History of Nova Scotia
with special attention given to
Communications and Transportation

Chapter 80
2002 January – 2003 December


Index with links to the other chapters


2002 January 15

Liberal Party Leadership Websites

In the autumn of 2001, the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia was looking for a new leader, who was to be chosen by majority vote at a convention to be held on April 12-13, 2002, at the Westin Hotel in Halifax. In early January 2002, four candidates declared themselves as candidates for the Liberal leadership. How did their campaigns make use of the Internet?


Sources:
Halifax Live   http://www.halifaxlive.com/halifax.html
and the candidates' websites.

2002 February 2

02/02/02


2002 February 20

Double Palindromic Date

This day has a doubly-palindromic date:
20 02 2002
(when written in the DD MM YYYY format)

Similar dates will occur only twice in the future.
The next will be on December 21st, 2112, and
the last time this will occur is March 30th, 3003.


2002 March 21

Canso Strait Lighthouse Removed

EDDY POINT — The last main lighthouse guiding vessels the Strait of Canso was unceremoniously placed on a flatbed truck and carted off to the Coast Guard storage area at the Strait on Wednesday, March 21st, 2002.

The light, which was suffering from foundation erosion and was tilting at a 15 degree angle, was taken away because, according to Darren Gaudet a design and review engineer with the Coast Guard, it was becoming a safety issue.

"NS Power telephoned us about the light falling on a power pole, which has a transformer that contains PCBs," he said. "There would have been some liability issues if anything happened as well as environmental concerns if the light hit the power pole."

A concerned citizen said that the Coast Guard does not see the lighthouse as a necessity anymore and that it was the mandate of the Coast Guard to remove it from the shoreline.

The area fishermen and vessel operators see the light as a loss for those coming into the Strait. Pilot boat operator Michael Crant from Mulgrave said that the Coast Guard were just making excuses when it came to the reasons why the lighthouse was taken out of commission. Crant said that he disagrees with their assessment of why the light was taken away. "The light was not leaning towards a power pole, it was leaning out to sea," he said. "It would have taken some money to fix the foundation under the light, but it is ridiculous to think that it would cost the half million dollars the Coast Guard was saying it would take to fix it. They just wanted to get rid of it."

The Eddy Point light was a good light for vessels coming into the Strait though there are navigational buoys that make the passage up the Strait of Canso now. "It was a good light, people used the Eddy Point light; government does what it wants to do and goes ahead with it," said Crant.

The Coast Guard are scheduling a meeting in the area for April 24th to further discuss if a new light should be re-installed in the vicinity.

[The Guysborough Journal, 27 March 2002]

2002 April 10

Legislature Proceedings Available over Internet

The proceedings of the Nova Scotia Legislature are now available over the Internet, via a live video stream accessible at the government website:
    http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/HOUSE_BUSINESS/legislative_tv.html
When the Legislature is in session, the site will broadcast all business in the House, including the daily routine, tabling of bills, and Question Period. The hours for the sitting of the Legislature are available in the daily Order Paper available at:
    http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/HOUSE_BUSINESS/order_paper.html
[The Halifax Daily News, 10 April 2002]

Note by ICS (written 2:50pm Wednesday, 10 April 2002):
I tried this new service a few minutes ago, and it worked fine. The audio came across the Internet
and through my computer to my speaker in good condition, perfectly audible, nearly as good as
AM broadcast radio. I'm working through a dial-up connection (the venerable copper twisted-pair
telephone line) at 56 kilobits per second, so the video isn't all that great, but it is markedly better
than I expected — giving me a reasonably good picture at about five frames per second. On my
screen, the display appears in a window 6.0cm wide by 4.5cm high. This new service is welcomed
by me, and no doubt by many Nova Scotians — all those who have been unable to receive the
Legislative TV feed available for the last ten years to cable subscribers in the Halifax metropolitan
area, but not to those elsewhere in the province. Now anyone with Internet access can watch our
Legislature live. This afternoon, I saw my MLA, Mark Parent of Kings North, presenting two
resolutions, at 2:35pm and again at 2:38pm.


Legislature Proceedings Now On Internet

Government Press Release
9 April 2002, 9:44am

The daily proceedings of Nova Scotia's legislative assembly are available live on the Internet.

"Making the debates of the House of Assembly available online extends accessibility to more Nova Scotians and to others," said Michael Baker, minister responsible for Communications Nova Scotia. "It is also one of the ways we are able to ensure openness and accountability in government."

A link to the live video stream is located on the Nova Scotia Government home page, www.gov.ns.ca , by clicking the Legislature Webcast link under the Legislature heading.

RealOne Player is required in order to access the proceedings. This piece of software is free and is available for download at www.real.com .

The service has been successfully running since the fall 2001 legislative session, when it was being tested for public accessibility.

While the House of Assembly is in session the site broadcasts all business that takes place in the legislature, including the daily routine, tabling of bills and question period. The hours for the sitting of the legislature are available in the daily Order Paper, available online at: www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/HOUSE_BUSINESS/order_paper.html .

Source:
    http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20020409001

2002 June

Map of High-Speed Internet Service Availability

Nova Scotia: Internet connectivity in 2002
Internet connectivity in Nova Scotia in June 2002
White dots — Communities with Broadband connectivity
Red dots — Communities without Broadband connectivity
Source: Industry Canada Smart Communities
http://smartcommunities.ic.gc.ca/bbmaps/canada/mtimes.HTM


2002 June

Merger of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Newspaper Publishers

Cameron, NCC to Merge Some Operations
8 June 2002

Newfoundland Capital Corporation and Cameron Publications Limited are combining their printing and publishing operations into a new publicly-traded company to be known as Optipress Incorporated.

Optipress will buy the two companies' publishing and printing assets with money raised from a planned initial public offering (IPO) of shares of the new company. Those businesses currently have annual revenue totalling about $68,000,000.

Newfoundland Capital conducts its publishing and printing business through two divisions of wholly-owned subsidiary Newcap Incorporated — Robinson Blackmore in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Print Atlantic in the Maritimes and eastern United States.

Cameron Publications has three publishing and printing divisions — Fundy Group Publications, Kentville Publishing and MacNab Print.

Robinson Blackmore owns 15 community newspapers and two monthly publications, primarily serving rural Newfoundland. The newspapers include the Packet, the Express, and the Humber Log. The company also owns three printing plants in St. John's, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Corner Brook that employ over 250 people.

Cameron is one of Nova Scotia's oldest and largest printing and publishing companies. It publishes ten weekly newspapers in the Annapolis Valley and South Shore areas of the province, including the Windsor Hants Journal, the Shelburne Coast Guard, and the Digby Courier, as well as three specialty publications dealing with fisheries, farming, and gardening.

Newcap Inc. also owns several radio stations in the Maritimes, Ontario, and Alberta.

[The National Post, 8 June 2002]

Newfoundland Capital Corp. news release
7 June 2002

HALIFAX, June 7 /CNW/ — Mr. Rob Steele, Chief Executive Officer of Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited (NCC shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols NCC.A and NCC.B) and Mr. R.B. Cameron, President of Cameron Publications Limited announced today that their respective boards of directors have approved plans to sell the publishing and printing businesses presently carried on by them to a newly incorporated company, Optipress Inc. Optipress will raise the funds for the purchase of the businesses by way of an initial public offering of its common shares...

NCC's publishing and printing business is presently carried on through two separate operating divisions of its wholly owned subsidiary Newcap Inc., Robinson-Blackmore in Newfoundland and Labrador and Print Atlantic in the Maritimes and Eastern United States. Cameron Publications operates its publishing and printing business through three divisions: Fundy Group Publications, Kentville Publishing and MacNab Print. The combined publishing and printing businesses have annual revenues in excess of $68,000,000.

Source:
Newfoundland Capital Corp. news release, 7 June 2002
    http://www.newswire.ca/releases/June2002/07/c3950.html
    http://www.sedar.com/

Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited operates 52 radio licenses across Canada.

Newfoundland Capital
Corporation
745 Windmill Road
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Radio Broadcasting Stations
in operation, May 2002
Radio Station Location
Newfoundland and Labrador
Radio Newfoundland St. John's
VOCM St. John's
K-ROCK-FM St. John's
CKIX-FM St. John's
CHVO Carbonear
K-ROCK-FM Clarenville
CKVO Clarenville
CKXB Musgravetown
K-ROCK-FM Gander
CKGA Gander
K-ROCK-FM Grand Falls-Windsor
CKCM Grand Falls-Windsor
K-ROCK Baie Verte
CFNN-FM St. Anthony
CFNW Port au Choix
CFDL-FM Deer Lake
CKXX-FM Corner Brook
CFCB Corner Brook
CKXX-FM1 Stephenville
CFSX Stephenville
CFCV-FM St. Andrew's
CFGN Port-aux-Basques
CHCM Marystown
CFLN Goose Bay
CFLW Wabush
CFLC-FM Churchill Falls
Nova Scotia
CIEZ-FM Halifax
KIXX Halifax
Q104-FM Halifax
Prince Edward Island
CHTN Charlottetown
New Brunswick
C103-FM Moncton
XL96-FM Moncton
Ontario
CHNO-FM Sudbury
KIXX-FM Thunder Bay
Alberta
CFCW-AM Camrose
MIX96-FM Edmonton
K-ROCK-FM Edmonton
CKBA-AM N1   Athabaska
CJPR-AM N1   Blairmore
CIBQ-AM N1   Brooks
CJCM-AM N1   Cold Lake-Grand Centre
CKDQ-AM N1   Drumheller
CJYR-AM N1   Edson
CKVH-AM N1   High Prairie
CIYR-AM N1   Hinton
CHLW-AM N1   Saint Paul
CKWA-AM N1   Slave Lake
CKSQ-AM N1   Stettler
CKKY-AM N1   Wainright
CFOK-AM N1   Westlock
CKJR-AM N1   Wetaskiwin
new FM Calgary
All of the above stations were in operation on 1 May 2002
except the new FM station in Calgary, scheduled to
begin operation in autumn 2002.
Source: Newfoundland Capital Corporation
2001 Annual Report, 27 March 2002
SEDAR #00002995   http://www.sedar.com/
N1: These stations were acquired on 29 April 2002
by 3937884 Canada Inc., which in October 2001 was owned
by Newcap Inc. (with 76.3% voting interest) and
by Standard Radio Inc. (with 23.7% voting interest).
Sources:
CRTC Notice of Public Hearing 2001-10-4, 4 October 2001
CRTC Decision 2002-93, 18 April 2002
CRTC Public Notice 2002-19, 19 April 2002
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/


2002 July 25

Canadian MPs Failing to Use the Internet

A new survey released by the Centre for Collaborative Government indicates that just 58 percent of Canadian MPs have official websites.

Overall, 174 of 301 MPs in Canada have functional websites, although 56 additional MPs either have a website under construction or said they planned to build one. However, support staff in 71 MPs offices stated that they had no plans to develop a website in the near future.

The survey also indicates that just 27 percent of MPs websites use interactive tools such as online feedback forms or surveys which would allow citizens to express views directly to their local MP. The Centre for Collaborative Government warns that Canadian MPs are missing out on fundraising and campaigning opportunities by not having functional websites in operation.

Source:   http://www.nua.com/surveys/

2003 February 17

Victoria Municipality Digital Archives Project

Press release — Across our great nation, communities throughout Canada will be celebrating and hosting events on Heritage Day, February l7th, 2003. The Municipality of Victoria County will be acknowledging Heritage Day with an open house to be held on Monday, February 17th February, 2003, at the Court House in Baddeck. "This is an excellent opportunity for residents of the County to get acquainted with the Municipal Archives," says Warden, Gerald Sampson of the Municipality of Victoria County. The public is invited to drop by between the hours of 11:00am and 4:00pm.

Joan MacInnes, Project Co-ordinator, and Dawn MacKinnon, IT Archivist Assistant, will be available to talk about Victoria County's new Digital Archives Project. The project involves council sessions and minutes from 1851 to current day, as well as heritage inventory and other items. Records are being scanned and saved in databases, as well as CDs, and later will be transferred to the County's web site.

Source:
Victoria Municipality press release (not dated)
    http://www.victoriacounty.com/Heritage%20Day.htm

Scanning of Council Minutes from 1875 to Present

The year 2001 marked the 150th anniversary of Victoria County. In April of 1851 through a special act in the Legislature, Victoria County came into being. Prior to that time, it was part of Cape Breton County. By way of marking this anniversary, Municipal Council decided to create an archives for the County in order to preserve the existing Municipal records and other related materials. Although in its infancy, the archives has gotten off to a good start, and it is the intent to keep adding to the collection.

At the present time, the Municipality of Victoria County Archives through funding from a LMDA/HRDC Partnership program is carrying on a digitizing project of the Municipal archival materials. This project involves the scanning of session and council minutes from 1875 to the present time along with the built heritage site forms. The two participants employed on this project are Joan MacInnes and Dawn MacKinnon. They are in the process of scanning and saving on CDs and databases the County's documents and eventually that information will be available on the County's web site.

Source:
Victoria County, Heritage and Archives
    http://www.victoriacounty.com/heritage.html

2003 March 3

03/03/03



2003 March 13

Nova Scotia MP Websites

A survey done today, to find websites operated by Members of Parliament in Ottawa, representing Nova Scotia, turned up the following:
Nova Scotia Members of Parliament
Websites
13 March 2003
Scott Brison PC Kings-Hants    no website
Bill Casey PC Cumberland-Colchester http://www.billcasey.ca/
Rodger Cuzner Lib Bras d'Or-Cape Breton http://www.rodgercuznermp.com/
Mark Eyking Lib Sydney-Victoria http://www.markeyking.parl.gc.ca/
Gerald Keddy PC South Shore http://www.geraldkeddymp.ca/
Wendy Lill NDP Dartmouth http://www.wendylill.ca/
Peter MacKay PC Pictou-Antigonish
-Guysborough		    no website
Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax    no website
Geoff Regan Lib Halifax West http://www.geoffregan.com/
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville
-Musquodoboit Valley
-Eastern Shore		    no website
Robert Thibault Lib West Nova    no website

Nova Scotia Senators' Websites

A survey done today, to find websites operated by Senators in Ottawa, representing Nova Scotia, turned up the following:
Nova Scotia Senators
Websites
13 March 2003
John Buchanan PC    no website   
Gerald Comeau PC    no website
Jane Cordy Lib    no website
Michael Forrestall PC    no website
Alasdair Graham Lib    no website
Michael Kirby Lib    no website
Wilfred Moore Lib    no website
Donald Oliver PC    no website
Gerard Phalen Lib    no website


2003 June 3

132 New Railway Cars for Hauling Gypsum

National Gypsum Company in Nova Scotia
buys unique railway cars from Johnstown America

Johnstown America Corporation, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, today announced the sale of 132 newly-designed automatic discharge hopper cars to National Gypsum (Canada) Ltd., of Nova Scotia, operator of the world's largest open-pit gypsum mine.

Johnstown America designed and is building the unique aggregate cars to meet the customer's specific requirements. Delivery will be completed in the spring of 2004. National Gypsum (Canada) Ltd. will use the hopper cars to haul gypsum rock from its mine at Milford Station, 32 miles [50km] north of Halifax, to the Port of Halifax. There, the rock is unloaded and exported by ship to customers in the United States and Canada.

The all-steel cars' discharge gates incorporate Johnstown America's MegaFlo™ design, that allows better sealing, smoother door operation and faster lading discharge. Johnstown custom-built the cars with the ends close to the couplers, thereby bringing the ends of adjacent cars nearer to each other to work effectively with the National Gypsum loading system.

New discharge system unique to North America

Traditionally National Gypsum (Canada) Ltd. moved the gypsum rock using railway-supplied gondola cars in rotary dump service. The dumper at their Halifax unloading site needed to be replaced. The company decided instead to modify the dump pit for use with rapid discharge cars. The unloading pit features the second automated unloading system for discharging aggregate materials in North America. The other system, in Texas, also utilizes Johnstown America cars.
Source: Johnstown America Corporation press release
  http://www.johnstownamerica.com/new/press_june_2003.htm

New railcars for hauling gypsum from Milford to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
One of the new railcars for hauling gypsum from Milford to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
NGCX is the "reporting mark" for this fleet of gypsum hoppers.
"NGCX" refers to National Gypsum (Canada) Ltd.  Reporting marks ending
in X are used on private-owner rail cars (i.e. not belonging to a railway).
Reporting marks, along with the car serial number, are used by
railroads and shippers to identify specific pieces of rolling stock.
All organizations with cars in interchange service are assigned
reporting marks by the AAR (Association of American Railroads).
This particular hopper car is identified as NGCX–019 — among all the
railcars anywhere in North America, only this car has this identification. 
                  General dimensions
  Cubic capacity with 10-inch average heap    2,795 cubic feet    79.12 cubic m
  Overall length over coupler pulling faces  44 feet, 6 inches    13.56 m
  Truck centers                         31 feet, 11-1/2 inches     9.74 m
  Length, inside                         39 feet, 1-1/8 inches    11.92 m
  Width, extreme                         10 feet, 7-1/2 inches     3.24 m
  Height, extreme                            12 feet, 1/2-inch     3.67 m
  Light weight (estimated                        68,300 pounds   30 980 kg
  Load limit                                    227,700 pounds  103 270 kg
  Gross load on the rails                       286,000 pounds  129 710 kg
   [These are examples of the heavy-axle-load (HAL) freight cars (36-ton axle
   loads and a gross weight on rail of 286,000 pounds) recently introduced
   for bulk commodity traffic (coal, grain, gypsum, iron ore, etc.).
   HAL cars provide about a ten-percent reduction in operating cost per ton
   of payload, but are at the upper limit of the four-axle loading that
   heavy-duty modern railway track can handle safely and economically.]

2003 July 26   (Ten days before the election)

Nova Scotia
Provincial General Election

Political Websites

On Saturday, 5 July 2003, Premier John Hamm
announced a Provincial General Election
to be held on Tuesday, 5 August 2003.

The previous general election was held on 27 July 1999.
Just before the election was called, the
party standings in the Legislature were:
31   Progressive Conservative
11   New Democratic Party
  7   Liberal
  1   Independent
  2   vacant


Nominations for candidates closed at 2:00pm on Tuesday, 22 July 2003.
In all, 189 people officially declared themselves as candidates.
The PCs, New Democrats and Liberals are represented in all 52 ridings.
Sixteen candidates are running for the Nova Scotia Party,
eleven for the Marijuana Party and six as Independents.




Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia

http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/
http://www.johnhamm.org/

52 candidates





New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia

http://www.ns.ndp.ca/

52 candidates





Liberal Party of Nova Scotia

http://www.liberal.ns.ca/
http://www.believeinbetter.com/

52 candidates





Nova Scotia Party

http://www.nsparty.com/
http://www.nsparty.ca/

16 candidates





Marijuana Party of Nova Scotia

No online presence could be found

11 candidates





Nova Scotia Grey Party

http://www.geocities.com/nsgrayparty/

No candidates



Independent Candidates

(Not affiliated with any party)

6 candidates



All of the above URLs and e-mail addresses
were reproduced here by Copy and Paste.
There are no typing errors in them,
because no typing was involved.


2003 September 28-29

Hurricane Juan

Hurricane Juan track across Nova Scotia, 28-29 September 2003
Hurricane Juan track across Nova Scotia, 28-29 September 2003
Source: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphics/AT15/refresh/AL1503W+GIF/281458W.gif


Globe and Mail front page, 30 September 2003
Globe and Mail front page, 30 September 2003



Index with links to the other chapters



Go To:   Photographs of War Memorials, Historic Monuments and Plaques in Nova Scotia
    http://ns1763.ca/remem/plaques.html
Go To:   Nova Scotia Quotations
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625quotes.html
Go To:   History of Electric Power Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625electric.html
Go To:   History of Telegraph and Telephone Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625telephone.html
Go To:   History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625railways.html
Go To:   History of Automobiles in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625automobiles.html
Go To:   Index to other online Nova Scotia History
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625histindx.html
Go To:   Home Page
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625index.html

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Latest update:   2006 June 10