🗞️ Sun's out, buns out

Good morning!

Last spring, I completed an important rite of passage: My first Burger Bash as a Haligonian. I can’t remember how many burgers I ate over the 10-day affair—three? four?—but I do remember the deep food coma I fell into afterward. And I definitely remember wishing I’d eaten a few more that I hadn’t quite gotten around to trying.

– Martin

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌦️ 10°

Tomorrow: 🌧️ 12°

Next Day: 🌧️ 14°

7-day forecast

FOOD & DRINK

Everything you need to know about the 2024 Halifax Burger Bash

Few know the challenge of Burger Bash better than longtime Halifax chef Matt Brewer. In 2012, when The Coast’s city-wide burger fest began, Brewer was working in a kitchen, grinding hundreds of pounds of ground beef and churning out over 1,000 patties a day. The memories carry the ring of battle stories.

“There’s no doubt that it’s a difficult 10 days for restaurants in Halifax, but it’s also so damn rewarding,” Brewer—the chef behind the since-closed Bite Me Urban Diner—said in 2023. “Even when things get hairy, it’s good to remember a busy restaurant is a good view.”

And so is the cause.

For 12 years running, The Coast has teamed up with—and challenged—bars and restaurants all across Halifax to come up with their most inventive, most delicious, most drool-worthy burgers in support of Feed Nova Scotia. (If you’ve chowed down on a Burger Bash bun, you’ve helped raise more than $883,000 to combat food insecurity in our province.)

And this year’s 10-day burger chow-down starts today. Here’s everything you need to know—from where to eat to what you can win to where the money goes.

EDUCATION

Province-wide teachers’ strike vote looms

Nearly 10,000 teachers, counsellors and school specialists across Nova Scotia will be asked to vote today on whether to strike amid a bargaining breakdown with the province. The Nova Scotia Teachers Union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with the province since the old agreement expired last August. The process has prompted a conciliator’s involvement after six months of talks without reaching a new deal.

Yesterday afternoon, the NSTU held a rally in Sackville, organized by teachers in Halifax County. The union says a recent survey of its members found nearly 85% of teachers have considered leaving the job—prompted, in part, by higher workloads, higher burnout rates, a lack of resources for students, rising levels of violence in schools and a lack of support from their employer.

Speaking with The Coast, NSTU president Ryan Lutes says a “wake-up call” is needed in the provincial government.

“You need to come to the table ready to have meaningful discussions about these issues,” he says. “A meaningful discussion is not just, ‘No, we can't do that.’ Teachers are struggling, and kids deserve better.”

In a statement to The Coast, Nova Scotia’s minister of education, Becky Druhan, writes that any talk of a potential strike “is concerning for students and families,” adding that both sides “continue to actively bargain.”

If a majority of the NSTU’s members vote “yes” to a strike, it won’t lead to a walk-out right away—the union’s executive would first lay out a strike mandate that’s likely to require a cooling-off period before a strike could begin. There are also conciliation dates set for Apr. 15 and 16, during which time, both the province and the union’s bargaining teams will meet with a provincial mediator to work toward a tentative agreement.

Today’s vote will take place electronically at 8pm. Results are expected to be made public by 9pm.

SPONSORED BY GARRISON BREWING CO.

Sizzle & Sip: Halifax Burger Bash

Presented by The Coast & Garrison Brewing as a fundraiser for Feed Nova Scotia, Halifax Burger Bash is BACK for another 10 days of sizzling, cheesy, meaty (or veg) goodness. 🍔

Grab a Garrison at participating restaurants and fill out a ballot for a chance to WIN BEER FOR A YEAR - one ballot per beer 😎🍻

🗞️ In Other News

🩺 As Nova Scotia’s primary care waitlist reaches its highest levels yet, one Halifax-area walk-in clinic is closing its doors.

🔎 Nova Scotia’s police watchdog is looking for the driver of a dark-coloured SUV that was passed by a black truck and police vehicles prior to a crash in Hammonds Plains in late February.

🦞 Nova Scotia’s lobster fishers will vote this spring on whether to increase the minimum legal size of the lobster they catch, after a similar shift in the US.

💰 The province says it’s spending $8.4M on seven “Integrated Youth Services” sites across Nova Scotia, including two in Halifax, that will offer mental health, addictions and other related supports.

🏦 Canada’s central bank says a June interest rate cut is “within the realm of possibilities” after holding its benchmark rate steady on Wednesday.

🇯🇲 Dancehall star Sean Paul is coming to Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre in September. Catch up on all the big shows coming to Halifax in 2024.

🎨 Discover the vibrant and locally-made community art banners of North End Halifax by embarking on a breath-taking self-guided public art tour!*

🎻 Beethoven's monumental composition "Ode to Joy" is powerful, uplifting and not to be missed. Get tickets at Symphony Nova Scotia, May 3 and 4.*

🍴 Join Saltscapes East Coast Expo from April 19 - 21. Explore East Coast's finest at interactive demos, food samplings, and live entertainment. Get tickets now!*

*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY LIVE ART DANCE

Dynamic Works by Atlantic Dance Creators

Live Art Dance and Kinetic are thrilled to come together to co-present “Coastal Currents”, a platform that shines a light on the amazing dance talent that exists in our region! Now in its second year, “Coastal Currents” features short works from Atlantic choreographers, bringing wonderfully rich, vibrant and nuanced work to Kjipuktuk/Halifax audiences.

SPONSORED BY HALIFAX BURGER BASH

Start the grills!

The 12th annual Halifax Burger Bash presented with Garrison Brewing starts today!

With restaurants serving special burgers in support of Feed Nova Scotia this year our goal is to hit the $1 MILLION donation mark

Grab a friend, make a date and discover a new neighbourhood joint.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓 Mamma Mia: Citadel High School’s theatre production brings ABBA’s music to the Spatz Theatre for three nights this week, starting tonight. | Apr. 11-13 | 7:30pm | $20 (discounts for students, seniors and kids)

🗓 Red Like Fruit: Governor General Award-winning playwright Hannah Moscovitch’s newest work debuts at the Bus Stop Theatre. The play “interrogates the many contradictions and complexities of complicity, consent, patriarchy and traumatic memory in the post-#MeToo era.” | Until Apr. 21 | Showtimes vary | From $20

🗓 Grey Dog Book Launch: Halifax author Elliott Gish celebrates the launch of her debut novel at the Halifax Public Library, in conversation with Green Fuse Burning author Tiffany Morris. | Apr. 13 | 2-3:30pm | Free

🗓 Halifax Art Book Fair: Head to the All Nations Church this Saturday for a day of poetry readings, art book presentations and panel discussions. | Apr. 13 | 10am-8pm | Free

🗓 Greville Tapes Music Club: What happens when two musical acts get together in a house-turned-studio in Port Greville? That’s what you’ll hear Sunday at The Carleton, as three unlikely—and perfectly-matched—duos make their live show debut. | Apr. 14 | 7-9pm | $23

Find more Halifax events in The Coast listings.

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The NYK Rumina container ship left Halifax for Southampton, UK, around 12:30am.

🚢 The Bakkafoss container ship arrives in Halifax from Portland, ME, around 7:15am. It departs for Argentia, NL, by 11pm.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🎓 Faculty at Saint Mary’s University declared a “no confidence” vote in SMU’s president and board chair, The Coast reports, citing alleged “financial mismanagement.”

🏗️ HRM council have permitted the next planning stage for a potential 5,800-unit housing development in Exhibition Park, put forward by the BANC Group. Read all about it in The Coast’s latest city hall report.

🚧 Meanwhile, a CBC investigation finds the former Bloomfield site—which BANC owns and says it can’t afford to demolish—is collapsing and unsafe to enter.

🧼 A Cape Breton woman started making felt-covered soap with quirky landscapes during the pandemic. Three years later, she tells CTV News that business has “taken off.”

That’s it!

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