News Round-up

Given the importance of Montifax in most of our readers' news-gathering habits I thought that I should probably pull together a few stories that recently caught my attention.

1) It seems that St. John's will once again be delaying the implementation of its long-awaited curbside recycling program. Given the functionality of other recycling policy in Newfoundland I will be a little surprised if this ever gets off the ground.

2 &3) The Nova Scotia MLA spending scandal seems to be getting worse and worse, contrary to the suggestions of politicians that a fix is around the bend. It now seems that one MLA, Trevor Zinck, is being investigated because of irregularities associated with a number of payments he received from the House. What seems most striking about the investigation of Zinck is that I do not get the sense that such problems were highlighted in the Auditor General's recent report that kicked this whole thing off. If this is the case one might start to wonder what else might have been missed and what exactly was going on with allowances in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly? Also, in this particular incident, it seems that some people (at least the NDP caucus) were aware of problems with expenditures, though this information was not made public. If there wasn't a need for a more detailed investigation before, there certainly is now.

4) Booze prices are set to change in Nova Scotia as of March 31, 2010. Once these changes are in effect it will be cheaper to buy 2 sets of 12 cans of Keith's than 24 bottles of Keith's (even though one this would also provide one with more beer). I loves me some arbitrary non-sense prices.

5) It seems that a Newfoundland cabinet minister, John Hickey, was upset by direct requests for information relating directly to his portfolio. Not only did Hickey suggest that the person requesting the information "grow up," he also said that "If you're too lazy to put in your request through the [Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act], then don't certainly harass me as a minister looking for it." While this behaviour is certainly transparent, it doesn't suggest as much accountability.