🗞 Be bolder on biodiversity, HRM

CITY HALL

Add more biodiversity measures to HRM design guidelines, Ecology Action Centre appeals

One of Nova Scotia’s longest-running environmental non-profits has a message for Halifax: Be more like Montreal. Late last week, Karen McKendry, a senior wilderness outreach coordinator with Ecology Action Centre, made a pitch to the HRM’s Environment and Sustainability Standing Committee to adopt more biodiversity measures into Halifax’s municipal design guidelines—a planning bible otherwise known as the “Red Book.”

“There is a global biodiversity crisis,” McKendry told the committee. Scientists say more than a million species are at risk within our lifetime. And while Nova Scotia has set a goal to conserve at least 20% of its land and water mass by 2030, there are currently more than 60 species deemed either endangered, vulnerable or threatened across the province.

McKendry would like to see Halifax join the Montreal Pledge—a commitment by more than 60 cities around the world, spawned from the COP-15 conference, to protect biodiversity through 15 actions, including the following:

• Eliminating plastic waste

• Cutting pesticide use by at least two-thirds

• Controlling or eradicating invasive species

• Integrating biodiversity into regulatory planning

The latter is where McKendry and the Ecology Action Centre see immediate room for opportunity: If the HRM’s design guidelines were to incorporate biodiversity principles, the region could take a leap forward in meeting its goals—and set its future on a more environmentally sustainable path.

Councillor Pam Lovelace voiced her support for the initiative. In July, she recommended HRM council ask for a staff report on Halifax becoming a signatory of the Montreal Pledge.

Need to know

💸 A new report finds that Nova Scotia’s minimum wage is falling farther behind in keeping pace with inflation—especially in Halifax.

🚨 Mounties are investigating “more than 50 incidents” of alleged sexual assaults at a NS French-language university, dating back to 2015.

💰 Nova Scotia’s housing minister says the province would consider buying flood-damaged homes in the HRM, but on one condition.

🎨 In partnership with Build Nova Scotia, Nocturne is accepting Expression of Interest from Community Groups to program a waterfront chalet as part of Nocturne!*

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*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY AFTERWORDS LITERARY FESTIVAL

Readers and writers meet at AfterWords

See your favourite writers in Halifax this fall—and discover some new favourites. Emma Donoghue, Alicia Elliott, Mona Awad, Zoe Whittall, and Sean Michaels are among the more than 30 writers you’ll find in venues around Halifax October 29 to November 5 at AfterWords Literary Festival. With readings, on-stage interviews, workshops, celebratory events, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and even a funfair for young readers, there’s something for every kind of reader at AfterWords. Tickets are on sale now!

On The Coast

SPONSORED BY SYMPHONY NOVA SCOTIA

Join the Big Band Hit Parade

Symphony Nova Scotia brings the big band sound to the symphonic stage October 28 and 29. As part of its 40th anniversary season, SNS looks back to when jazz/swing music topped the charts. Joined by award-winning saxophonist Mike Murley, the orchestra plays favourites from Henry Mancini, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and more.

In other news

☔️ Summer 2023 has been a record-breaking one for rainfall across the Maritimes, according to meteorologists. But not every record has toppled. 

🏗 Plans to demolish a Halifax Infirmary parkade are on hold amid a massive hospital redevelopment.

🌊 The CBC found Nova Scotia’s environment minister is fielding calls from constituents to get on with enacting the Coastal Protection Act—a delay the minister has pinned on requiring more feedback.

🚔 A 35-year-old will appear in Halifax provincial court on numerous charges after a semi-truck driver crashed into a row of parked cars on Hanover Street, allegedly while impaired.

ARTS & CULTURE

Everything you need to know about Halifax’s 2023 Hopscotch Festival

One of the buzziest groups in alt-rap is coming to Halifax’s Hopscotch Festival this year. Grammy-nominated duo EARTHGANG, who first made a splash when they signed to J Cole’s Dreamville Records in 2016, are performing at the Light House Arts Centre on Sept. 21. Along with Los Angeles-based rapper-producer The Alchemist, they make up the headliners of this year’s Hopscotch Festival—the 13th annual iteration of the East Coast’s signature hip hop festival.

Coast reporter Martin Bauman has you covered with the festival low-down—from which local favourites are performing to where to find tickets.

Sure things

Looking for something to do this week? Check out these Coast picks:

🗓 Malody at Stillwell Freehouse: Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Chiasson (formerly of Alexander and the Great Ones) embarks on an “unbounded” and “introspective” solo venture. | Sept. 13 | 8-11pm | No cover.

🗓 Atlantic International Film Festival: The eight-day celebration of film kicks off Thursday with The Queen of My Dreams, a “wildly ambitious” debut feature that “moves seamlessly between the craggy rocks of small-town Cape Breton and the bustling streets of Pakistan.” | Sept. 14-21 | Showtimes vary | Festival passes from $55-185.

🗓 Halifax Vintage Paper Show: Browse 60+ tables of eclectic vendors offering all things paper—from comics to sports cards to antique books. | Sept. 16 | 10am-4pm | $5.

🗓 Halifax Oktoberfest: Enjoy ten days of beer, music and German food on the Halifax Waterfront, with performances from the likes of Rankin MacInnis. | Sept. 15-24 | 11:30am until close | No cover.

Find more Halifax events in The Coast listings.

Shop talk

🗣 Popular Truro-based gourmet donut shop Aroma Maya Coffee & Donuts is coming to Dartmouth.

🗣 The former Tare Shop location in Dartmouth will re-open as a Harvest restaurant, according to Halifax ReTales.

Eat this

🌮 Sweet potato tacos are back at The Osney: Made with chipotle refried beans, avocado, pickled onions and Fritos, and drizzled with a coconut lime cilantro crema, they’re on special all September.

🍔 Rinaldo’s has reintroduced its colossal Uncle Sam Burger, made with local ground beef, crispy bacon, homemade mozza sticks, American cheddar and a “signature special sauce.”