ADEDA News

Ferry Follow Up
There was active and positive follow up to the recent announcement the federal government would make an additional three year commitment to providing investment funding for the Digby to Saint John ferry service across the Bay of Fundy.

West Nova Member of Parliament Greg Kerr meet first with area business and government leaders to further outline the decision by the federal government to extend the funding. Kerr urged the communities affected by the service to be open to new ideas and to look at all options for the future of this service as well as other investment opportunities.

Immediately after that public meeting our MP met with the Bay of Fundy Transportation Coalition to further specify the context and future implications of the announcement.

That meeting was organized by the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency (ADEDA) at the behest of the Coalition.

Among many topics Kerr discussed the issue of governance, stressed the need to look at different models, and to make the business case for the ferry going forward, adding that economic development was key to this.

He particularly credited the Coalition planning group for their past efforts and for being prepared to immediately start strategically thinking about how the ferry service should be sustained in the future.

Our Global Positioning As A World Leader
A recent feature story in the Saint John Telegraph Journal outlined how use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was radically changing forest management. The article described GIS as merging “statistical analysis and data base technology into a set of tools that allow the user to interpret and understand data in a visual format”.

It immediately brought to top of mind (at least to the top of my mind) the fact that right here in Annapolis Digby we have a post secondary institution that is increasingly being recognized as a world leader in this technology.

As part of the Nova Scotia Community College’s Annapolis Valley Campus, the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) provides basic and advanced training in a variety of Geomatics technologies. Check it out at www.cogs.ns.ca., particularly its One-year Advanced Diploma Program Geographic Information Systems for Business Formerly the College of Geographic Sciences located in Lawrencetown, COGS has become one of the largest technical trainers of students in the geomatics field in Canada. Training technicians and technologists in the fields of surveying, mapping, land-use planning and related computer programming has earned the campus an international reputation.

The Lawrencetown site also houses post-degree Geomatics programs in marine geomatics, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and business geographics. Two COGS programs, Applied Geomatics Research and Geomatics Programming, are delivered in Middleton.

All in all it’s a world class learning centre located in our very proud community.

Tom and the Turbines
Any day now I half expect to see one of my boyhood literary idols, Tom Swift, Jr. touring about Annapolis Digby in his ‘Triphibian Atomcar’. Always interested in ways the frontiers of science could be advanced, Tom would be happy here. He would certainly have hopped on the bus and joined the many folks who were able to tour the wind turbines at NSP’s Wind Farm Open House. The impressive facility overlooking the Bay is proudly being described by the operators as “on track and probably ahead of schedule”. Using his amazing “Diving Seacopter “ Tom could also be right in on the action taking place these days exploring the Fundy’s tidal turbine energy potential. Especially in a little over a year when French energy giant Alstom plans to install and commercialize its industrial scale Beluga 9 tidal energy turbine in the Bay. Ah yes, Tom, Frank and Joe Hardy, Nancy Drew, the Rover Boys - and even you too (two) Bobbsey Twins –where are you now? Anyway, thank you good folks at the Stratemeyer Syndicate for a wonderful childhood!

Arts Kudos
First, congrats to Deb Kuzyk and Ray Mackie of Annapolis Royal’s Lucky Rabbit Pottery who were recognized in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine in a piece entitled Five Great Canadian Artisans. Well deserved recognition for one of my favourite studios. And a heartfelt seasonal thank you to Annapolis Digby’s prolific playwright Hal Theriault for his creative adaptation and staging of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and the popular performance by the Digby Area Theatre Society team.

A Community Salute
And we at ADEDA want to join with our entire community this week to “salute” Community Program Officer Rodena Renaud of the Annapolis RCMP for her recognition with The RCMP Foundation’s Golden Spur Award for Outstanding Commitment to Community. At the recent ceremony in Toronto the award citation stated in part, “Her focus on youth at risk, offering support and activities to set them on the right path, are but one of the areas of her focus”. A hearty “well done’”, and thank you, from all of us.