Atlantic Canada? While there’s lots of room for growth in efforts to attract and hire more immigrants in Atlantic Canada, a number of businesses and organizations across the East Coast are on a pathway to success by employing or helping newcomers.
14-Mar-19 Pilot program promises free NSCC tuition, job interview for Grade 9 students. Eighty students at three high schools in Nova Scotia will have the chance to get free community college tuition and a guaranteed job interview as part of a new pilot program. The program is supported by the provincial government, NSCC and IBM. Students in the program get access to mentorship and workplace experience and classroom learning throughout high school. They then do two years at Nova Scotia Community College to complete a technology diploma. Completing the program comes with a guaranteed job interview with IBM.
13-Mar-19 Dartmouth’s RKO Steel to add up to 30 new full-time jobs. As many as 30 full-time jobs will be created at the RKO Steel facility in Dartmouth, due to an infusion of $675,000 in federal money. RKO fabricates and erects structural steel and various metals for the oil and gas sectors, as well as the construction and shipbuilding industries in Canada, the Eastern U.S. and Europe.
13-Mar-19 NDP bill calls for job creation through renewable energy plan. Economic forecasts show investments in renewable energy will overshadow fossil fuels over next 20 years. Ervine was at the legislature Tuesday to speak in support of an NDP bill that would create an economic plan focused on green jobs. The bill would create a 15-person task force representing a variety of sectors and communities to develop a plan to transition the province to a greener economy.
11-Mar-19 Youth entrepreneurs get down to business. This March Break in Halifax and Amherst, 40 students between the ages of eight and 14 years old will build small businesses at one of two Biz Kidz Camps. These camps are all aimed at instilling business skills in youth. A second component of the program is leadership training designed for students in Grade 12 applying for post-secondary education.
11-Mar-19 Support for climate-change action could wane if no help for coal workers: report. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is hinting the upcoming federal budget might have room for additional aids to help coal industry workers transition to new jobs. The 2018 federal budget included a $35 million, five-year fund to help retrain coal workers to work in new jobs, but that was before Ottawa assigned a task force to consult affected provinces and communities on what was specifically needed. That task force reported Monday, laying out 10 broad recommendations to help workers prepare for a future without coal.
10-Mar-19 Universities and colleges need to make graduates’ employment outcomes a top priority: Almost all Canadians know a recent university or college grad who is struggling to find employment, be it a relative, friend or neighbour. Given that, as of January, the Canadian youth unemployment rate is 11.2 per cent, nearly double the national average, there are hundreds of thousands of young Canadians who face such challenges.
10-Mar-19 Friction in Pictou: Community divided on proposed changes to pulp mill operations. For more than 50 years, white foam and dark water have filled part of a lifeless harbour on Nova Scotia’s north shore. Now the hunt for solutions is creating a rift that’s pitting industry against industry and neighbour against neighbour. At the centre of it all is the Northern Pulp mill that has been permitted to dump effluent into Pictou County’s Boat Harbour since opening in 1967. The province has ordered an end to this, which puts the community in a bind — the wastewater still needs to be treated and released somewhere if the mill is to stay open.
08-Mar-19 Canada pumps out a surprising 55,900 new jobs; unemployment rate sticks at 5.8 per cent. A second consecutive month of bumper job gains quelled concerns that Canada’s economy could be headed for a recession and cooled market expectations that the Bank of Canada could cut interest rates by the end of the year. Employers added 55,900 jobs in February, far exceeding analyst expectations of flat job numbers. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.8 per cent, in line with forecasts, while wage growth was up.
07-Mar-19 Advocates fear new income-assistance policy could bring ‘greater levels of poverty. Anti-poverty advocates are raising concerns about a new regulation that could reduce the income assistance paid to some people in poverty by 20 per cent. The new regulations came into effect on March 1. Prior to the changes, the Community Services Department dealt with people who it deemed were not making proper efforts to find work by cutting off their assistance completely for six weeks. Now, if a caseworker decides someone on assistance isn’t trying “hard enough” to find work, the department will reduce the money it gives them by 20 per cent.
07-Mar-19 Nova Scotia to spend $691 million on capital projects in fiscal 2019-20. Nova Scotia’s Liberal government announced its largest capital plan since coming to power in 2013, committing $691.3 million for hospitals, schools and highways in 2019-20. Aside from road construction, which will take up $300-million, the largest expenditure will go toward health-care projects including $156.9-million for redevelopment of the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax and design work for new health-care facilities in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
06-Mar-19 Summer job expo to assist employers prepare to welcome students. The Cape Breton Partnership is hosting a summer job expo for employers looking to hire students once their studies have wrapped up for the year. The expo is being sponsored by Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia Community College, Nova Scotia Works and the Partnership. The summer job expo will take place at CBU from 1-4 p.m. on March 29.
06-Mar-19 Province taking ServiCom to court to get back pay for employees. Some of the people who worked at the ServiCom call centre in Sydney say they were left unpaid when the centre closed without notice last December. On Wednesday, they were relieved to learn, that they may be getting their back pay as the provincial government takes the company to court.
05-Mar-19 Chilean workers say they were lured to N.S. with false promise. Three Chilean temporary foreign workers who came to Nova Scotia under the promise of good-paying jobs say they ended up working at a fish plant for a fraction of the promised pay and living in a house with only salt water coming from the taps. The case highlights concerns with the temporary foreign worker program and the risks it can pose to vulnerable employees, who are often under pressure not to blow the whistle on their bosses.
04-Mar-19 Stellarton marijuana operation gets 18.5 million gram production licence. A new cultivation facility in Stellarton has received the green light to begin producing up to 18,500 kilograms of dried cannabis per year. Zenabis’ Stellarton facility features a production environment that supports both cultivation and finished product operations, as well as new product development. The facility also includes areas for commercial-scale oil extractions, pharmaceutical grade manufacturing, and both plant-based and analytical research and development. The indoor, 255,000-square-foot Stellarton facility is expected to support 200 full-time jobs at full capacity.
04-Mar-19 Veterans ‘to get real help’ as organization opens drop-in centre in Dartmouth. Jim and Debbie Lowther have spent the past nine years trying to assist other snavigating the challenges that go with leaving the military through the charity they founded – Veterans Emergency Transition Services Canada. On Monday, the group’s first drop-in center in Atlantic Canada is opening its doors in downtown Dartmouth.
01-Mar-19 How can Atlantic Canada attract newcomers and convince them to stay? This Deep Dives series, investigated by The Chronicle Herald, will release various articles over the next few weeks. The works will all be in relation to immigration to Canada, and will explore how newcomers find employment. Specifically, the works will explore barriers to employment, obstacles to hiring newcomers, and overall issues related to finding employment. See topic two, Employment after immigration in Atlantic Canada