World Water Day is on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 and is a crucial moment in the fight against the global water and sanitation crisis that effects thousands of people every single day. Live Earth's NGO partners are organizing many of the events taking place on World Water Day around the world. No matter where you are in the world you can bring awareness to World Water Day!
If there are no major Live Earth events in your area then register your own! Registering an event with Friends of Live Earth is a great way to involve your friends, family, school, or community in global, environmental action to help solve the global water crisis. After registering, you'll gain access to a package of background materials, event guidelines, and suggestions for how to host a green event.
One of the amazing Friends of Live Earth Run for Water events will be taking place in Lima, Peru. They are expecting more than 5,000 participants to attend this run/walk as the event takes them through the streets of one of the nicest neighborhoods along the pacific ocean in Lima, Miraflores. The celebration for water resource awareness will continue right after the race with a mega live music concert, featuring the best local artists and compositors.
Click here to check out some of the ways you can take part.
Run for Water Buenos Aires
During a large press conference this week, Buenos Aires announced their involvement in the Live Earth Run for Water! World famous elite endurance runner, Dean Karnazes will be running in the 6K race and Kevin Johansen + The Nada will be performing! There will also be educational activities to mark a "turning point" to help overcome the crisis with the precious resource.
For more information visit maratondelagua.com.
Twestival Global - March 25
On Thursday March 25th 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around important education causes by hosting events to have fun and create awareness. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. Twestival uses social media for social good!
Twestival is hosting a charity auction to raise even more money, and Live Earth is proud to be a part of it! You can bid on entry fees to one of the Live Earth Run for Water events around the world through March 26.
Visit twestival.com to find an event near you and visit Live Earth Video's Twestival page for special event videos.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Blogger's Note: I had the amazing blessing to see one of these creatures off Digby Neck in the Bay of Fundy in the early 1970's. They are gone from the Bay of Fundy now, and these beautiful and powerful creatures are at the cusp of disappearing from the world. If you eat sushi, for one thing that you can do, please reconsider. Think about it, please.
Matt RigneyAuthor, In Pursuit of Giants
Posted: March 19, 2010 11:17 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Annihilation of a Fish
There is a series of photographs called "The Chase" taken off Nomans Land Island, near Martha's Vineyard, in 1986. The photographs show a giant bluefin tuna, weighing over 900 pounds, leaping, missing, leaping again, and capturing an Atlantic bluefish about two feet long.1 The giant bluefin has all the design characteristics of a fighter jet: supremely tapered shape, short fins like abbreviated wings, extreme speed.
Those photographs offer a rare glimpse into the true majesty of these creatures. That bluefin was about nine feet long, with a burst speed roughly ten times its body length--90 feet per second, or about 60 miles per hour, through water. Water is 780 times as dense as air. Thanks to its supreme physiology and immense strength, that 900-pound animal was able to fly through its liquid medium at highway speed with a self-generated equivalent of over 50 horsepower.2
Most of us will never experience bluefin tuna like this. We understand them only as small, red, rectangular chunks of flesh in sashimi and sushi, or as deep reddish-purple tuna steaks. This is like trying to understand a human being by a lock of their hair. In other words, it is completely inadequate to the task of knowing something meaningful about a top oceanic predator and one of the world's great fish, about what they mean to the ecosystem and to us, beyond their role as food.
Top ocean predators, like bluefin tuna, play a critical role in structuring the overall balance of relationships throughout the food web below them.3 Much like wolves in the Rocky Mountains4, the ocean's top predators are believed to exert a governing and stabilizing effect on the ecosystems they inhabit. Looking at it from a purely human-centric point of view, robust populations of these predators mean increased overall benefits to us in the form of healthy oceans, food, recreation, and jobs.
There are other varieties of bluefin tuna in the Southern Ocean around Australia, in the Indian Ocean, and in the Pacific. But there is only one northern bluefin tuna. It is an Atlantic fish, the king of tunas, a fish Hemingway called "the king of all fish, the ruler of the Valhalla of fishermen."5 The northern bluefin is capable of growing to over 1,000 pounds, with supreme physiological adaptations for speed, trans-oceanic migrations, conversion of prey fish to accessible energy, and warm-blooded life in the world's temperate oceans. The largest ever caught on rod-and-reel weighed 1,496 pounds and was landed off Nova Scotia in 1979. It was nearly 11 feet long.6
The stock of breeding age fish in the Mediterranean and off the coasts of Europe is thought to have declined by more than 85% from its historical maximum, with a strong likelihood that that figure is above a 90% decline.7 A significant portion of that has happened in the last decade. This, the Mediterranean stock, continues to plummet because of rampant overfishing in the form of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) harvesting. The fishing continues because there is a hell of a lot of money to be made by capturing the tuna, fattening them in "ranches," killing them, and shipping them to Japan. Individual fish of the highest quality and weighing several hundred pounds have fetched prices at Tokyo's Tsukiji Market in the vicinity of $175,000. Japan consumes an estimated 80% of the world's northern bluefin tuna8 and is the engine that drives its destruction. It is a process enabled by the failure of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to set and enforce appropriate limits based on science, to guard against illegal fishing, to impose negative consequences on its members who fail to abide by their agreements, and to insulate its decision-making from the corrosive effects of politics. ICCAT's membership is comprised, in part, of the very nations in the EU and North Africa that profit from the out-of-control harvest and trade of this species. These nations have no true incentive to abide by the limits set by ICCAT and to which they have agreed.
As of yesterday, March 18, 2010, the annihilation of the northern bluefin tuna reached its final phase. Representatives of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Qatar, voted not to list the bluefin tuna as endangered. The ICCAT scientific committee, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization ad-hoc expert panel, and the CITES Secretariat all agree that the level of decline suffered by the northern bluefin satisfies the criteria for endangered species status, putting this fish in the same category as the African black rhino and the Himalayan snow leopard. And yet a majority of CITES member nations voted it down.
This is not surprising news. The chances were slim from the outset that the ban was likely to happen. The Japanese signaled early on that they would ignore any CITES listing, thereby keeping open the largest market in the world for this fish. The powers that stand to gain from continued trade are set against any real measures to curb the overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin. This, despite the United States coming out in favor of a CITES I ban earlier this month, joining France, the UK, and other nations.
At what point will we put a stop to this? At what point will common, everyday citizens rise up, outraged, that the natural world is being plundered beneath their noses, and demand that it be stopped and that those responsible be held accountable? Those who benefit in the short-term, whether out of greed or need, will not stop it. Politicians, as we saw today and have seen over the 40 year history of ICCAT, will not stop it, and certainly not as long as they believe the issue is about jobs, and that jobs (and their own re-elections) must come first.
The jobs issue is a deception. The number of jobs lost--in sport and commercial fishing alone--on the eastern seaboard of the United States because of the collapse of our bluefin tuna population in the 1980s is just one indication of the costs of bad fisheries management. It is no different in the Mediterranean. The destruction of that bluefin fishery over the last 10 years has laid waste to a resource that supported the cultures ringing that sea for millennia. It represents both the loss of income to tens of thousands of fishermen and hundreds of local communities (at an estimated annual cost of $400 million per year 9), as well as the radical concentration of wealth in the hands of a few--to the tune of $16.4 billion between 1998 and 2008.10
The value of the Mediterranean bluefin hunt during this time dwarfs the estimated value of the global trade in shark fins between 1996-2006 ($8.3 billion); the global trade in whale meat between 1990 and 2000 ($8.2 billion); and the global trade in elephant ivory at its peak between 1978 and 1988 ($1.02 billion).11
This has been called "an international disgrace governed by a looting rationale" and an operation run by "an international tuna cartel".12 However you look at it, the numbers speak for themselves. What is happening and will continue to happen in the Med is an economic heist, a political scandal, and a moral outrage. It brings shame and disgrace upon every nation participating in it, and upon the members of every nation who do nothing while being aware of the problem.
What we as global consumers and citizens must appreciate--and what ICCAT, Japan, the European Union, the United States, and any other country that trades in northern bluefin tuna must also appreciate--is that the worth of any species is far beyond its reducible monetary value. The balance of an ecosystem requires the balance of relationships among the various members and parts of that ecosystem, including human beings. If and when we throw those relationships into imbalance, the economic costs are staggering, to say nothing of the moral costs of allowing this to happen on our watch. These considerations do not even take into account the spiritual loss to our children and grandchildren, future generations, of having been deprived of the chance to encounter, firsthand, one of the wonders of nature. Or to derive employment or sustenance from the controlled, sane harvest of that animal. Together these things amount to an incalculable loss in the column titled 'quality of life.'
Scientists have warned for years that the depletion in stocks puts the bluefin in jeopardy of commercial extinction. While true extinction of an oceanic species is difficult (but not impossible)13, commercial extinction is more readily achieved. Commercial extinction happens when humans devastate a fish stock to the point that the stock loses its ability to recover and rebuild its population. The species contracts in range, remains at very low numbers, and may even lose its niche in the ecosystem to other competing species. It is effectively displaced and marginalized, and the various benefits we derive from their continued, healthy existence--spiritual awe, recreational joy, economic prosperity, nutritional intake, moral integrity--disappear and are never regained. We need only look at the North Atlantic cod off Canada for confirmation that this can happen. We need only look at the history of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic to know that it is happening here and is in its final phase.
So I ask you who are reading this: what will it take for you to join the fight to preserve these animals, even though you may never witness them as they appear in all their glory? Surely we can understand the wisdom of preserving them for reasons beyond our own personal satisfactions.
The destruction of the northern bluefin in the Mediterranean has been made possible by a number of factors: the development of tuna ranching and improved purse seine technologies; a willful lack of transparency, adherence to science, and enforcement of limits by the members of ICCAT; deep corruption in the political-economic process; ignorance and apathy on the part of the general public about the problem, and a collective, global culture that has yet to draw the moral and legal 'line in the sand' on corporate and personal greed.
Now that the CITES listing has failed, it is time for those of us who give a damn about this species, and about the pillaging of the oceans, to meet the challenge and put our outrage into action.
The flow of bluefin into Japan, more than for any other nation, must have negative consequences. For a nation purportedly sensitive to the agonies of public shame, the Japanese heap it upon themselves with their marred history of "scientific" whale hunts and their cold disregard for their primary role in the destruction of bluefin. If the Japanese government will not acknowledge its role in driving the annihilation of these fish, then it must feel the consequences, which should include a boycott of Japanese cars, electronics, and other products. Tourists considering Japan as a destination might do better to spend their time and money in a country like New Zealand, which has a far better track record of stewardship of the oceans.
And it is time to stop eating northern bluefin tuna, anywhere, in any country. Demand of your fish monger or restaurateur to know what kind of tuna they serve, where they get it, and how it's caught, and don't simply order something else if they serve bluefin tuna. Consider leaving the restaurant, telling them why you're doing it, and finding a dining establishment with more awareness and more of a conscience.
It must be appreciated that measures like this, if successful, will have economic impacts on men and women who may not deserve to bear those direct costs. To these people, I would ask them to consider the following paradox and to think about actually joining the cause: the paradox is that if there are no bluefin tuna left, they will bear the costs anyway. Every population of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic has either disappeared or decreased in spawning stock biomass by 80% or more. The stock of Brazil was gone by the late 1960s. The North Sea stock was gone by the 1970s. The western stock off the US and Canada collapsed in the 1980s and has never recovered. The only one left is the Mediterranean stock, and it has declined by 85% or worse. If we don't feel the pinch now, we will feel the pinch later and it will be permanent. If these measures at abstinence, boycott, and public shame are successful, and there are more bluefin in the future, then the future of the fish and the employment we derive from them is more secure. Had the CITES nations approved the Appendix I listing, it would have allowed the continued harvest and sale of bluefin tuna within nations and only banned the international trade in bluefin. That opportunity has been lost.
It is time for the public at large to become accurately informed about what is happening to the ocean and to this planet as a result of how we live. The Internet is as much a rumor mill and a source of misinformation as it is of real facts. One of the bits of misinformation circulating is that the 2008 ICCAT stock assessment of all northern bluefin in the Atlantic put the estimated population at roughly five million fish. With a population of that size, one might rightly ask, how is there any danger of the fish becoming commercially, much less actually, extinct?
The devil is in the details. The 2008 ICCAT stock assessment estimates population across all age groups of the stock. The purported population of five million bluefin would naturally include a majority of immature fish, ranging in size from a thumbnail to near maturity, that will never live to reproduce, when all forms of mortality are considered. It is the breeding stock figures that matter when gauging the bluefin's viability, not the total population figures, because it is only those that live to breed that offer hope for the species. It is those breeders that have declined so precipitously.
The time is long overdue for large scale action on this issue. The time is also long overdue for us, as interconnected global societies, to wrestle with and decide, in binding law, the question of the limits we must abide by in the extraction of resources from the natural world. It is insane to continue with business as usual. We must understand--as has been demonstrated so many times--how short-term gain at the expense of long-term stability and sustainability is not only foolhardy, it is dangerous and destructive to our collective interests--for ourselves, our children, as nations, and for the future.
In the meantime, it is time those who benefit from the continued trade in northern bluefin tuna to pay a price that outweighs their financial gain.
Matt RigneyAuthor, In Pursuit of Giants
Posted: March 19, 2010 11:17 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Annihilation of a Fish
There is a series of photographs called "The Chase" taken off Nomans Land Island, near Martha's Vineyard, in 1986. The photographs show a giant bluefin tuna, weighing over 900 pounds, leaping, missing, leaping again, and capturing an Atlantic bluefish about two feet long.1 The giant bluefin has all the design characteristics of a fighter jet: supremely tapered shape, short fins like abbreviated wings, extreme speed.
Those photographs offer a rare glimpse into the true majesty of these creatures. That bluefin was about nine feet long, with a burst speed roughly ten times its body length--90 feet per second, or about 60 miles per hour, through water. Water is 780 times as dense as air. Thanks to its supreme physiology and immense strength, that 900-pound animal was able to fly through its liquid medium at highway speed with a self-generated equivalent of over 50 horsepower.2
Most of us will never experience bluefin tuna like this. We understand them only as small, red, rectangular chunks of flesh in sashimi and sushi, or as deep reddish-purple tuna steaks. This is like trying to understand a human being by a lock of their hair. In other words, it is completely inadequate to the task of knowing something meaningful about a top oceanic predator and one of the world's great fish, about what they mean to the ecosystem and to us, beyond their role as food.
Top ocean predators, like bluefin tuna, play a critical role in structuring the overall balance of relationships throughout the food web below them.3 Much like wolves in the Rocky Mountains4, the ocean's top predators are believed to exert a governing and stabilizing effect on the ecosystems they inhabit. Looking at it from a purely human-centric point of view, robust populations of these predators mean increased overall benefits to us in the form of healthy oceans, food, recreation, and jobs.
There are other varieties of bluefin tuna in the Southern Ocean around Australia, in the Indian Ocean, and in the Pacific. But there is only one northern bluefin tuna. It is an Atlantic fish, the king of tunas, a fish Hemingway called "the king of all fish, the ruler of the Valhalla of fishermen."5 The northern bluefin is capable of growing to over 1,000 pounds, with supreme physiological adaptations for speed, trans-oceanic migrations, conversion of prey fish to accessible energy, and warm-blooded life in the world's temperate oceans. The largest ever caught on rod-and-reel weighed 1,496 pounds and was landed off Nova Scotia in 1979. It was nearly 11 feet long.6
The stock of breeding age fish in the Mediterranean and off the coasts of Europe is thought to have declined by more than 85% from its historical maximum, with a strong likelihood that that figure is above a 90% decline.7 A significant portion of that has happened in the last decade. This, the Mediterranean stock, continues to plummet because of rampant overfishing in the form of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) harvesting. The fishing continues because there is a hell of a lot of money to be made by capturing the tuna, fattening them in "ranches," killing them, and shipping them to Japan. Individual fish of the highest quality and weighing several hundred pounds have fetched prices at Tokyo's Tsukiji Market in the vicinity of $175,000. Japan consumes an estimated 80% of the world's northern bluefin tuna8 and is the engine that drives its destruction. It is a process enabled by the failure of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to set and enforce appropriate limits based on science, to guard against illegal fishing, to impose negative consequences on its members who fail to abide by their agreements, and to insulate its decision-making from the corrosive effects of politics. ICCAT's membership is comprised, in part, of the very nations in the EU and North Africa that profit from the out-of-control harvest and trade of this species. These nations have no true incentive to abide by the limits set by ICCAT and to which they have agreed.
As of yesterday, March 18, 2010, the annihilation of the northern bluefin tuna reached its final phase. Representatives of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Qatar, voted not to list the bluefin tuna as endangered. The ICCAT scientific committee, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization ad-hoc expert panel, and the CITES Secretariat all agree that the level of decline suffered by the northern bluefin satisfies the criteria for endangered species status, putting this fish in the same category as the African black rhino and the Himalayan snow leopard. And yet a majority of CITES member nations voted it down.
This is not surprising news. The chances were slim from the outset that the ban was likely to happen. The Japanese signaled early on that they would ignore any CITES listing, thereby keeping open the largest market in the world for this fish. The powers that stand to gain from continued trade are set against any real measures to curb the overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin. This, despite the United States coming out in favor of a CITES I ban earlier this month, joining France, the UK, and other nations.
At what point will we put a stop to this? At what point will common, everyday citizens rise up, outraged, that the natural world is being plundered beneath their noses, and demand that it be stopped and that those responsible be held accountable? Those who benefit in the short-term, whether out of greed or need, will not stop it. Politicians, as we saw today and have seen over the 40 year history of ICCAT, will not stop it, and certainly not as long as they believe the issue is about jobs, and that jobs (and their own re-elections) must come first.
The jobs issue is a deception. The number of jobs lost--in sport and commercial fishing alone--on the eastern seaboard of the United States because of the collapse of our bluefin tuna population in the 1980s is just one indication of the costs of bad fisheries management. It is no different in the Mediterranean. The destruction of that bluefin fishery over the last 10 years has laid waste to a resource that supported the cultures ringing that sea for millennia. It represents both the loss of income to tens of thousands of fishermen and hundreds of local communities (at an estimated annual cost of $400 million per year 9), as well as the radical concentration of wealth in the hands of a few--to the tune of $16.4 billion between 1998 and 2008.10
The value of the Mediterranean bluefin hunt during this time dwarfs the estimated value of the global trade in shark fins between 1996-2006 ($8.3 billion); the global trade in whale meat between 1990 and 2000 ($8.2 billion); and the global trade in elephant ivory at its peak between 1978 and 1988 ($1.02 billion).11
This has been called "an international disgrace governed by a looting rationale" and an operation run by "an international tuna cartel".12 However you look at it, the numbers speak for themselves. What is happening and will continue to happen in the Med is an economic heist, a political scandal, and a moral outrage. It brings shame and disgrace upon every nation participating in it, and upon the members of every nation who do nothing while being aware of the problem.
What we as global consumers and citizens must appreciate--and what ICCAT, Japan, the European Union, the United States, and any other country that trades in northern bluefin tuna must also appreciate--is that the worth of any species is far beyond its reducible monetary value. The balance of an ecosystem requires the balance of relationships among the various members and parts of that ecosystem, including human beings. If and when we throw those relationships into imbalance, the economic costs are staggering, to say nothing of the moral costs of allowing this to happen on our watch. These considerations do not even take into account the spiritual loss to our children and grandchildren, future generations, of having been deprived of the chance to encounter, firsthand, one of the wonders of nature. Or to derive employment or sustenance from the controlled, sane harvest of that animal. Together these things amount to an incalculable loss in the column titled 'quality of life.'
Scientists have warned for years that the depletion in stocks puts the bluefin in jeopardy of commercial extinction. While true extinction of an oceanic species is difficult (but not impossible)13, commercial extinction is more readily achieved. Commercial extinction happens when humans devastate a fish stock to the point that the stock loses its ability to recover and rebuild its population. The species contracts in range, remains at very low numbers, and may even lose its niche in the ecosystem to other competing species. It is effectively displaced and marginalized, and the various benefits we derive from their continued, healthy existence--spiritual awe, recreational joy, economic prosperity, nutritional intake, moral integrity--disappear and are never regained. We need only look at the North Atlantic cod off Canada for confirmation that this can happen. We need only look at the history of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic to know that it is happening here and is in its final phase.
So I ask you who are reading this: what will it take for you to join the fight to preserve these animals, even though you may never witness them as they appear in all their glory? Surely we can understand the wisdom of preserving them for reasons beyond our own personal satisfactions.
The destruction of the northern bluefin in the Mediterranean has been made possible by a number of factors: the development of tuna ranching and improved purse seine technologies; a willful lack of transparency, adherence to science, and enforcement of limits by the members of ICCAT; deep corruption in the political-economic process; ignorance and apathy on the part of the general public about the problem, and a collective, global culture that has yet to draw the moral and legal 'line in the sand' on corporate and personal greed.
Now that the CITES listing has failed, it is time for those of us who give a damn about this species, and about the pillaging of the oceans, to meet the challenge and put our outrage into action.
The flow of bluefin into Japan, more than for any other nation, must have negative consequences. For a nation purportedly sensitive to the agonies of public shame, the Japanese heap it upon themselves with their marred history of "scientific" whale hunts and their cold disregard for their primary role in the destruction of bluefin. If the Japanese government will not acknowledge its role in driving the annihilation of these fish, then it must feel the consequences, which should include a boycott of Japanese cars, electronics, and other products. Tourists considering Japan as a destination might do better to spend their time and money in a country like New Zealand, which has a far better track record of stewardship of the oceans.
And it is time to stop eating northern bluefin tuna, anywhere, in any country. Demand of your fish monger or restaurateur to know what kind of tuna they serve, where they get it, and how it's caught, and don't simply order something else if they serve bluefin tuna. Consider leaving the restaurant, telling them why you're doing it, and finding a dining establishment with more awareness and more of a conscience.
It must be appreciated that measures like this, if successful, will have economic impacts on men and women who may not deserve to bear those direct costs. To these people, I would ask them to consider the following paradox and to think about actually joining the cause: the paradox is that if there are no bluefin tuna left, they will bear the costs anyway. Every population of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic has either disappeared or decreased in spawning stock biomass by 80% or more. The stock of Brazil was gone by the late 1960s. The North Sea stock was gone by the 1970s. The western stock off the US and Canada collapsed in the 1980s and has never recovered. The only one left is the Mediterranean stock, and it has declined by 85% or worse. If we don't feel the pinch now, we will feel the pinch later and it will be permanent. If these measures at abstinence, boycott, and public shame are successful, and there are more bluefin in the future, then the future of the fish and the employment we derive from them is more secure. Had the CITES nations approved the Appendix I listing, it would have allowed the continued harvest and sale of bluefin tuna within nations and only banned the international trade in bluefin. That opportunity has been lost.
It is time for the public at large to become accurately informed about what is happening to the ocean and to this planet as a result of how we live. The Internet is as much a rumor mill and a source of misinformation as it is of real facts. One of the bits of misinformation circulating is that the 2008 ICCAT stock assessment of all northern bluefin in the Atlantic put the estimated population at roughly five million fish. With a population of that size, one might rightly ask, how is there any danger of the fish becoming commercially, much less actually, extinct?
The devil is in the details. The 2008 ICCAT stock assessment estimates population across all age groups of the stock. The purported population of five million bluefin would naturally include a majority of immature fish, ranging in size from a thumbnail to near maturity, that will never live to reproduce, when all forms of mortality are considered. It is the breeding stock figures that matter when gauging the bluefin's viability, not the total population figures, because it is only those that live to breed that offer hope for the species. It is those breeders that have declined so precipitously.
The time is long overdue for large scale action on this issue. The time is also long overdue for us, as interconnected global societies, to wrestle with and decide, in binding law, the question of the limits we must abide by in the extraction of resources from the natural world. It is insane to continue with business as usual. We must understand--as has been demonstrated so many times--how short-term gain at the expense of long-term stability and sustainability is not only foolhardy, it is dangerous and destructive to our collective interests--for ourselves, our children, as nations, and for the future.
In the meantime, it is time those who benefit from the continued trade in northern bluefin tuna to pay a price that outweighs their financial gain.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Synopsis of Finance Minister's Visit to Digby
Synopsis of the Digby Dialogue with the Minister of Finance, held February 24, 2010 from
6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, 92 Mount Street
Finance Minister Graham Steele began the Digby dialogue with a review of the current and
forecasted fiscal situation in Nova Scotia, and asked the 36 people that attended this meeting for
advice on “how do we get back to balance?”
The Minister stated that we have to look at increasing revenues, reducing spending, and growing
the economy over the long term to eliminate the deficit and get back to balance. Each choice will
affect the others, so all three types of measures must be considered together. Seven small groups
considered these types of measures and answered Minister Steele’s four questions:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap – are there
things government should do better, stop doing, or do more of?
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long
term?
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
The following pages provide the results of these group discussions, compiled from each group’s
flipcharts and their reporter’s final presentation. This information will be compiled with the
results of all the other public dialogue sessions as input to a summary report.
Group 1:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase revenue by decreasing the costs of administration and health care services
• Sell off some assets such as buildings, etc.
• More revenue and jobs
• GST is a regressive tax that hurts the poor
Reduce Spending:
• Savings when programs are chopped
• Diminish spending on studies (such as tourism) – use local knowledge
• Get rid of duplicate levels – i.e. Department of Health and 8 district health authorities
(artificial boundaries in Health Authorities – one not working with another even though
they are only 20 minutes apart)
• Amalgamate Digby/Annapolis Health Care service
• Less money to big businesses – more to small businesses – generate more jobs
• Go through departments and define what’s working and what’s not and if it’s not working
efficiently, get rid of it! Carry out a stringent independent audit
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Get value for money spent – make sure it’s done right
• Follow through on projects that are in the works, “just do it”
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 2
• Do more in health care – keep emergency rooms open – with paramedics
• Make student doctors come to rural communities as part of their training
• Review dialysis set ups in the Digby area
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Act on existing plans
• Government – is it too large?
• Get rid of duplication of services
Group 2:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending? What changes
should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
Increase Revenue:
• Raise taxes – people would pay more if they know they know where it is going – liquor
store, sales tax, income tax, big company corporate tax, tiered tax rate
Reduce Spending:
• Stop corporate gifts
• Services to serve the people not big corporations
• Look at what is not working. Demand better accountability and put the money where it
needs to be
• Increase cooperation amongst departments
• Eliminate bonuses
• Eliminate overlap – i.e. federal and provincial ministers with same portfolios
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Education is the foundation
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Develop rural infrastructure and communication
• Maintain our ferries
• Promote our rural communities – support small businesses; they are the backbone of NS
• Social and physical infrastructure plus educated population plus a healthy population =
add these three together and our economy will grow – the revenue comes from us
• Continue to invest in education – essential to grow our economy
• Have a long-range economic plan (current piece-meal plan is no plan!))
• Remember and act on previous election campaign slogans and promises – i.e. invest in
Canadian/Nova Scotian families
• More “doing”
• Put money where it belongs – local economy; infrastructure (social and physical, ferry,
train, public transit, etc)
• Keep money local (NS), every local dollar spent is re-spent locally
• Cheaper does not equal better
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Depending on the circumstances (i.e. earthquakes, recessions, etc), use as long as it takes
to make things work
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 3
Group 3:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase the number of foreign students
• Increase taxes on liquor, tobacco, gas
• Reduce taxes on “oil industry” processing facilities
• Minimum HST increase
Reduce Spending:
• Cut civil service from the top down
• Give a percentage of civil service programs back to local boards – Health and Education
• Put local medical practice on fee for service – include nurse practitioners
• Cut 10%-20% of each department’s staff/budget
• Reduce civil service expense levels – travel km. rates etc.
• Cut advertising for liquor and lottery
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Local medical clinics to charge fee for services and have MDs with nurse practitioners
• Budget – analyze the spending (including staff)
• More accountability
• Layoff bad civil service employees
• Improve fleet/lease management
• Make schools available for recreation programs
• Combine prevention programs – Health, Justice, Addiction
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Ferry (Saint John and Yarmouth). Think of this as a tax gain vs. subsidy. Use the NB
model for Grand Manan, and share the port
• Need vocational programs and a stronger central technology training centre
• Seek out China/Brazil business opportunities
• Government institutions must have “100km” policy
• Grow energy technology
• Offer tax breaks for start ups
• Evaluate government funded programs to see if outcomes are being met
• Do more prevention programs, addiction services, and early intervention; and mental
health and family resource programs
Group 4:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Change small business HST: when they remit, give them back only 10% rather than 13%
• We have concerns that an increase to the HST will have a negative effect on growth
• Find ways to increase the population
• Support immigration into the province
• Tourism tax
Reduce Spending:
• Reduce the amount of money going to the universities – do we have too many
universities?
• Re-evaluate pensions – beginning with a look at government officials. A smaller
workforce has to support many retired people
• Decentralize the government
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 4
• Redefine what provincial residency entails – i.e. people return from out west and get
benefits here
• Clear and achievable targets in the budget
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Open an office of entrepreneurial affairs – connect business and government
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Invest in trade programs at community colleges
• Bring in people who want to train for trades
• More money into community college system
• Invest in transportation systems
• Adopt long term planning – at least 10 years (i.e. decision re: Yarmouth and Digby
ferries) and invest in transportation links that strengthen infrastructure
• Invest in public education
• Pay incentives (tuition, isolation pay) for medical professionals to go to rural areas
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Our government should bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance in 5 to10 years
• Be positive – look outward as a province to the world!
Group 5:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Encourage small business expansion
• Tax increase
• HST (1-2%)
• Oil and gas royalties increased
• Change tax credit to benefit small business
Reduce Spending:
• Audit cost of over-governance or over-spending (not everyone agreed on this)
• Offer incentives for coming in under-budget (all departments)
• Decrease MLAs salaries and expenses (not everyone agreed on this)
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Increase spending on active, healthy living and healthier people means less money will be
needed for health care
• Early childhood education programs
• Evaluate success of government programs – make sure they’re doing what they should be
• Better negotiation of business contracts (i.e. the CAT)
• Encourage people to get back into the workforce
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Encourage high tech businesses/industry by promoting what we have to offer
• Invest in education – rethink education
• Growth in food (fish) and energy (green)
• Focus on small businesses/high tech industries/create opportunities
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 5
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Start now! Our government should bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance as soon
as possible!
• Take care of our province the way we would take care of our families!
Group 6:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase corporate taxes
• Increase high income surtax
• Increase tax on non-essential goods (alcohol, tobacco, junk food, etc)
• Technology = less travelling = fewer expenses. Use skype, teleconferencing, etc.
Reduce Spending:
• Reduce government spending
• Pay debt over a period of years
• Reduce the number of new education programs/initiatives (i.e. accreditation)
• Increase early elementary supports to decrease the need for supports later in their
education career
• Use more proactive health care i.e. early screening, early treatments, early education
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• More money in early education. Realign spending within Department of Education; less
top heavy, fewer new initiatives – re-evaluate
• Reduce government spending and re-evaluate use of money for government expense
accounts, salaries and pensions
• More money for proactive health care, and realign spending within health care budget
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Increase tourism
• Increase corporate businesses by offering incentive packages
• Invest in our youth, offer early support in education and health
• More business = more jobs = more skilled labor = more taxes
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• We have accrued this debt over a period of time, so take time to pay it off (minimum of a
5-year plan)
• Spend the money wisely to make educated, healthy, contributing members of our
communities
Group 7:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase tobacco 2%
• Tax on trans-fats 2%
Reduce Spending:
• Eliminate the health boards – DHA’s
• Eliminate the duplication of services
• Investigate pension plans (Province of NS)
• Reviewing and rationalization of agencies, boards, and commissions
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 6
• Do Better at focusing; establish SMART goals.
• Basic literacy needs to be improved
• Improve primary care for chronic conditions
• Stop trying to be all things to all people
• Take an approach that considers the all the fundamentals; as shown in this illustration, we
need an economic development plan
covering the main structure of education
and health, and firmly established on a
strong foundation of other infrastructure.
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Invest in the capacities to produce value added products
• Look beyond the short term plans – go long term
• Improve the infrastructure, transportation, water, education, health, ferry (to Saint John!)
• Health care must be more proactive. Wellness enhancement, health promotion, injury
prevention
• Develop a real economic plan for this area, with resources. We have to get real.
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• As long as it takes, but do it right!!!
Note: Flip chart notes have been edited slightly to improve readability.
6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, 92 Mount Street
Finance Minister Graham Steele began the Digby dialogue with a review of the current and
forecasted fiscal situation in Nova Scotia, and asked the 36 people that attended this meeting for
advice on “how do we get back to balance?”
The Minister stated that we have to look at increasing revenues, reducing spending, and growing
the economy over the long term to eliminate the deficit and get back to balance. Each choice will
affect the others, so all three types of measures must be considered together. Seven small groups
considered these types of measures and answered Minister Steele’s four questions:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap – are there
things government should do better, stop doing, or do more of?
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long
term?
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
The following pages provide the results of these group discussions, compiled from each group’s
flipcharts and their reporter’s final presentation. This information will be compiled with the
results of all the other public dialogue sessions as input to a summary report.
Group 1:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase revenue by decreasing the costs of administration and health care services
• Sell off some assets such as buildings, etc.
• More revenue and jobs
• GST is a regressive tax that hurts the poor
Reduce Spending:
• Savings when programs are chopped
• Diminish spending on studies (such as tourism) – use local knowledge
• Get rid of duplicate levels – i.e. Department of Health and 8 district health authorities
(artificial boundaries in Health Authorities – one not working with another even though
they are only 20 minutes apart)
• Amalgamate Digby/Annapolis Health Care service
• Less money to big businesses – more to small businesses – generate more jobs
• Go through departments and define what’s working and what’s not and if it’s not working
efficiently, get rid of it! Carry out a stringent independent audit
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Get value for money spent – make sure it’s done right
• Follow through on projects that are in the works, “just do it”
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 2
• Do more in health care – keep emergency rooms open – with paramedics
• Make student doctors come to rural communities as part of their training
• Review dialysis set ups in the Digby area
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Act on existing plans
• Government – is it too large?
• Get rid of duplication of services
Group 2:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending? What changes
should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
Increase Revenue:
• Raise taxes – people would pay more if they know they know where it is going – liquor
store, sales tax, income tax, big company corporate tax, tiered tax rate
Reduce Spending:
• Stop corporate gifts
• Services to serve the people not big corporations
• Look at what is not working. Demand better accountability and put the money where it
needs to be
• Increase cooperation amongst departments
• Eliminate bonuses
• Eliminate overlap – i.e. federal and provincial ministers with same portfolios
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Education is the foundation
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Develop rural infrastructure and communication
• Maintain our ferries
• Promote our rural communities – support small businesses; they are the backbone of NS
• Social and physical infrastructure plus educated population plus a healthy population =
add these three together and our economy will grow – the revenue comes from us
• Continue to invest in education – essential to grow our economy
• Have a long-range economic plan (current piece-meal plan is no plan!))
• Remember and act on previous election campaign slogans and promises – i.e. invest in
Canadian/Nova Scotian families
• More “doing”
• Put money where it belongs – local economy; infrastructure (social and physical, ferry,
train, public transit, etc)
• Keep money local (NS), every local dollar spent is re-spent locally
• Cheaper does not equal better
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Depending on the circumstances (i.e. earthquakes, recessions, etc), use as long as it takes
to make things work
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 3
Group 3:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase the number of foreign students
• Increase taxes on liquor, tobacco, gas
• Reduce taxes on “oil industry” processing facilities
• Minimum HST increase
Reduce Spending:
• Cut civil service from the top down
• Give a percentage of civil service programs back to local boards – Health and Education
• Put local medical practice on fee for service – include nurse practitioners
• Cut 10%-20% of each department’s staff/budget
• Reduce civil service expense levels – travel km. rates etc.
• Cut advertising for liquor and lottery
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Local medical clinics to charge fee for services and have MDs with nurse practitioners
• Budget – analyze the spending (including staff)
• More accountability
• Layoff bad civil service employees
• Improve fleet/lease management
• Make schools available for recreation programs
• Combine prevention programs – Health, Justice, Addiction
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Ferry (Saint John and Yarmouth). Think of this as a tax gain vs. subsidy. Use the NB
model for Grand Manan, and share the port
• Need vocational programs and a stronger central technology training centre
• Seek out China/Brazil business opportunities
• Government institutions must have “100km” policy
• Grow energy technology
• Offer tax breaks for start ups
• Evaluate government funded programs to see if outcomes are being met
• Do more prevention programs, addiction services, and early intervention; and mental
health and family resource programs
Group 4:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Change small business HST: when they remit, give them back only 10% rather than 13%
• We have concerns that an increase to the HST will have a negative effect on growth
• Find ways to increase the population
• Support immigration into the province
• Tourism tax
Reduce Spending:
• Reduce the amount of money going to the universities – do we have too many
universities?
• Re-evaluate pensions – beginning with a look at government officials. A smaller
workforce has to support many retired people
• Decentralize the government
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 4
• Redefine what provincial residency entails – i.e. people return from out west and get
benefits here
• Clear and achievable targets in the budget
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Open an office of entrepreneurial affairs – connect business and government
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Invest in trade programs at community colleges
• Bring in people who want to train for trades
• More money into community college system
• Invest in transportation systems
• Adopt long term planning – at least 10 years (i.e. decision re: Yarmouth and Digby
ferries) and invest in transportation links that strengthen infrastructure
• Invest in public education
• Pay incentives (tuition, isolation pay) for medical professionals to go to rural areas
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Our government should bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance in 5 to10 years
• Be positive – look outward as a province to the world!
Group 5:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Encourage small business expansion
• Tax increase
• HST (1-2%)
• Oil and gas royalties increased
• Change tax credit to benefit small business
Reduce Spending:
• Audit cost of over-governance or over-spending (not everyone agreed on this)
• Offer incentives for coming in under-budget (all departments)
• Decrease MLAs salaries and expenses (not everyone agreed on this)
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• Increase spending on active, healthy living and healthier people means less money will be
needed for health care
• Early childhood education programs
• Evaluate success of government programs – make sure they’re doing what they should be
• Better negotiation of business contracts (i.e. the CAT)
• Encourage people to get back into the workforce
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Encourage high tech businesses/industry by promoting what we have to offer
• Invest in education – rethink education
• Growth in food (fish) and energy (green)
• Focus on small businesses/high tech industries/create opportunities
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 5
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• Start now! Our government should bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance as soon
as possible!
• Take care of our province the way we would take care of our families!
Group 6:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase corporate taxes
• Increase high income surtax
• Increase tax on non-essential goods (alcohol, tobacco, junk food, etc)
• Technology = less travelling = fewer expenses. Use skype, teleconferencing, etc.
Reduce Spending:
• Reduce government spending
• Pay debt over a period of years
• Reduce the number of new education programs/initiatives (i.e. accreditation)
• Increase early elementary supports to decrease the need for supports later in their
education career
• Use more proactive health care i.e. early screening, early treatments, early education
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
• More money in early education. Realign spending within Department of Education; less
top heavy, fewer new initiatives – re-evaluate
• Reduce government spending and re-evaluate use of money for government expense
accounts, salaries and pensions
• More money for proactive health care, and realign spending within health care budget
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Increase tourism
• Increase corporate businesses by offering incentive packages
• Invest in our youth, offer early support in education and health
• More business = more jobs = more skilled labor = more taxes
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• We have accrued this debt over a period of time, so take time to pay it off (minimum of a
5-year plan)
• Spend the money wisely to make educated, healthy, contributing members of our
communities
Group 7:
1. What should the government do to increase revenues and reduce spending?
Increase Revenue:
• Increase tobacco 2%
• Tax on trans-fats 2%
Reduce Spending:
• Eliminate the health boards – DHA’s
• Eliminate the duplication of services
• Investigate pension plans (Province of NS)
• Reviewing and rationalization of agencies, boards, and commissions
2. What changes should be made to programs and services to close the gap?
G e t t i n g B a c k t o B a l a n c e P a g e 6
• Do Better at focusing; establish SMART goals.
• Basic literacy needs to be improved
• Improve primary care for chronic conditions
• Stop trying to be all things to all people
• Take an approach that considers the all the fundamentals; as shown in this illustration, we
need an economic development plan
covering the main structure of education
and health, and firmly established on a
strong foundation of other infrastructure.
3. What investments should be made today that will help to grow the economy in the long term?
• Invest in the capacities to produce value added products
• Look beyond the short term plans – go long term
• Improve the infrastructure, transportation, water, education, health, ferry (to Saint John!)
• Health care must be more proactive. Wellness enhancement, health promotion, injury
prevention
• Develop a real economic plan for this area, with resources. We have to get real.
4. How soon should government bring Nova Scotia’s finances back to balance?
• As long as it takes, but do it right!!!
Note: Flip chart notes have been edited slightly to improve readability.
Seminars in Halifax
[HALIFAX, NS] Project Management Dinner Meeting Presentation on Solar Industry: The upcoming Solar Industry 2010 - Technologies & Projects: PMI Nova Scotia Chapter Dinner Meeting Presentation will feature Dr. Alexandre Pavlovski, P.Eng. Globally, the solar industry has averaged 41 per cent growth per year from 2001 through 2008, and this growth tends to accelerate. The presentation focuses on the issues related to project scope management for building-integrated and utility-scale solar energy applications. The major solar technologies and flagship projects in Canada and internationally will be reviewed and examples of solar projects in Atlantic Canada will be presented.
When: April 14, 2010, 5 p.m. — networking session followed by dinner and presentation
Where: The World Trade & Convention Centre, Suite 302, 1800 Argyle Street, Halifax, NS
Website or contact info: Visit www.pmi.ns.ca for details and to register, or call (902) 423-1764
[HALIFAX, NS] “Green” Project Symposium: The one-day ESANS “Thinking Green” - 2nd Annual Construction and Demolition Symposium will bring all levels of government, contractors and consultants together to discuss how to “GREEN” your projects. Topics include: LEED and its application to restoration and construction work; implementing the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) in construction and demolition; regulatory overview of demolition process - what levels of government have jurisdiction and dealing with multi-jurisdictional issues; demolition permitting process and discussion on differing requirements among municipalities regarding recycling and hazardous materials; an afternoon group discussion and open forum led by a panel of government and industry experts on addressing consistency in the identification, abatement and disposal of hazardous materials with a specific focus on asbestos and lead-based paint. Register early as space is limited.
When: April 22, 2010, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, Halifax, NS
Website or contact info: Visit www.esans.ca/events.html
[SAINT JOHN, NB] Canada - New England Cruise Symposium: The City of Saint John is hosting the next Canada - New England Cruise Symposium. Titled “Anchor in the Bay of Fundy: Come for the Show, Stay for the Wonders”, the three-day conference is expected draw over 225 participants to hear industry experts discuss the latest trends and developments in the sector. The event will attract delegates from a variety of industry-related organizations, including cruise lines, media, tour operators, port authorities, tourism offices, marine agencies, chambers of commerce and cruise associations. Delegates will also be treated to an abundance of maritime hospitality and entertainment including a tour of the Hopewell Rocks and Saint John city highlights, as well as the Reversing Falls jet boat rides and a traditional maritime kitchen party.
When: June 8-10, 2010
Where: Saint John Trade and Convention Centre, Saint John, NB
Website or contact info: Check out www.bayoffundy2010.com or call (506) 636-4674
When: April 14, 2010, 5 p.m. — networking session followed by dinner and presentation
Where: The World Trade & Convention Centre, Suite 302, 1800 Argyle Street, Halifax, NS
Website or contact info: Visit www.pmi.ns.ca for details and to register, or call (902) 423-1764
[HALIFAX, NS] “Green” Project Symposium: The one-day ESANS “Thinking Green” - 2nd Annual Construction and Demolition Symposium will bring all levels of government, contractors and consultants together to discuss how to “GREEN” your projects. Topics include: LEED and its application to restoration and construction work; implementing the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) in construction and demolition; regulatory overview of demolition process - what levels of government have jurisdiction and dealing with multi-jurisdictional issues; demolition permitting process and discussion on differing requirements among municipalities regarding recycling and hazardous materials; an afternoon group discussion and open forum led by a panel of government and industry experts on addressing consistency in the identification, abatement and disposal of hazardous materials with a specific focus on asbestos and lead-based paint. Register early as space is limited.
When: April 22, 2010, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, Halifax, NS
Website or contact info: Visit www.esans.ca/events.html
[SAINT JOHN, NB] Canada - New England Cruise Symposium: The City of Saint John is hosting the next Canada - New England Cruise Symposium. Titled “Anchor in the Bay of Fundy: Come for the Show, Stay for the Wonders”, the three-day conference is expected draw over 225 participants to hear industry experts discuss the latest trends and developments in the sector. The event will attract delegates from a variety of industry-related organizations, including cruise lines, media, tour operators, port authorities, tourism offices, marine agencies, chambers of commerce and cruise associations. Delegates will also be treated to an abundance of maritime hospitality and entertainment including a tour of the Hopewell Rocks and Saint John city highlights, as well as the Reversing Falls jet boat rides and a traditional maritime kitchen party.
When: June 8-10, 2010
Where: Saint John Trade and Convention Centre, Saint John, NB
Website or contact info: Check out www.bayoffundy2010.com or call (506) 636-4674
No Frivolous Spending, Now!
NS: Steele orders stop to March madness spending
By Paul McLeod, Metro Halifax
Source: Metro Halifax, March 19, 2010
[HALIFAX, NS] — The province is putting a halt to “March madness” spending by civil servants, says Finance Minister Graham Steele.
A letter to senior bureaucrats dated March 4 from the treasury board directs them not to make any unplanned year-end spending.
Steele said the letter was meant to defuse the idea that if departments don’t spend their entire budget it will be cut down the following year. He said he heard at almost every Back To Balance meeting with the public they believe departments go on a spending spree in March.
“We do want to make sure civil servants get the message that the kind of spending where you spend money for the sake of spending money will not be tolerated,” he said.
Finance Minister Graham Steele speaks with reporters in this file photo from last year. Steele is telling government departments to avoid the rush on spending that occurs near the end of the fiscal year. — Ryan Taplin/Metro Halifax photo
Steele said the treasury board is keeping a close watch and if frivolous spending is discovered it will be dealt with on an individual basis.
The Liberals were unconvinced the letter would be enough.
Several tenders went out in recent days with deadlines right before the March 31 end of fiscal year. One tender for the first phase of Bluenose II restoration was posted March 18 and closes just four days later.
Many tenders end in the two days before the fiscal year ends, including contracts for portable radios and to carpet and floor office buildings.
Liberal leader Stephen McNeil said the most egregious spending was the NDP topping up the Industrial Expansion Fund — an economic development pot controlled by cabinet — with $75 million at the beginning of this month.
“If it didn’t come out of departments, he’s borrowed the money. And that’s end of the year spending,” McNeil said. “It’s pretty rich for Graham Steele to be telling civil servants to live within their budgets when their own government’s not doing it.”
By Paul McLeod, Metro Halifax
Source: Metro Halifax, March 19, 2010
[HALIFAX, NS] — The province is putting a halt to “March madness” spending by civil servants, says Finance Minister Graham Steele.
A letter to senior bureaucrats dated March 4 from the treasury board directs them not to make any unplanned year-end spending.
Steele said the letter was meant to defuse the idea that if departments don’t spend their entire budget it will be cut down the following year. He said he heard at almost every Back To Balance meeting with the public they believe departments go on a spending spree in March.
“We do want to make sure civil servants get the message that the kind of spending where you spend money for the sake of spending money will not be tolerated,” he said.
Finance Minister Graham Steele speaks with reporters in this file photo from last year. Steele is telling government departments to avoid the rush on spending that occurs near the end of the fiscal year. — Ryan Taplin/Metro Halifax photo
Steele said the treasury board is keeping a close watch and if frivolous spending is discovered it will be dealt with on an individual basis.
The Liberals were unconvinced the letter would be enough.
Several tenders went out in recent days with deadlines right before the March 31 end of fiscal year. One tender for the first phase of Bluenose II restoration was posted March 18 and closes just four days later.
Many tenders end in the two days before the fiscal year ends, including contracts for portable radios and to carpet and floor office buildings.
Liberal leader Stephen McNeil said the most egregious spending was the NDP topping up the Industrial Expansion Fund — an economic development pot controlled by cabinet — with $75 million at the beginning of this month.
“If it didn’t come out of departments, he’s borrowed the money. And that’s end of the year spending,” McNeil said. “It’s pretty rich for Graham Steele to be telling civil servants to live within their budgets when their own government’s not doing it.”
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Turbines and Solar in Digby Indust. Park?
Another municipality is doing it.
NS: Municipality pursues business park with “eco” spin
By Amy Woolvett, Transcontinental Media
Source: The Coast Guard, March 17, 2010
[SHELBURNE, NS] — The Municipality of Shelburne hopes to attract tenants into the Shelburne Industrial Park by developing it as an ecologically friendly site complete with wind turbines and an ocean source heating system.
The first phase of the project to develop the industrial park as an eco park with renewable energy infrastructure is provide the tenants with power and energy options that are sustainable and have low environmental impact.
“There are a lot of industrial parks in the province,” said chief administrator Kirk Cox for the municipality. “We are trying to find a niche or value, something innovative that we can do to stand out.”
He explained that tenants would benefit if the park were to provide alternative sustainable energy to current and future park tenants.
The project would involve installing two complementary renewable energy technologies: ocean source heat pumps and eight to 10 small (100 kW) wind turbines.
“First for the financial value to businesses but also to meet their sustainable mandate to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Cox.
Nova Scotia Power has partnered with the municipality as they launch a study on the feasibility of the development.
Some of the larger current tenants of the park include Roseway Hospital, Nova Scotia Community College and Ven Rez Products Limited. Discussions held between the tenants and the municipality have been positive.
According to project plans, the ocean source heat pumps would remove heat from seawater and transfer it to a three-kilometre, closed-loop piping system that would then deliver heat to users in the industrial park cluster through heat exchangers.
The heat source generated would provide at least 80 per cent of the heat required by clients using oil as their primary heat.
It is expected that the wind farm would offset the energy usage of the heat pumps as well as offset around 90 per cent of the electrical energy used by clients.
The projected cost for the development of the ocean source heating system and wind turbines is $8.5-million.
“It is going to cost a lot of money to do it but we are hoping to get a lot of people to help across all levels of government,” said Cox.
The project planning estimates that 75 to 80 per cent of the total capital costs could be provided through outside sources.
In order to draw in clients, the tenants would have to save at least 10 per cent in their annual energy costs, the municipality predicts.
“Any business that has a high energy usage could save millions,” explained Cox.
NS: Municipality pursues business park with “eco” spin
By Amy Woolvett, Transcontinental Media
Source: The Coast Guard, March 17, 2010
[SHELBURNE, NS] — The Municipality of Shelburne hopes to attract tenants into the Shelburne Industrial Park by developing it as an ecologically friendly site complete with wind turbines and an ocean source heating system.
The first phase of the project to develop the industrial park as an eco park with renewable energy infrastructure is provide the tenants with power and energy options that are sustainable and have low environmental impact.
“There are a lot of industrial parks in the province,” said chief administrator Kirk Cox for the municipality. “We are trying to find a niche or value, something innovative that we can do to stand out.”
He explained that tenants would benefit if the park were to provide alternative sustainable energy to current and future park tenants.
The project would involve installing two complementary renewable energy technologies: ocean source heat pumps and eight to 10 small (100 kW) wind turbines.
“First for the financial value to businesses but also to meet their sustainable mandate to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Cox.
Nova Scotia Power has partnered with the municipality as they launch a study on the feasibility of the development.
Some of the larger current tenants of the park include Roseway Hospital, Nova Scotia Community College and Ven Rez Products Limited. Discussions held between the tenants and the municipality have been positive.
According to project plans, the ocean source heat pumps would remove heat from seawater and transfer it to a three-kilometre, closed-loop piping system that would then deliver heat to users in the industrial park cluster through heat exchangers.
The heat source generated would provide at least 80 per cent of the heat required by clients using oil as their primary heat.
It is expected that the wind farm would offset the energy usage of the heat pumps as well as offset around 90 per cent of the electrical energy used by clients.
The projected cost for the development of the ocean source heating system and wind turbines is $8.5-million.
“It is going to cost a lot of money to do it but we are hoping to get a lot of people to help across all levels of government,” said Cox.
The project planning estimates that 75 to 80 per cent of the total capital costs could be provided through outside sources.
In order to draw in clients, the tenants would have to save at least 10 per cent in their annual energy costs, the municipality predicts.
“Any business that has a high energy usage could save millions,” explained Cox.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Annapolis/Digby Events
Good day, Kathleen —
Well, we all just got one hour’s less sleep but, on the bright side, Spring is just around the corner. Here in Annapolis Digby, this mild weather gives us a great reason to get a head start on the tourism season. Whether you’re in the business of welcoming visitors to our region, or you’re seeing an otherwise familiar landscape with new eyes, Spring is the season of discovery. Let’s make the most of it!
DIGBY FERRY LIKELY TO PICK UP CAT TRAFFIC
With the termination of the CAT service, bus tour companies are now looking at entering Nova Scotia via the Princess of Acadia. To determine how best to meet this opportunity, and to discover some new ones, Destination Southwest Nova Association is holding an Industry Stakeholder Session this afternoon, at the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre, from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. We urge all local tourism operators and related businesses to attend.
DISCOVER GEMS IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
The 5th Annual Annapolis Digby Tourism Showcase is a great opportunity for exhibitors to promote their products and services locally. And there’s still time to register as a vendor! For attendees, it’s a chance to experience the diversity of what our area has to offer while enjoying some great shopping. So, on Saturday, March 27, don’t miss this opportunity to support local artisans, retailers and service providers. This year, you can also enjoy presentations on gardening and community beautification.
GETTING A JUMP ON THE COMPETITION
In the Spring of 2009, we launched Golf & Gardens, a tourism initiative focussed primarily on the Halifax marketplace designed to put Annapolis Digby on the map as a mini-break destination, taking full advantage of the early season our region offers. This year, we’re expanding the billboard campaign to include two additional urban markets, doubling the media run, and redesigning the G&G website so that visitors can easily find and click on specific G&G packages.
MAY DAY: FARM MARKETS GEARING UP
There’s a new farm market on our horizon, sprouting up in the lovely seaside village of Hampton! The big kick-off is scheduled for May 21 with plans to offer lots of fresh, local foods. And while we’re on the subject of fresh food, a student lunch program promoting locally sourced produce was launched this week at two Lawrencetown schools.
DON’T MISS THE BIG FACE-OFF
Book your seat now for Social Media Face-Off, a forum to be lead by Terri McCulloch of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership! She’ll be talking about the pros and cons of twitter, facebook and blogging — which is right for you and your business? Terri will help put you on the right social media track.
Speaking of big face-offs, join the entire population of Lawrencetown tonight at the firehall, as the community rallies to be named one of CBC Hockeyville’s Top 12 finalists! And on the weekend, don’t miss an opportunity to see Juno award winning recording artist Morgan Davis in Bear River.
Well, we all just got one hour’s less sleep but, on the bright side, Spring is just around the corner. Here in Annapolis Digby, this mild weather gives us a great reason to get a head start on the tourism season. Whether you’re in the business of welcoming visitors to our region, or you’re seeing an otherwise familiar landscape with new eyes, Spring is the season of discovery. Let’s make the most of it!
DIGBY FERRY LIKELY TO PICK UP CAT TRAFFIC
With the termination of the CAT service, bus tour companies are now looking at entering Nova Scotia via the Princess of Acadia. To determine how best to meet this opportunity, and to discover some new ones, Destination Southwest Nova Association is holding an Industry Stakeholder Session this afternoon, at the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre, from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. We urge all local tourism operators and related businesses to attend.
DISCOVER GEMS IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
The 5th Annual Annapolis Digby Tourism Showcase is a great opportunity for exhibitors to promote their products and services locally. And there’s still time to register as a vendor! For attendees, it’s a chance to experience the diversity of what our area has to offer while enjoying some great shopping. So, on Saturday, March 27, don’t miss this opportunity to support local artisans, retailers and service providers. This year, you can also enjoy presentations on gardening and community beautification.
GETTING A JUMP ON THE COMPETITION
In the Spring of 2009, we launched Golf & Gardens, a tourism initiative focussed primarily on the Halifax marketplace designed to put Annapolis Digby on the map as a mini-break destination, taking full advantage of the early season our region offers. This year, we’re expanding the billboard campaign to include two additional urban markets, doubling the media run, and redesigning the G&G website so that visitors can easily find and click on specific G&G packages.
MAY DAY: FARM MARKETS GEARING UP
There’s a new farm market on our horizon, sprouting up in the lovely seaside village of Hampton! The big kick-off is scheduled for May 21 with plans to offer lots of fresh, local foods. And while we’re on the subject of fresh food, a student lunch program promoting locally sourced produce was launched this week at two Lawrencetown schools.
DON’T MISS THE BIG FACE-OFF
Book your seat now for Social Media Face-Off, a forum to be lead by Terri McCulloch of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership! She’ll be talking about the pros and cons of twitter, facebook and blogging — which is right for you and your business? Terri will help put you on the right social media track.
Speaking of big face-offs, join the entire population of Lawrencetown tonight at the firehall, as the community rallies to be named one of CBC Hockeyville’s Top 12 finalists! And on the weekend, don’t miss an opportunity to see Juno award winning recording artist Morgan Davis in Bear River.
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ADEDA Nova Scotia events
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