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NEWS

1. Nova Scotia and UARB

“Who’ll be on the hook for $191 million depends on pending decisions by the province’s Utility and Review Board (UARB), with Nova Scotia Power, the provincial government, and the general public all having a stake in the outcomes,” Jennifer Henderson reports.

First is the $10 million question. A year ago, Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton imposed a $10 million fine on Nova Scotia Power. The utility had failed to generate 40% of its electricity from renewable sources – a benchmark in regulations legislated in the Electricity Act. 

Rushton imposed the fine after the previous Liberal government had extended its original 2020 deadline by three years because of ongoing delays with the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. In its application to the UARB for a review of the government’s decision, Nova Scotia Power argues it exercised “due diligence” in attempting to meet the target and is being unfairly punished. 

A decision by the UARB is pending.

That’s just one question. Henderson goes on to examine costs of Hurricane Fiona, fuel, and for power interruptions at Michelin Tire, as well as Nova Scotia Power’s performance targets.

Click or tap here to read “$191 million worth of questions for Nova Scotia Power, the province, the UARB, and the public.”

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2. Metabolism and frailty

“New research suggests that maintaining a youthful metabolism into older age can help protect people from frailty,” Yvette d’Entremont reports.

In a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism on Friday, Dalhousie University researchers found a clear link between frailty and metabolic health in older adults. 

“(A)lthough some octogenarians run marathons, others are severely functionally impaired,” notes the article. “This variability in health among people of the same age has led to the concept of ‘‘frailty,’’ which is an age-related state of heightened risk for adverse health outcomes.” 

Titled ‘The intersection of frailty and metabolism,’ the study involved a review of scientific literature focused on frailty and metabolism. Researchers found a clear link between the two. 

“What I learned from this paper is that there’s this intimate link between metabolism and frailty, such that as you become frail, it starts to impair your metabolism,” lead author Dr. Susan Howlett said in an interview. 

Click or tap here to read “Metabolism plays critical role in reducing frailty risk in older adults, study says.”

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3. Nova Scotia Guard

As reported by CBC on Sunday, Premier Tim Houston hosted virtual town halls on Sunday evening to talk about the Nova Scotia Guard. That’s the premier’s idea for a volunteer organization to help after emergencies. About 350 organizations across the province were invited to take part.

As Jean Laroche with CBC reported last Sunday morning, not everyone thinks the Nova Scotia Guard is a good idea.

Houston explained the intent of the Guard, but some longtime search and rescue volunteers questioned the value of creating a new body when their organizations were starved for resources.

“To be honest, I felt like somebody gave me a slap in the face as a search and rescue person,” said Ron Jeppesen,  the volunteer president of the Eastern Shore Ground Search and Rescue.

Sherry Veinot, president of the association that represents the 23 volunteer search and rescue teams in the province, called it “a shock, for sure.”

Both said whatever money or resources were being devoted to the new organization would be better spent helping organizations that already respond to emergencies.

My question: where are the volunteers coming from? Volunteer fire departments in Nova Scotia have long talked about the shortage of volunteers they’re facing. One such fire department in Cape Breton closed down last month because of a lack of volunteers.

These fire departments also fundraise through 50-50 draws to keep their departments going and their equipment up-to-date. While these fundraisers are very successful, volunteer fire departments still lack funding.

As CTV reported in August, after the disastrous flooding in the summer some volunteers lost out on their regular incomes when they were injured responding to those emergencies. You know, the same emergencies Houston is hoping the Nova Scotia Guard can help with.

Houston said “There’s room for every single Nova Scotian in the Nova Scotia Guard.” Sounds like the premier doesn’t know how many Nova Scotians are already donating their time — and their own money — to help with all kinds of emergencies, from food insecurity to wildfires.

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4. Health care contest

CBC filed an access to information request to learn about all the submissions made to a contest last year asking for quick, easy, and low-cost ideas to improve Nova Scotia’s health care system. (Jennifer Henderson reported on the contest here).

From CBC’s story:

Some entries suggested adding amenities like free parking, more plants, clean drinking water stations, warm blankets, privacy screens, or healthier food options to health-care facilities.

Others called for changes to the way doctors, nurses, pharmacists or other health professionals are licensed and trained, or to their scope of practice. 

…

Some submissions weren’t serious at all.

“Homing pigeons to deliver medications to smaller hospital sites,” one person wrote, joking the birds would “return to their roosts with little backpacks filled with the required medications.”

Not all health care workers were impressed with the idea of a contest at all. Registered nurse Debbie Morris told CBC: “Our thought was, ‘Oh my God, they’re offering a $1,000 contest for people’s opinions on remedies for health care,’ And we’re like, ‘the government doesn’t know what they’re doing.'”

Out of the 10 ideas that were chosen as winners, one idea has been implemented so far. The booking system for MRIs and ultrasounds has been updated so people can make and cancel appointments online.

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5. Nova Scotia teachers

Teachers in Nova Scotia and the Department of Education will be at the bargaining table with a conciliator today and Tuesday.

As Yvette d’Entremont reported on Friday, 98% of NSTU’s membership voted in favour of a strike.

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6. Anti-theft shopping carts

Andrew Rankin at Saltwire speaks with Lorraine Young, who said it was “just so humiliating” after the shopping cart she was using at the Superstore in Tantallon wouldn’t budge and go through the exit. Young learned the cart was an anti-theft shopping cart that stops in its tracks if a customer is suspected of shoplifting.

Rankin writes:

Within a few seconds, a man showed up beside her. At first, she thought the employee was there to help. Young was agitated and asked the man what was wrong with her cart.

She said the employee ignored her question and only wanted to see her receipt. The first time he asked, it didn’t register.

He asked again.

“Then it hit me,” said Young. “I thought, oh my God. He’s accusing me of stealing my groceries.”

Dave Bauer, a spokesperson with Loblaws, told Rankin that Young’s cart locked accidentally. Bauer wouldn’t explain to Saltwire exactly how the anti-theft technology works.

Loblaws has quite a way of treating its customers, from these shopping carts to cops in its stores to the gates surrounding the entrances, exits, and checkouts.

With all of those gates around the doors and checkouts, I also don’t want to imagine what would happen in an emergency with a rush of people trying to leave the store at once. Maybe the Nova Scotia Guard can help, if Loblaws doesn’t accuse them of stealing their groceries.

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VIEWS

The peaceful, contented, and fascinating members of the Dull Women’s Club

Facebook isn’t good for sharing any kind of news these days, but recently I found a group that’s fascinating and inspiring. It’s called the Dull Women’s Club.

The group was started by Sarah Green, who lives in the American Midwest, as a way to cope with her grief after the death of her mother. She writes:

I don’t drink alcohol and my drink of juice at a bar is fruit juice, hot chocolate or maybe I’ll be really adventurous and have a mocktail!

I lost my dear mother last year and I’m currently newly in to my grieving journey. We both used to lark around together and I thought with starting this page I would have a platform for my craziness.

I want this to be a platform for people to feel good about themselves!

Another group admin, Camille Lefebvre, lives in France. The group has become so popular (with about 3,000 women sharing posts each day) that Green’s brother, Scott, joined in as an admin to help approve posts. If you share a post, it will take a few days before it’s approved.

The group now has almost 900,000 members, and has grown by about 60,000 members in the last week. The group accepts cis and trans women, and men, too, although the men don’t post as frequently. Clearly, dull women are looking for a place to connect.

The group’s quote is “Dull women have immaculate homes. And, honey, I’m a terrible housekeeper,” which they borrowed from Sharon M. Peterson, author of the 2022 book, The Do-Over.

For some reason I’ve yet to figure out, women are encouraged to share their shoe size. They are also encouraged to share a photo of a banana, just for scale, if there are other objects in their photos.

Many of the women share photos of their pets, so there are lots of pictures of cats, dogs, horses, and even tarantulas. Others share photos with their spouses and children. Many women are single, while many others are divorced or widowed.

I contacted Green and Lefebvre for an interview, but didn’t hear back. But since I started following this group a few weeks ago, I noticed that these women aren’t dull at all. They’re an interesting and diverse group. These women cook, craft, they are artists, have careers, families, and hobbies. They share photos of their work and talents, but also of the dull things that interest them, such as how they stack dishes or how they spent the day pulling lint off of their favourite sweaters.

There are two words they often use: peaceful and content. “I believe this club is Contented Women Central,” one woman wrote.

For some reason, a lot of the women seem to be from Finland or Michigan. Are those the lands of dull women who aren’t so dull?

There’s another word that comes up in a lot of the posts the dull women share: drama. These women don’t want drama in their lives anymore. A lot of the women are done with the bar scene or partying. Many of the women were never into that scene at all. But they also don’t want drama from other people. What is exciting to some is just unwelcome chaos for the dull women.

But there are quite a few women from Nova Scotia who are leading so-called dull lives, too. So, on Saturday I contacted several to ask if I could share their stories in this Morning File. Here are the posts of the few women who got back to me.

Trish Handspiker wrote this post:

I’m a dull woman by nature trapped in a non dull job. (Operating room RN) it’s exhausting. But I’m happy to report I have an end in sight (352 days) and then I can commit myself to being dull full time. 54, married x 30 years, empty nest.

Another Nova Scotian woman gave me permission to share her story, but not her name or photo. Here’s what she had to say about her dull life:

I am 70 yrs old and have been divorced for about 5. I am active most mornings but I feel very comfortable watching the news on tv for a couple of hours drinking my coffee. I enjoy chair yoga and walking, usually by myself and I love thrifting. My favorite time of year is Sept/Oct/Jan when all the premiers come on tv and I can preview the new ones and organize my evening tv for the season, if nothing is on then I read. I have a closet full of clothes in case a plus one comes along and I need to get dressed up — it hasn’t happened yet and since Covid I am starting to dress up to get groceries. At home I usually wear one of my 6 pairs of pyjama pants and a sweatshirt, and can get away with wearing slippers (size 8.5) to the parking garage if I have forgotten something. To get out of my apt at night, once a week I go to game/card night not bridge because that is to exciting and complicated for me. Dominos – Mexican train are my level of games. I hope I am acceptable for the Dull woman’s club.

And Dianne Huskins who lives in Caledonia had this story to share:

I won’t tell you my shoes size but it’s right up there with the size of the Ark. I have 5 cats, a husband and his guide dog. I run a food bank. I do not get paid for what I do. Now, if you want to sit around and talk about food insecurity, then I’m not dull, BUT, that’s probably boring. I’m happy, I’m fulfilled and I’m middle aged. My family and I (no children) live 1/2 km back in the woods with no neighbours. We live on a river and in the summer I get excited and agitated when canoes or kayaks go by. I silently call them interlopers.

I checked it out and Huskins volunteers at the Community Food Resource Network. You can learn more about that group here.

Bev Wigney, who is an Examiner reader I interviewed a few weeks ago for this story about the Homegrown National Park project, shared a post in the group, too. Here’s part of what she shared with the Dull Women’s Club:

Very quiet hermit residing near the Bay of Fundy in southwest Nova Scotia. Happily living alone but never lonely with my dog tribe of Rough Collies. A natural history nerd who spends most of my time observing flora and fauna when not occupied fixing up a wrecky 175-year-old farmhouse on the banks of a small river. It’s a pretty simple life – rewilding the property, growing vegetables, cooking vegetarian, splitting firewood. At night in summer, I stay up until all hours photographing moths on moth sheets in my garden. Not much of a reader except of nature field guides. My “library” consists of about 12 linear feet of book shelves of guides for everything from Tiger Beetles, to Ferns, to Lichens, to Spiders, to Raptors, and everything in between. I don’t really have many other possessions – rocks, paper wasp nests, sea shells. I do a lot of photography — especially macro photos of insects, but also of birds and the Moon. Play Celtic music on a couple of instruments.

Jennie Morrow, who lives a 15-minute walk from Mavillette Beach, shared this post. Here’s a part of what she had to say:

My loves: not necessarily in this order: Hot water bottles, instant coffee, avocados, black ink, (writing in blue ink makes me shudder), thrift stores, (Nova Scotia’s version are called Frenchy’s) learning how to do new things and my wonderful male friend, Paul, who has his own house and spends time at mine on the weekends. Actually, he should come first on the list.

My peculiarities: I haven’t had a TV for well over 10 years, can’t stand the repetition and the interruptions, but I love watching the insects and weird things that show up on my infrared camera in my barn studio. I’ve been recording my dreams and analysing them for most of my life. I’m preoccupied with death, not in a morbid way but as a result of having many people who were close to me die in a relatively short period of time. I’m almost finished writing a book titled, The Pro & Cons of Dying. I am careful about what I put in my brain. I don’t watch graphic, gory violence or horror shows. My honey & I enjoy such things as Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc. I am fairly careful about what I put in my body. I’m allergic to many, many things.

On Sunday, Morrow shared with me her thoughts on the group in a message:

Reading other people’s self-introductions made me start to think about my own idiosyncrasies, about all the little insignificant things that make up who I am. I noticed many similarities among the women, a desire to spend time alone or with their pets, or doing simple chores. Most say that they love to read and I noticed that they don’t seem to be trying to buy their personalities. I would guess that, as a group, we probably don’t make good consumers. We’re not out to impress or compete. We know ourselves and because many are introverted, some even isolated…The fact that discussions of religion or politics are not allowed means we simply see one another as kindred spirits and celebrate our commonalities and our individualism at the same time. It has created an atmosphere of non-judgement and support. It seems to be growing into a worldwide movement that encourages contentment. Some men are finding it more interesting than the Dull Men Club. I’m hoping it’s not because they find women who are happy to do mundane things attractive and are hoping to find such a person as a mate who will do their housework, lol. It seems to be the opposite of the selfie, look how exciting my life is, craze. Instead it’s ‘Look how boring my life is and how happy I am.’

When I think about women’s empowerment, this is what I think about. There’s no demand for “good vibes only.” These women have had enough of the expectations that society, men, and even some other women, have placed upon them. And they’re tired of it and living their own lives their own way.

Green and Lefebvre won’t tolerate any abuse or harassment and quickly block hateful people and their comments. I recall them blocking many people when a member named Gabbie, who is trans, shared selfies in her new dress and heels.

“If you pester anyone via comments / PMs / messages you will be banned!” Green and Lefebvre write in the group’s page of rules.

The dull women aren’t tolerating anyone’s hate or BS.

These women’s stories are raw, honest, and real. Many of them are dealing with sobriety, chronic illness, or building new lives after leaving abusive partners.

But the dull women are also incredibly funny and supportive. One member named Lesley noticed this pattern as well.

Most of us are creative in some way and have good senses of humour. We are all a little quirky and most are young at heart, some actually are young!

So, maybe it’s not us that are dull, but rather our lives are dull at this moment in time.

For how long this group will remain on Facebook remains to be seen. Green and Lefebvre have said they fight off the bots that sneak in. I can’t imagine how many hours they spend moderating the group. There are copycat groups all over Facebook.

But for now, the Dull Women’s Club members share stories that are diverse, yet also universal. I haven’t read a single dull story yet.

Like one member, Batya, wrote this week, “ordinary, peaceful lives are beautiful, too.”

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Government

City

Youth Advisory Committee (Monday, 5pm, City Hall) — agenda

North West Community Council (Monday, 7pm, online) — agenda

Province

Today

No meetings

Tomorrow

Veterans Affairs (Tuesday, 2pm, Province House and online) —  Use and Availability of Veterans Affairs Canada Long-Term Care Beds in Nova Scotia; with representatives from Nova Scotia Health; The Royal Canadian Legion Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command; and Veterans Affairs Canada

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On campus

NSCAD

Opening receptions (Monday, 5:30pm, Anna Leonowens Gallery) — works by Melanie Barnett, Fanny Desroches, and “Of The Flesh” photography group exhibition

Saint Mary’s

Queer Lives & Letters (Monday, 1pm, SB 265) — year-end symposium highlighting the work of scholars associated with SMU’s Department of English Language and Literature

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In the harbour

Halifax

07:00: Nord Logos, cargo ship, arrives at Pier 9B from Hundested, Denmark
11:00: CSL Tacoma, bulk carrier, arrives at Gold Bond from Jacksonville, Florida
11:15: MSC Roberta V, container ship, sails from Pier 41 for sea
12:00: Emden, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Emden, Germany
15:00: Fulmar, fishery patrol vessel, sails from Tall Ships Quay for sea
15:30: One Eagle, container ship, arrives at Pier 41 from New York City
16:00: Tropic Hope, container ship, sails from Pier 42 for Palm Beach
16:30: Trica, ro-ro cargo, sails from Fairview Cove for sea

Cape Breton

14:00: Algoma Integrity, bulk carrier, arrives at Quarry from Cape Canaveral
14:00: CSL Kajika, bulk carrier, sails from Quarry for sea
16:00: Forever Melody, oil tanker, arrives at Everwind 2 from Huelva, Spain

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Footnotes

I did a bunch of housework on Saturday. On Sunday, my lesson horse bit at the waistband of my jeans while I was scraping the poop out of her hooves. It’s good to have variety on a weekend.

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