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

Chapter 16
1998 January - February

Go To:   Index with links to the other chapters

1998 January 1

Local Telephone Monopoly Ends

On this day, the century-old monopoly in local telephone service ended throughout Canada. This included the end of MT&T's monopoly in Nova Scotia. For about one hundred years telephone service was a monopoly, meaning that each telephone company was assigned a legally-defined territory for its operations, and everyone in that area had to obtain telephone service from that phone company. In Nova Scotia, many telephone companies operated telephone services over the years, and after about 1890 each of these companies had a monopoly in a specific territory. This monopoly covered all telephone services, including local and long-distance, and extending to the supply of the telephone instruments, with their connecting cords. The monopoly in long-distance service ended several years ago, but local phone service was still a monopoly. But, on 1 January 1998, the monopoly in local service was legally ended. That is, after today, it was legal for any company to offer local telephone service to any potential customer anywhere in Canada. In practice, MT&T was still the only company offering local phone service in Nova Scotia; several companies were making plans to offer competing local services, but getting the equipment set up, and solving all the complex technical and legal problems involved, meant that the actual introduction of competing local services was delayed for more than a year.
[The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 1 April 1999, and other sources.]

1998 January 1

Quality of Service Indicators
for Telephone Companies

Including MT&T

Quarterly Reports Required

How can you get an objective measure of the quality of the service supplied by a telephone company?

The CRTC has decided it, and the public, need good, solid, reliable information about the quality of service supplied by the various telephone companies. It has developed a method (they call it a monitoring model) called the Quality of Service reporting requirements which can be used to obtain such information. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) monitors the quality of service of all telephone companies under its jurisdiction, including Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company. On 24 July 1997, the CRTC released Decision 97-16 on Quality of Service reporting requirements in the telephone industry. Maritime Telegraph & Telephone, and all other telephone companies with more than 25,000 subscribers are required, beginning on 1 January 1998, to submit quarterly reports – to be filed within 45 days of the end of each quarter – of monthly performance against objectives set for a number of service indicators in four areas of customer contact: [Source: http://www.bell.ca/bell/eng/library/nr/97/sb97e69.htm and the on-line CRTC Telecommunications Archive at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/English.htm (under the heading Archival: Telecommunications Decisions, notices and orders from January 1984).]

Three Examples of
Telephone Service Quality Indicators
to be Reported to the CRTC

One example of a reporting item is
Indicator 2.5: Access To Repair Bureau: The interim service quality standard set by the CRTC is that at least 80% of calls to a repair bureau should be answered in 20 seconds or less.

Another example of a reporting item is
Indicator 3.1: Dial Tone Delay: The interim service quality standard set by the CRTC is that at least 98.5% of attempted calls during the busy hour should receive a dial tone in three seconds or less.

One more example of a reporting item is
Indicator 4.1: Directory Accuracy: The interim service quality standard set by the CRTC is that at least 93.8% of customer listings in the white pages of company directories should be published without errors or omissions.

Additional details

1998 January 1

Auracom POPs

The Points of Presence operated by Internet service provider Interhop / Auracom on this day, in Nova Scotia, were: Points of presence marked (V) are virtual lines to another point of presence. Auracom also operated five POPs in PEI, at Alberton, Charlottetown, Montague, Souris, and Summerside; and three POPs in NB, at Moncton, St. Anthony (V), and Saint John.
[Source: The Auracom website at http://www.atcon.com/ns.html. (The "atcon" comes from ancient history – way back in 1995 – when this site was set up by Atlantic Connect; later Atlantic Connect was taken over by Auracom).]

1998 January 1

Rate Increase for Local Telephone Service

On this day, there was an increase of $2.00 per month in the rate charged for local telephone service, for all residential customers in Nova Scotia. This was the third in a series of local telephone rate increases that recently went into effect in Nova Scotia. Previously, there had been a $2.00 increase on 1 May 1997, and a $2.00 increase on 1 May 1996. On each bill, customers were charged the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) of 15% on the total cost of local service.

In 1996, the CRTC approved and MT&T announced a series of three local rate increases to be spread over two years. These increases were intended to bring local telephone rates up to match the cost of providing this service on a province-wide basis. For many years, local telephone service had been "cross-subsidized" by long distance service. That is, there had been a policy of undercharging for local telephone service to obtain as many customer connections as possible, and the revenue lost by this undercharging was recovered by overcharging for long distance. Stated another way, long distance users were subsidizing local customers. This worked reasonably well while all telephone services were supplied by a monopoly company, but when competition was permitted in long distance service the cross-subsidy put MT&T, the former monopoly telephone company, at a serious disadvantage in the long distance market. If MT&T had to charge extra for its long distance service, to cover losses in local services, other long distance phone companies would find it much easier to lure away MT&T's long distance customers. That was the reason the CRTC decided that the rate charged for local telephone service would have to be adjusted to cover the cost of providing this local service.

Historical Notes about Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company

1998 January 1

Deregulation of Cable TV Systems

Under the new Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, which came into force on 1 January 1998, basic rates will cease to be regulated when two conditions are met:
    (i) there is evidence that 30% or more of the households in an operator's licensed service area have access to the basic service of another broadcasting distribution undertaking; and
    (ii) there is a loss of 5% or more of its subscribers to competitive broadcasting distribution undertakings.

The CRTC has advised in a public notice that the first of these conditions was satisfied in all licensed cable areas on 31 August 1997.

Source:
Shaw Communications Inc. Annual Information Form, 18 January 2000
at http://www.sedar.com/

1998 January 2

Enlargement of Local Free Calling Areas

"Starting on January 2nd and continuing through 1998" MT&T "will be making your free calling areas even larger. Your neighbour down the road will never be long distance again. With this wider coverage, every call to your neighbouring telephone exchanges will be a local call; long distance charges will no longer apply. The only requirement will be that the exchange must border directly on your exchange." For example, for telephones in the 644 exchange, "calls to and from the 624, 685, and 689 exchanges will now be local ones."
[Excerpted from a bill stuffer sent out by MT&T with its January 1998 bills.]

1998 January 8

Power Failure Report Handed In

A report into how Nova Scotia Power handled a power outage that left thousands of Nova Scotians in chilly darkness in November 1997 is in the hands of the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board. George Smith just completed a 45-page draft report with about a dozen recommendations and gave a copy Monday to the Utility and Review Board. It will be made public after the board approves it. "They'll just take a look at it at their leisure and then call me in and we'll discuss it and they'll probably make a few suggestions or modifications to it," said Smith, director of technical analysis for the board.

Premier Russell MacLellan asked the board to investigate after a Nov. 28 snowstorm knocked down power lines and poles in Cape Breton, Antigonish, Truro, Tatamagouche, and Pictou and Guysborough counties. About 100,000 people were without power, some for a few days. Critics wondered whether company cutbacks delayed repairs. As part of his investigation, Smith toured power lines in Pictou County and in industrial Cape Breton, tramping through woods over two days in an attempt to recreate conditions. "You sort of put your imagination to work and imagine what it's like in the middle of the night, when it's black, looking at a line and it's going through the forest and they don't know where it's gone down," said Smith. He visited the call centre that took thousands of calls that weekend and NSP's distribution- control centre in Ragged Lake. He talked to NSP and the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, providing him with employment levels, statistical data on all the outages, which lines were out, for how long and the number of customers affected. "I asked all kinds of questions and they (NSP) provided me with all kinds of information," he said.
[The Daily News, 8 January 1998]
UARB Power Failure Report (posted by a private citizen)

[ICS (webmaster) comment, written 22 June 1998]

It's an interesting contrast.

When Ontario Hydro released its report Ice Storm '98:A Report On The Electricity Supply Impacts Of The January, 1998 Ice Storm In Eastern Ontario in May 1998, a copy was posted immediately on the Internet, thus being available to anyone who wanted it. The Executive Summary was posted at http://www.hydro.on.ca/OHNewSit.nsf/public/NewsIceStormExSum and, within that page, there were links to the complete report. Full and immediate and free public access was provided. And a media release was issued on 22 May 1998, saying the report had been completed and is available on the Internet, with the Internet address at which it can be found. (It was through that media release that I heard about the report and where it is available.)

Compare that to the treatment given to the comparable report on the Nova Scotia power failures in November 1997. This report was available to the public, if you knew where to go to get it and had the time to fetch it. I got my copy by driving to Halifax and going, in person, to the office of the Utilities and Review Board. The UARB staff gave me a copy quickly and without any hassle. But, if you wanted a copy (1) you had to know that it was available at the UARB office, and (2) you had to know where that office is located, and (3) you had to want it enough to go to that office and get a copy.

Our government's attitude was pertty much like this – We will hide the copies of this report at some obscure location that most people have never heard of. If you can find this place, we will let you have a copy. But it is entirely up to you to find it. You will get no help of any kind from any government source. We hide it, then you find it.

There was never any attempt to tell the public how to get a copy. And there was no acceptance, or even awareness, of the demand, in 1998, to make information like this easily and widely available. The one and only place in all Nova Scotia where that report was available was that one office on Lower Water Street in Halifax. No public library anywhere in the province was given a copy.

This is a failure by Premier MacLellan's government. The Nova Scotia power failure report was prepared by the UARB, an agency of the provincial government, in response to a direct request from the Premier. If the UARB did not see the need – as it did not – in 1998, to use the Internet to make government information easily and widely available to the public, it was and is up to our provincial government to get with it.

But, while provincial cabinet members are only too happy to gather on the platform when announcements are made about spending government money to buy computers and Internet connections for communities all over the land, they have not the slightest notion that they should also be looking at providing content on the Net.

Consider the recent [29 May 1998] announcement of $62,100,000 for Nova Scotia's schools, universities and communities, "which will put thousands of new computers and technological links at the fingertips of students, teachers, businesses and community members across Nova Scotia." The announcement was made at Dalhousie University in Halifax by Premier Russell MacLellan and John Manley, federal Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. They were joined by Senator Al Graham, Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister responsible for Nova Scotia, Manning MacDonald, Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Robbie Harrison, Minister of Education and Culture, as well as education, business and community representatives. "This is the single largest injection of technology in Nova Scotia's history," said Premier MacLellan. "Communities from Neils Harbour to Yarmouth will benefit from increased access to information technology. This project will help business in every part of the province to compete in new markets, lead to a highly trained workforce and create opportunities for all Nova Scotians."

All that is laudable. But computers, by themselves, are merely expensive toys. There has to be useful content available somewhere for those computers to find and bring to the viewer. Part of that useful content should be government reports, placed on the Internet by the government for easy access by the public. Ontario Hydro understands this simple but vital point. The provincial government ministers who participated in the announcement of the $62,100,000 have no grasp of this. If they do, there has been no whisper of a hint of it.

How about it, Russell MacLellan, Manning MacDonald, and Robbie Harrison? These three are those named in the press release about the $62,100,000. As far as can be determined, none of them has ever spent so much as one hour looking at the Internet with a browser. None of them has a personal website. None of them has a personal e-mail address (that is, an e-mail address of their own, aside from that which came attached to their current office and is in effect only while they hold their current offices). They are happy to participate in the spending of $62,100,000 to buy computers, but they won't lift a finger to make government reports available as Internet content.

What access has been provided by the government, for people in "communities from Neils Harbour to Yarmouth," to the Power Failure Report? The people who experienced the power failures are far from Halifax. As far as the government is concerned, that is of no consequence. What has the government done to make that report readily available to people in Neil's Harbour, and Yarmouth, and those other mostly-rural places where those multi-day power failures occurred?

It is a most interesting contrast between those two announcements, of 22 May (Ontario) and 29 May (Nova Scotia), just seven days apart on the calendar but decades apart in the comprehension of a government's responsibility in using modern electronic information technology to make public information genuinely available to the public. To a large extent, the government of Nova Scotia still accepts the 1930s view of public access to government information.

1998 January 8

FOX.NSTN.NS.CA Disappears
as an E-mail Address

On 8 December 1997, the following notice appeared in the iSTAR website http://izine.istar.ca/netstat.htm: "The name NSTN.NS.CA will be removed in one month. If you are using NSTN.NS.CA for mail or news, you must change it to NSTN.CA as soon as possible. In one month, any mail sent to FOX.NSTN.NS.CA will bounce."

1998 January 8

Construction Begins on
Sable Offshore Venture

HALIFAX – After more than three years of talking, the consortium behind the $3,000,000,000 project to produce natural gas off the coast of Nova Scotia has started building. Local politicians and officials with the Sable Offshore Energy Project formally began the construction phase this day by turning the sod for an access road to the proposed natural-gas-processing operation in rural Nova Scotia, about 300 kilometres northeast of Halifax. At a symbolic ceremony today SOEP Management Committee chairman Ken Miller, Guysborough-Port Hawkesbury MLA Ray White and Guysborough Warden Lloyd Hines turned the first sod in developing the access road right-of-way to the site of the proposed onshore natural gas processing facility. The SOEP consortium used the event to announce that the project, which has been the subject of controversies and regulatory reviews since it was proposed in late 1994, will proceed on a construction schedule that would see natural gas brought ashore by late 1999. Earlier this week, the cutting and welding of the first steel for the main offshore platform began. The consortium is led by Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. of Calgary, which owns 50.8% of SOEP. The other four owners are Shell Canada Ltd., 31.3%; Imperial Oil, 9.0%; Nova Scotia Resources Ltd., 8.4%; and Mosbacher Operating Ltd., 0.5%. SOEP http://www.soep.com/ plans to deliver an average of 480,000 million British thermal units per day of market quality gas from onshore processing facilities near Goldboro, Nova Scotia, to markets in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England. The gas fields also will yield about 20,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids which will be processed at a proposed liquids handling plant near Point Tupper, Cape Breton. SOEP will be built concurrently with the $1,000,000,000 Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, which will carry the gas from Goldboro, Guysborough County, through New Brunswick, Maine, and New Hampshire, to Massachusetts.
[The Globe and Mail, 9 January 1998, and other sources.]
[480,000 million British thermal units (BTU) = 506 terajoules (TJ)]

1998 January 8, Thursday

The Ocean Passenger Train Cancelled
Due To Ice Storm

Beginning on this day, VIA Rail cancelled all passenger trains originating or terminating in Montreal, including all trains west from Halifax and east from Toronto, because of debris on the tracks such as fallen trees and live power lines, and track signal failures and loss of trackside radio links with the Montreal dispatchers' office due to power failures and downed communications lines. Many track switches were frozen deep in hard ice, which in places was up to the railheads. Also, there were many highway crossing warning signals that were not operating due to local power failures. This was a result of the extensive ice storm that swept over eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on 6-10 January 1998.

The westbound Ocean which departed Halifax on Wednesday, January 7th, was halted at Aston Junction, Quebec, by downed wires and trees – passengers were taken by bus to Montreal and days later the train remained where it stopped. The following westbound Ocean, which departed Halifax on Thursday, January 8th, was terminated in Moncton, New Brunswick. Departures from Halifax scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, were cancelled.

The eastbound Ocean, VIA's train to Halifax, scheduled to depart Montreal on Thursday, January 8th, "remained in the bowels of Montreal's Central Station and became a 'bed and breakfast' operation." The Ocean was cancelled for departures from Montreal on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with Monday the 12th being the first departure of the reinstated schedule.

The Ocean resumed operation with the westbound and eastbound departures on Monday, 12 January, but part of the regular route was still out of operation. The regular route eastbound was to depart the Montreal Station, then immediately cross the St. Lawrence River on the Victoria Bridge, and go east along the south shore of the St. Lawrence. But, on Monday 12 January, the rail lines along the south shore were still shut down because of the ice storm. The reinstated eastbound Ocean departed Montreal Station and travelled eastward along the north shore of the St. Lawrence via Garneau, Quebec, crossing to the south shore on the Quebec Bridge. The westbound Ocean followed the same route, crossing the St. Lawrence on the Quebec Bridge. This temporary route was congested with heavy freight and container traffic. VIA warned all Ocean passengers to expect delays, in both directions, of two to three hours. This temporary route, across the Quebec Bridge, continued in use for the Ocean for all trips up to and including the departures on Sunday, 18 January. The departures on Monday, 19 January, reverted to the regular route across the Victoria Bridge. As of 17 January, all passenger train service remained cancelled until further notice between Montreal and Quebec City, and between Montreal and Ottawa.

At this time, the Ocean's regular schedule was as follows:

Westbound
read down		 Station Eastbound
read up
14:00 Dp Halifax Ar 15:30
15:38 Truro 14:00
18:22
18:42		 Ar
Dp		 Moncton Dp
Ar		 11:10
10:50
21:11 Bathurst 08:17
22:50 Campbellton 06:45
22:45
22:47		 Ar
Dp		 Matapedia Dp
Ar		 04:32
04:30
01:11 Rimouski 01:48
02:51 Riviere-du-Loup 00:34
04:55
05:05		 Ar
Dp		 Levis Dp
Ar		 22:30
22:20
07:58 Saint-Lambert 19:15
08:25 Ar Montreal Dp 19:00

Ar means Arrival time, Dp means Departure time.
There were six scheduled trips a week: Ocean departed (from Halifax and from Montreal) once each day except Tuesdays; and arrived (at Halifax and at Montreal) once each day except Wednesdays.
[From The Globe and Mail, 9 January 1998; CBC TV news, 12 January 1998; VIA Rail Eastern Services schedule for Winter '97-'98; The Chronicle-Herald, 12 & 17 January 1998; Volume 37 Number 2, dated February 1998, of Branchline, the monthly newsletter of The Bytown Railway Society, Ottawa; and other sources.]

1998 January 8-9-10, Thursday-Friday-Saturday

Ice Storm Whips Annapolis Valley

An icy shroud covered most of the Valley for three days as freezing rain, sleet, and ice pellets moved in. Few parts of Kings County were spared the onslaught, as each community at one time or another was without electric power for several hours, leaving homes without heat and light, and forcing businesses and government offices to close. This was the same ice storm that had hit eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and New Brunswick earlier in the week. On this Friday and Saturday, about 3,000,000 people in Quebec were without electric power. Two weeks later, during the weekend of 17-18 January, there were still about 500,000 people without electric power in Quebec, and 60,000 in eastern Ontario. The storm was less intense by the time it reached Nova Scotia, but it still was able to deliver a wallop.

The County Fair Mall remained closed on Friday as the power flicked off and on repeatedly throughout New Minas. In Kentville, electric power was off for most of Friday, closing municipal offices, courtrooms, and most businesses. All of Kentville's traffic lights were blacked out, forcing town police, including Chief Brian MacLean, onto the streets to direct traffic. Kentville Electric Commission (KEC) crews were kept busy for most of Friday and Saturday repairing storm-related damage to town distribution lines. KEC reported that its employees were working "straight out". Some homes in Kentville were without electricity for 29 hours.

Nova Scotia Power (NSPI) crews also were very busy. Just east of Kentville, where a NSPI double-circuit 69 kilovolt line crosses Highway 101 at the New Minas exit on two high steel towers, the "sky wire" broke under the weight of the ice, closing Hwy 101 for some time while the downed wire was removed from the travelling surface. The highway was closed again for a couple of hours on the afternoon of 16 January, as crews replaced the "sky wire" or "shield wire", which is a grounded wire located above the live wires to serve as a lightning shield.

In Wolfville, power went off on Thursday night, and some customers were without electricity for up to 14 hours. Local fire departments throughout Kings County were kept busy with reports of downed power lines and high-voltage arcs caused by tree limbs falling on live lines. Speaking with The Advertiser just after 5pm on Friday, Stephanie Ryan of NSPI said that Kings County had been "one of the hardest, if not the hardest hit" areas in all Nova Scotia. At one point during the storm, Ryan said "over 20,000 customers were without power." Due to the duration and severity of the storm, she said, "situations occurred where we isolated a problem, cleared the line, and restored power, only to lose it a short time later somewhere else along the same line." One NSPI lineman told The Advertiser on Friday morning, "we're having trouble keeping ahead of it." He noted that between Cambridge and Berwick, the power was off "five separate times" overnight on Thursday into Friday. On Saturday, after returning from a trip to the Annapolis Valley, Ryan told The Daily News "It's incredible how the trees are weighted down with ice." More than 8,000 Nova Scotians were without electric power on Saturday, a substantial reduction from the 20,000 Valley homes that lost power on Thursday night and Friday. Ryan said NSPI had more than 100 linemen working 16-hour shifts, as well as extra call-centre staff. The hardest-hit areas were the counties of Kings, Cumberland, and Pictou, with scattered outages around Truro and metro Halifax. About 250 customers in central and northern Cape Breton experienced power failures on Friday and Saturday, some for more than 24 hours.

By Saturday morning, many local organizations had emergency shelters set up for those still without heat. These included Valley Search and Rescue at the Kings County Municipal Airport; the Canning, Berwick, and New Minas fire halls; the Salvation Army on Nichols Avenue in Kentville; and the Red Cross, which was set up in the Students' Union Building at Acadia University. Over 40 people were registered by the Red Cross at the Acadia shelter on Saturday, and officials were prepared to keep it open as long as needed. Valley Communications in Kentville logged 101 fire department calls in 36 hours, 65 of them dealing with electrical sparking or fires due to downed live wires.
[Excerpted from the Kentville Advertiser, 13 January, the Halifax Sunday Daily News 11 January, and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald 12 & 13 January 1998.]

1998 January 12, Monday

Some People Still Freezing in the Dark

Nova Scotia Power says there are still small groups of customers without electricity in the Annapolis Valley in the wake of last week's ice storm. A spokesman says there are also scattered outages remaining in the Amherst - Parrsboro area. In total, a hundred customers are without service.
[CBC Information Morning news item, 12 January 1998]

1998 January 16

First Meeting of Electric Utility Co-Op

Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia Co-operative Ltd.

Lunenburg County's three municipally-owned electric utilities and three others from Antigonish, Berwick, and Canso have joined together to form Nova Scotia's first ever inter-municipal co-operative. The new Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia Co-operative Limited held its first organizational meeting in the Town of Lunenburg January 16, 1998. Representatives from the three utilities named above as well as Lunenburg, Riverport, and Mahone Bay attended. The group elected its executive officers. They include Antigonish Mayor Ron MacDonald, chairman; Lunenburg Mayor Laurence Mawhinney, vice-chairman; and Valerie Romkey of Riverport Electric as secretary-treasurer.

Member municipalities see the new organization as a way to share expertise and resources, while also gaining a stronger voice with which to raise concerns. Current initiatives being explored include joint purchasing, emergency response measures, a look at future energy requirements, and the promotion of economic benefits derived from what they term "the cost-effective distribution of electricity via municipal electric utilities." Mayor MacDonald said, "The formation of the co-operative should prove beneficial to member utilities in addressing changes which may occur in the manner in which electric services are delivered. During this past year and one half it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet and discuss common concerns."

[The Progress Enterprise, Lunenburg, 4 February 1998]
Historical Notes about Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia Co-operative Ltd.

[ICS (webmaster) – At this time, there were seven small independent electric utilities in Nova Scotia. "Independent" means independent of Nova Scotia Power Incorporated (NSPI), the big provincial utility. All seven of the independents were municipally-owned and all were decades older than NSPI. Each of these electric utilities operated an electric distribution system within its own government-defined monopoly territory, and anyone located within one of these territories was required to buy their electric power from the local utility. In alphabetical order, these independent utilities were:
    Town of Antigonish
    Berwick Electric Commission
    Town of Canso
    Kentville Electric Commission
    Town of Lunenburg
    Town of Mahone Bay
    Riverport Electric Light Commissioners
Six of the seven were members of this new co-operative. The seventh was Kentville Electric (KEC), owned by the Town of Kentville, which had decided, by a majority vote of the Town Council on 9 July 1997, to sell KEC to NSPI. KEC had been involved in the preliminary discussions which led to the formation of the Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia Co-operative, but the decision to sell KEC kept it from becoming a member. As of late February 1998, the sale of KEC was in the final stages – a series of public hearings by the Utilities and Review Board, which, under the laws of the province, had to give its approval to the sale.]

1998 January 17

Electropolis Celebrates Opening

Electropolis Motion Picture Studios' "Opening Extravaganza" took place 17 January 1998, 9pm-1am. "Dress up or come as you are! The region's hottest live music. Four great studio themes. Great food! Fantastic prizes! You could win a trip to Hollywood!" Tickets were priced at Adults $30, Couples $50, Students 19 and over $15. The studios were located on Lower Water Street in Halifax, in the building which formerly housed the Water Street Generating Station, which in the 1950s was Nova Scotia Light & Power Company's largest electric generating plant. Electropolis has four sound stages in the building: Studio One 1100 square metres 12,000 square feet, Studio Two 280m² 3,000 square feet, Studio Three 240m² 2,600 square feet, Studio Four 210m² 2,300 square feet.
[Full-page advertisement in the Halifax Daily News, 15 January 1998, and article in The Chronicle-Herald, 15 January 1998]

1998 January 17

MacDonald Bridge Rebuilding Job

The first four panels of the new deck for the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge fit snugly and are ready for painting. The pieces were assembled at the Walter&SCI/Cherubini fabrication shop in Burnside, where the media got a look yesterday at a section of the new deck, including bike lane and walkway. "The purpose for fit-up is that when they get it out into the field to install it, everything fits together," said Jon Eppell of O'Halloran Campbell Consultants. Three of the 4.9-metre by 11.3-metre panels were taken down to have their undersides painted yesterday afternoon. The fourth stays, so three more can be fitted. The process will continue until all 128 panels are installed.

The $45,200,000 project, adding a third traffic lane, bicycle lane and sidewalk, is on track for completion by fall 1999, said project manager Terry Mayo. Night-time bridge closures will start at the end of March or early April, he said. That's when the existing panels of the deck will be cut out and new ones installed. The shutdowns, from 7:00pm to 5:30am Sunday to Thursday, don't leave much time to spare, Mr. Mayo said. The schedule allows for a buffer of 30 minutes. But he doesn't anticipate any problems with timing. If crews aren't finished on any given night, a larger steel plate will be placed on the bridge. The panels are made from orthotropic steel, which is a lot lighter than concrete. And the epoxy wearing surface on top is lighter than asphalt, which means less dead weight on the bridge, making the third lane possible.

[Excerpted from the Halifax Mail-Star, 20 January 1998]

1998 January 19

Country Harbour Government Wharf
Sold to Private Company

On this day, Transport Canada transferred the ownership of the Government Wharf at Country Harbour, Guysborough County, to Mersey Seafoods Limited of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, for $200,000. The sale is unconditional with Mersey Seafood becoming the sole owner of the property. The property includes a reinforced concrete wharf 51m long and 11m wide. Depth alongside the outer berth is 6.7 metres. Mersey Seafoods Ltd. owns and operates Bickerton Industries Limited in nearby Port Bickerton and has been the primary user of the wharf in last several years. The main activity at the wharf has been the importation of processed fish for packaging at their local plant. Other activity at the wharf consists of periodic use by patrolling Federal Government vessels. Country Harbour Government Wharf was constructed in 1972 to support the local pulpwood and fish processing plants. World market conditions resulted in the discontinuation of pulp shipments from the wharf.
[Department of Transport press release dated 23 January 1998]

1998 January 20

Offensive Road Name to be Changed

Capt. John Gorham Boulevard will soon be history

Department of Transportation apologetic

Capt. John Gorham Boulevard will soon be history. The Department of Transportation admitted yesterday that in naming the new road, it unwittingly honoured a bounty-hunter who helped historic efforts to exterminate Nova Scotia Micmacs during the 1700s. The department has asked Northwest community council to submit a second name for the boulevard, which connects Bedford and Sackville. It officially opened in November 1997. Department officials admitted yesterday they took council's request for Gorham's name at face value; he was "relatively unknown to most of us," said area manager Paul O'Brien. "The council didn't tell us about the negative aspects of the man when they made the recommendation," said O'Brien. "It's unfortunate that we didn't do the research but everything we do isn't perfect; we're willing to admit that."
[Excerpted from the Halifax Daily News, 20 January 1998]
More about Capt. John Gorham Boulevard

1998 January 20

Internet Access Expands

On this day, Ottawa announced it will spend about one million dollars to help more Nova Scotians in rural and remote communities obtain access to the Internet. Industry Canada, a department of the federal government, will provide the money, and a committee from the Technology and Science Secretariat, a department of the provincial government, has helped choose the sites for the 54 additional Community Access sites that will be set up. Nova Scotia already has 55 Community Access sites. These 54 new sites bring the total number of Community Access Program sites in the province to 109. This money was part of the almost $15,000,000 recently announced by Industry Canada for more than 1,000 new Community Access Program sites in some 830 rural and remote communities across the country. It's the third year the federal department has sponsored the competition. The communities were selected on the basis of proposals submitted to Industry Canada in late autumn 1997. Proposals were evaluated first by the 15-member Nova Scotia Community Access Committee and then by the National Community Access Selection Committee. Industry Canada awarded contracts of up to $30,000 to successful proposals. The goal of the Community Access Program http://cap.unb.ca/english.html is to link up to 5,000 rural and remote communities to the Information Highway by the 2000-2001 fiscal year.

The 54 new Community Access Program sites
in Nova Scotia were:
Amherst
Annapolis County
Annapolis Royal
Antigonish
Baddeck
Birchtown
Boularderie
Bridgewater
Carleton
Cornwallis Park
Country Harbour
Digby County
Dominion
East Bay/Big Pond
Evanston
Goshen
Greenwood
Havre Boucher
Hazel Hill
Isaac's Harbour
Johnstown
Lincolnville
Louisdale
Lunenburg
Margaree Forks
Maryvale
Melrose
Milton
New Harbour
New Ross
North Preston
North Queens
North Shore
Pictou
Pictou County
Pictou Landing
Pleasant Bay
Point Edward
Scotsville
Shipyard (Sydney)
Southend Sydney
St. Ann's
St. Joseph
St. Joseph du Moine
Sunnyville
Sydney Mines
Tangier
Tatamagouche
Terence Bay
Tiverton
Upper Big Tracadie
Whycocomagh
Wildcat Reserve
Wolfville

[Excerpted from the Halifax Daily News, 21 January 1998; NS government press release #98012005; Industry Canada press release dated 6 January 1998; and other sources.]


Also see:
Nova Scotia Community Access Sites
http://eclipse.educ.unb.ca/archives/capsites/9704/nssites.html
http://www.grassroots.ns.ca/~wins/wins.htm
Nova Scotia Community Access Committee Contacts

The 55 previous Community Access Program sites
in Nova Scotia were:
Community Site Location
Community URL
Annapolis County
Lawrencetown Revolving Door, Community Learning Centre
http://www.valleyweb.com/lawrencetown/
http://www.glinx.com/users/carcap/index.html
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Annapolis/
Milford Community Centre
website URL not available
Antigonish County
http://www.grassroots.ns.ca/
Monastery,
Havre Boucher		 Antigonish High School
website URL not available
Cape Breton County
Donkin Junior High School
http://highlander.cbnet.ns.ca/cbnet/mainmenu.html
Eskasoni Training and Education Centre
http://eagle.uccb.ns.ca/aboriginal/eskasoni.htm
Glace Bay Cape Breton YMCA Enterprise
http://142.227.43.9/student/cisn/macswer/glace.htm
Main-A-Dieu Main-A-Dieu Elementary School
website URL not available
New Waterford Mount Carmel School
website URL not available
North Sydney Business Centre and Library
website URL not available
Sydney Cape Breton Regional Library
http://www.chatsubo.com/ecma/about_sydney.html
Whitney Pier Whitney Pier Community Resource Centre
http://fortress.uccb.ns.ca/pier2.html
Colchester County
Bass River West Colchester Junior High School
website URL not available
Truro Colchester - East Hants Regional Library
http://north.nsis.com/~webmagic/truro.html
Cumberland County
Amherst Cumberland Economic Resource Centre
http://business.auracom.com/capcumb/
Northport Northport Elementary School
http://www.ednet.ns.ca/educ/schoolpages/ncn/
Parrsboro Parrsboro Library & High School
http://www2.nova-scotia.com/nova-scotia/parrsboro/
Wallace Wallace Elementary School
http://business.atcon.com/hayward/places/wallace/index.html
Digby County
Bear River Oakdene Community Centre
http://clan.tartannet.ns.ca/~brcap/
Comte de Digby Ecole Secondaire de Claire
website URL not available
Digby Isiah W. Wilson Memorial Library
http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Digby/
Digby Neck Digby Neck Consolidated School
http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/DigbyNeck/
http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/~aq514/index.html
Weymouth Weymouth Consolidated School
http://wcs-3.wcs.ednet.ns.ca/Capsite.htm
http://wcs-3.wcs.ednet.ns.ca/
Guysborough County
http://www.grassroots.ns.ca/guys/guyswel.htm
Canso Canso Town Office
http://www.gccin.ns.ca/
http://www.grassroots.ns.ca/guys/cansohis/canso.htm
Mulgrave Mulgrave Branch Library
http://www.atcon.com/~mulgrave/
Sherbrooke Sherbrooke Branch Library
http://www.grassroots.ns.ca/sherbrooke/
Halifax County
Beaverbank RCMP Detachment, Skyline Villa, Millwood High School
website URL not available
Eastern Passage Talhasse Community Centre, Fisherman's Cove
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/EasternPassage/
Middle Musquodoboit Musquodoboit Valley High School
http://chebucto.ns.ca/ccn/info/MidMusq/
Sheet Harbour Duncan MacMillan High School
http://www.dunmac.com/bbis.htm
Hants County
http://fox.nstn.ca:80/~hantsrda/
Windsor Windsor High School Library
http://cnet.windsor.ns.ca/
Inverness County
Cheticamp Tourist Information Centre
http://www.destination-ns.com/associations/cheticamp/
Inverness Inverness Junior-Senior High School
http://www.destination-ns.com/ceilidh/7atour.htm
Judique,
Creignish		 Judique-Creignish High School
http://www.trailerpark.com/phase2/jchs/
Mabou Mabou Consolidated School
website URL not available
Port Hood Port Hood Library and Resource Centre
website URL not available
Kings County
Kentville,
Coldbrook		 Annapolis Valley Work Centre & Coldbrook Elementary
http://www2.kentville.com/kentville/
Wolfville Horton District High School
http://www.go.ednet.ns.ca/pages/cap.html
http://www.go.ednet.ns.ca/index.html
Lunenburg County
Chester Forest Heights High School, Chester Area Middle School
http://www.tallships.istar.ca/ChesterBound/camcn/
http://www.tallships.istar.ca/ChesterBound/
Pictou County
Lyon's Brook West Pictou Regional High School
website URL not available
New Glasgow New Glasgow Junior High School
http://www.destination-ns.com/sunrise/3b.htm
River John River John Library
http://www.riverjohn.com/
Richmond County
Arichat,
Isle Madame		 Isle Madame District High School
http://www.lardoise.ednet.ns.ca/temp/Vance/enroute/main.html
L'Ardoise,
East Richmond		 L'Ardoise School
http://www.lardoise.ednet.ns.ca/ercn/ercn.html
Port Hawkesbury Strait Area Education & Recreation Centre
http://www.lardoise.ednet.ns.ca/strait/main.html
St. Peter's St. Peter's District High School
http://www.destination-ns.com/metrocb/aa.htm
Shelburne County
http://www.shelburne.nscc.ns.ca/community/
Barrington Passage Barrington Municipal High School
http://www.bmhs.ednet.ns.ca/index.html
http://www.bmhs.ednet.ns.ca/barrtour.htm
Lockeport Lockeport Regional High School
http://www.shelburne.nscc.ns.ca/lockeporthigh/tourism.html
Shelburne Mackay Library, Shelburne Regional High School
http://www.shelburne.nscc.ns.ca/
Victoria County
Bras d'Or T.L. Sullivan Jr. High School
http://www.destination-ns.com/brasdor/9atour.htm
http://www.ednet.ns.ca/educ/schoolpages/sullivan/cap.htm
Dingwall Ingonish Fire Hall
http://www.nscn.ns.ca/
Iona Rankin Memorial Consolidated School
website URL not available
Yarmouth County
Hebron Maple Grove Education Centre
http://www.grassroutes.com/tourism/arial/hebron.htm
Lower Argyle Argyle Consolidated School
http://www.argyle.ednet.ns.ca/
http://ycn.library.ns.ca/argyle/cnet/
Yarmouth 10 Branch Libraries and Headquarters
http://rs6000.nshpl.library.ns.ca/regionals/wcr/
Yarmouth Western Counties Regional Library
http://www.ycn.library.ns.ca/

[Note: The above community website URLs were valid in 1997. As time went by, some of these URLs became invalid.]
[Source: Community Access Committee, Nova Scotia Technology and Science Secretariat]

1998 January 22

Sheet Harbour Wharf Sold to Private Company

On this day, Transport Canada transferred the ownership of the port facilities at Sheet Harbour to E.R.W. Holdings Ltd., of Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia for $12,001. The sale was completed through a public tender process and is unconditional with E.R.W. Holdings Ltd. becoming the sole owner of the property. Following a public meeting held in Sheet Harbour on 13 March 1997 which failed to generate any expressions of interest in acquiring the facility, Transport Canada moved to divest it through a public tendering process in the fall of 1997. E.R.W. Holdings Ltd. subsequently submitted the highest bid and was awarded the tender. Sheet Harbour is one of more than 200 Regional and Local ports, which range from large facilities that support significant local and regional commercial activity to very small facilities with little or no commercial traffic. The wharf, 55m long by 11m wide, was originally built in 1955 and has not experienced commercial traffic since 1988. The primary users of the wharf in recent years are local recreational boaters and inshore fishing vessels of less than 9 metres. Depth alongside the outer berth is 4.6 metres. Under the National Marine Policy, announced in December 1995, Regional and Local port sites will be transferred to other interests over a six-year period. In some cases, ports will be transferred as operating ports; in other cases, Crown land and facilities will be transferred to interested parties for other uses.
[Department of Transport press release dated 10 February 1998]

1998 January 23, Friday

First Imax Theatre Opens

At noon on this day, the first Imax movie theatre in the Atlantic Provinces opened its doors for its first show. It was one of the new twelve-screen complex in Bayers Lake Business Park, on the west side of Halifax, built by Empire Theatres, a subsidiary of Stellarton-based Sobey's. Empire Theatres Limited was at this time the largest independent movie theatre company in Canada, with 101 screens in the Atlantic Provinces. At this time, there were more than 150 Imax screens in operation around the world. The Halifax Imax was the16th in Canada and the first east of Montreal. Imax (from "Maximum Image") is a Canadian technology, with roots going back to Expo '67 in Montreal. The Halifax Imax theatre has a 15,000 watt 20 horsepower digital sound system. The projection print is on 70mm film, twice the width of the standard 35mm movie film. The Imax frame, on the film, has ten times the area of the standard movie frame, which yields much better resolution and picture clarity. [Everyday geometry tells us that doubling the width of a rectangle will increase the area only by four times (when the shape, or 'aspect ratio', remains the same) so – how does twice the width produce a frame area ten times as large? On standard movie film, the frame is placed with its width parallel to the film width (that is, the frame's longest linear dimension has to fit the film's 35mm width). On Imax film, the frame is turned 90 degrees, so that its width is parallel to the film's length (that is, the frame's shortest linear dimension has to fit the film's 70mm width).] The viewing screen surface is 18 × 22 metres, about six storeys high and seven storeys wide. The Halifax Imax theatre, limited to 271 seats "so there isn't a bad seat in the house", opened with two films made specially for Imax – The Living Sea, "a voyage to an underwater world accompanied by music by Sting and narration by Meryl Streep", and The Dream is Alive, "in which an Imax camera accompanied 14 astronauts on a space mission". Screenings begin every day at noon. The Living Sea begins at 12:00, 2:00, 6:00, 8:00, and 10:00; The Dream is Alive at 1:00, 3:00, 7:00, and 9:00. Films will change every four months; in all there are about 170 large-format films available in the Imax inventory.
Ticket Prices
Single
feature		 Double
feature
Adult (18+) $8.75 $13.00
Senior (65+) $7.50 $12.00
Youth (14-17) $7.00 $11.00
Children (4-13) $6.00 $10.00

[Excerpted from The Daily News, 20 January and 12 February, and The Chronicle-Herald, 22 January 1998.]

On 14 February, it was reported that the Imax theatre was "pulling in sell-out crowds".

1998 January 26

Power Failures in Metro Halifax,
Newspaper Delayed

The Daily News was among thousands of Nova Scotia individuals and businesses which were left in the dark last night for as much as 3½ hours. High winds caused power lines to "slap together," said Nova Scotia Power Inc. spokeswoman Margaret Cassidy. "This causes lines to arc." This is commonly called a "short-circuit", and usually results in that circuit being disconnected automatically. Cassidy said these arcs cause the bright blue flashes that were seen in many metro neighbourhoods. The first power outages occurred at about 7pm, and affected about 4,000 homes and businesses in Burnside Industrial Park, areas around Barrington and Duffus streets, Upper Lawrencetown and Cole Harbour, as well as Armdale and Bayers Lake Industrial Park. Downed power lines complicated repair efforts in Burnside Industrial Park. A portion of the park, including The Daily News, was without power until 11:30pm, delaying the press run by several hours. Outages were also scattered throughout the province, Cassidy said, noting several areas in Annapolis Valley were hit hard by the storm. In Lower Onslow, restoration efforts were further complicated by flooding. "It's going to be a very long night for crews," Cassidy said early in the evening. All available line crews were out, and extra Nova Scotia Power staff were brought in to handle the customer inquiries. Police were kept extremely busy when power fluctuations triggered intrusion alarms, a police spokesman said. "Every time there's a power short we get 15 to 20 alarms. We have to treat all of them as legitimate." All details on police calls were unavailable last night because a power outage at the information centre shut down computers and left the case manager without access to reports.
[Excerpted from the Halifax Daily News, 26 January 1998]

1998 January 27

Kentville Electric Commission:
UARB Schedules Additional Hearings

In a letter dated this day, the Utilities and Review Board gave official notice that additional hearings had been scheduled in the matter of the proposed sale of the Kentville Electric Commission to Nova Scotia Power Inc. The hearing was to reconvene on Wednesday, 25 February 1998 at 10:00am "and continue on the 26th and 27th if so required." The hearing location was changed to the Town Council Chambers, 354 Main Street, Kentville.
Historical notes about the Kentville Electric Commission

1998 January 28

PSINet Buys Out iSTAR Internet Inc.

Offer to Purchase For Cash all of the outstanding common shares of iSTAR Internet Inc. by PSINet Inc., at 75¢ per common share.

Highlights of the Offer: Offer expires 12:01am Vancouver time on January 28, 1998.

[Excerpted from a three-column display advertisement in The Globe and Mail, 22 January 1998]
[In January 1998 iSTAR Inc. was a major supplier of Internet connection services in Nova Scotia.]

2 February 1998
iSTAR internet inc. today reported that on Wednesday, 28 January 1998, PSINet took up and paid for approximately 21,700,000 shares of iSTAR stock under the take-over bid announced on 24 December 1997. The terms of the bid provide that PSINet pay 75¢ (Canadian) cash for all of the issued and outstanding common shares of iSTAR. The shares taken up through January 28th represent approximately 69% of the outstanding shares, and PSINet has extended the expiry of the offer until 12:01am (Vancouver time) on 10 February 1998. iSTAR internet incorporated's shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WWW.

PSINet and iSTAR have also entered into a management contract which enables PSINet Limited, the wholly-owned subsidiary of PSINet, to operate iSTAR's day-to-day, ordinary course of business prior to the expiry of the offer. As part of the management agreement, PSINet Limited is required to provide funding to iSTAR in order to permit it to pay its normal course liabilities and indebtedness incurred during the period in which PSINet Limited is the manager and to fund any payments of existing liabilities or enter into arrangements as may be necessary so as to ensure that iSTAR's business is carried on, in all material respects, in the normal course in accordance with prudent practices.
[Source: Press release dated 2 February 1998]

PSINet has acquired iSTAR. "With a network designed specifically for Internet traffic, PSINet has led the Internet revolution since 1989. PSINet now joins with iSTAR, Canada's leading Internet provider, to offer solutions that truly reflect the needs of Canadians doing business at home and wordlwide... PSINet and PSINet logo are trademarks of PSINet Incorporated, used under license to PSINet Limited. iSTAR and iSTAR logo are trademarks of iSTAR Internet Incorporated, used under license to PSINet Limited."
[Excerpted from a full-page advertisement in The Globe and Mail, 4 February 1998]

9 February 1998
PSINet Inc. announced today that further to its taking up the 21,695,345 common shares of iSTAR Internet Inc. at 75¢ per share, which were validly deposited under the Offer made on 6 January 1998 to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of iSTAR, PSINet Inc. took up all of the 1,074,089 additional common shares delivered pursuant to notices of guaranteed delivery received on or before 28 January 1998 under the Offer. Finally, PSINet Inc. took up an additional 230,483 common shares, pursuant to the Offer, as extended. With the acquisition of all of the above noted shares, PSINet Inc. owns approximately 72.8% of the outstanding common shares of iSTAR.
[Source: Press release dated 9 February 1998]

1998 February 2

Sprint Reduces Long Distance Telephone Rates

On this day, Sprint Canada, one of the companies supplying long-distance telephone services in Nova Scotia and most of Canada, lowered its rates for long-distance telephone calls to over 100 countries. For calls originating in Nova Scotia to destinations in Canada and the United States, the rate remained the same as before, but for calls made to almost all other countries, the rate was reduced. For calls to China, the rate was reduced from $1.57 to $1.19 per minute; to Hong Kong, from 46¢ to 39¢ per minute. The rate for calls to Italy was lowered from 71¢ to 53¢, and to the United Kingdom from 36¢ to 28¢ per minute. Other reductions were smaller, such as the Australia rate from 55¢ to 54¢, and Mexico from 91¢ to 90¢ per minute. There were other changes which benefited customers, such as the timing of calls to the nearest second (instead of rounding the time up to the next highest minute), and the provision that enabled quick-thinking customers to avoid being charged for a call that reached an answering machine or a wrong number.
Additional details, notes about Sprint Canada

1998 February 3

Cost of Hard Drive Data Storage
Falls Below 8¢ per Megabyte

CompuTrend, 30 Farnham Gate Road, Halifax, in an advertisement on page 66 of The Computer Paper, Eastern Edition (Atlantic Provinces), February 1998, available in Halifax on this day, offers for sale 6.4-gigabyte hard drives, for use in personal computers, at $435.00 each. After 15% retail sales tax is added, this price is 7.8¢ per megabyte.
Historical notes about Cost of Hard Drives

1998 February 5

PSINet Canada Plans Large Increase
in Halifax Workforce

Internet Experience Required

The Halifax office of a North America-wide Internet service provider is about to get a lot more crowded. PSINet Canada, which has purchased the former provider iStar Internet Inc., plans to increase staff to almost 100 from the current four. "We are adding bodies out there," said company president Nadir Desai. "I have a current hiring requirement for no less than 30 individuals." Desai said PSINet is in an "intensive hiring mode" and hopes by the end of 1998 to add another 50 people as part of the expansion of the company's call-centre activity. Desai said his brief experience with the Halifax operation and its staff convinced him expansion was the right move. "The few employees we had there are producing significantly better than anywhere else where we've run call centres," he said. "This is one component of this business that I will be growing out immediately."

The Halifax office is a holdover from iStar's expanded operations that resulted from its 1995 merger with the former Nova Scotia Technology Network (NSTN). At the time, the merger created the largest Internet service provider in Canada, and the company grew rapidly before it was bought out by PSINet Inc. of Virginia. But iStar recorded financial losses for the past eight consecutive quarters, and most of the staff and operations were concentrated in Toronto. Heavy losses for the fourth quarter of 1997 created concern that PSINet's planned takeover was at risk, but Desai brushed that off. "We tendered and bought up to 72% of the shares of iStar," he said. "I would say we are a significant shareholder and are firmly in control of the management of the company."

Local staff will augment the company's inside sales team in Toronto in providing support to the rest of the organization. Desai said by the end of 1998, PSINet will examine the feasibility of setting up more customer-support service in Halifax to back up the company's existing Ottawa centre. Desai said he liked the education level of the employees working with the company and in the pool of workers seeking jobs. Applicants will need to have Internet experience, a strong sales attitude, and be willing to learn. Desai said PSINet encourages skill upgrading and successful applicants will be sent to the United States for an additional three weeks of training.

Desai said he has not approached the province for funding to help defray the cost of the expansion. "I haven't even spoken to them. I just like the place and the people, and I'm going to come up and do it," he said. That might change, he joked. "Until you mentioned it, I hadn't even thought about it. Now that you've mentioned it, I'll give them a call."

[The Daily News, 5 February 1998]

1998 February 5

First Website for a
Nova Scotia Political Party

On this day, the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia became the first political party in the province to launch its home page, or website, at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/ on the World Wide Web. "Our party will be offering Nova Scotians with access to the Internet, 'real-time' images and 'real-time' information, right from the Annual Meeting,", said Tory Leader Dr. John Hamm. This year's Annual Meeting will be held Friday-Sunday, 6-7-8 February, at the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel on Hollis Street in Halifax.
[The Daily News, 5 February 1998]
[This website was launched officially on Thursday, 5 February; it was available on-line by 6pm the previous day.]

[For the last couple of years, websites have been operated by all three caucuses (Liberal, Conservative, and NDP), but these were caucus operations. A caucus is not the same as a party. This new PC website is the first to be installed by a Nova Scotia political party.]

1998 February 5

Railway Passenger Car Accessibility
by Persons with Disabilities

National Transportation Agency, Code of Practice Passenger Rail Car Accessibility and Terms and Conditions of Carriage by Rail of Persons with Disabilities. The Code of Practice applies to passenger rail services operated in Canada by the following companies: VIA Rail Canada Inc., Algoma Central Railway Inc., Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway Company, Hudson Bay Railway Company and Amtrak. It also applies to passenger rail services that Canadian National Railway Company operates on behalf of Ontario Northland Railway.

Backgrounder code of practice passenger rail car accessibility and terms and conditions of carriage by rail of persons with disabilities

Opening remarks at launch of Rail Code of Practice

1998 February 6-7-8

On-Line reports from PC Annual Meeting

Earlier this week, the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia had become the first political party in the province to establish a presence on the World Wide Web. "Our party will be offering Nova Scotians with access to the Internet, 'real-time' images and 'real-time' information, right from the Annual Meeting,", said Tory Leader Dr. John Hamm.

ICS (webmaster): Below are my observations, written at the time, of the actual realization of this promise of "real-time images and real-time information" on-line.

This Annual Meeting began at 1:30pm Friday, 6 February, according to the on-line meeting schedule at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual.html.

Friday, Feb. 6, 5:10pm: I went to this website to see the "real-time images and real-time information, right from the Annual Meeting." The only item then available was a small (7603 bytes) photo in the entry page at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/index.html captioned "Janet Conners opens the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia 1998 Annual General Meeting at the Westin Hotel in Halifax this afternoon."

Friday, Feb. 6, 8:50pm: The only additional item I could find in the website was a brief (182 words) text at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual1.html summarizing Janet Conners' speech. It was difficult to find this summary, as it could be located only by clicking on a nearly invisible link, that was displayed as dark purple text against a dark blue background. (Yes, my browser, Netscape Navigator 4.0, was set to display the colours specified by the source file.) I looked for the complete text of Ms. Conners' speech, but could not find it.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 5:30am: After clicking on another nearly-invisible link, I found at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual2.html a brief (132 words) summary of the events of Friday evening, combined with highlights of the Saturday morning schedule. This summary stated that Dr. Hamm had been able to deliver his scheduled Friday evening speech, in spite of a serious throat ailment, but there was not so much as a single sentence of what he said. [I would have thought that, with some advance preparation (such as a word-processor file of the prepared text) they could have posted his complete speech by this time. After all, this was the keynote speech given by the leader a few weeks before a general election. Seems to me, of all the events scheduled for this annual meeting, this speech would be the number one top priority for publication on the Internet, under the stated policy of "real-time information, right from the Annual Meeting." And, to me, this means the whole thing, every word, posted ASAP, with at least two full-screen photos of the event, one of Dr. Hamm delivering his speech and another of the audience. This is the Internet, and, when deciding what to publish, space is not a consideration. Unlike newspapers, which are always very limited in the space available, the Internet has virtually unlimited space available very inexpensively. During this annual meeting, the retail price of hard drive storage space, in Halifax, was just 8¢ per megabyte. Of course, server rental space costs more than this, but it still is ridiculously cheap. Two full-screen photos, with the complete keynote speech text, would occupy less than half a megabyte.] In the entry page at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/index.html the caption on the photo had been updated to "Janet Conners opened the 1998 Annual General Meeting at the Westin Hotel in Halifax Friday and leader John Hamm braved poor health to give a keynote speech." There still was no text of Ms. Conners' speech. There was mention that "more than 700 delegates" were in attendance, but there were no additional details, such as the number of delegates registered from each constituency (this information certainly was available to the meeting managers).

Saturday, Feb. 7, 11:50am: No change in website, from previous visit.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2:20pm: An additional page has now appeared, at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual3.html. The lead-in link promises "Details on the leader's speech at the annual meeting", but the website does not deliver on this promise. This page contains just 127 words in all, and only ten of these words are direct quotations from Dr. Hamm's speech. If this report is considered to be the "details", one wonders what a summary would look like.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 5:20pm: No change in website, from previous visit.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 9:30pm: No change in website, from previous visit.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 8:10am: No change in website, from previous visit.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 1:10pm: There have been a couple of minor changes. In the entry page at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/index.html the caption on the photo of Janet Conners making her speech has been revised to "The Annual General Meeting ended Sunday in Halifax. The more than 700 delegates consider the meeting a big success." In the page at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual.html the problem of the nearly-invisible links has been taken care of, by specifying a font colour that has adequate contrast against the dark blue ground. That's it. There still was no text of Ms. Conners' speech, and none for Dr. Hamm's keynote speech. No report of any kind on the speech delivered at noon yesterday by National Leader Jean Charest. No report on the speeches by Sheila and Tom Osborne. No report on the elections, the results of which were announced yesterday evening. A page has been set up at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual4.html but there is no link to this page from the schedule page, which is the location of all the other links pointing to annual meeting reports. I found this page only by looking at the structural pattern of the links, and then extending the pattern. Perhaps there is no link to this page because it is blank except for the pretty graphics.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 4:40pm: A link has now been installed, pointing to the most recent page at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual4.html. The link reads: "The Annual Meeting of the Progressive Conservative Association ended Sunday. The more than 700 delegates consider the meeting a big success. Click here for details." The "details" consist of exactly 88 words. No more. Jean Charest's appearance rated only two sentences. You can get a far better report of what happened at this Annual Meeting by reading The Sunday Daily News.

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 5:40am: The Report of the Nomination Committee is now available at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/annual5.html with the Table Officers and Regional Vice-president's (sic). Links have been installed pointing to three newspaper stories about the Annual Meeting: "John Hamm Fires Up Troops," Halifax Daily News, Feb. 9; "Tories Plot Healthy Election Strategy," Halifax Herald, Feb. 9; and "Hamm Promises Home Heating Rebate," Halifax Herald, Feb. 9.

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1:50pm: The link pointing to The Daily News story "John Hamm Fires Up Troops," has been deleted, because The Daily News keeps only the current issue available on-line; the issue of Monday, Feb. 9, with this story, has been removed from The Daily News website.

Thursday, Feb. 12, 6:10am: No change in website, from previous visit.

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2:00am: Now that the election campaign is under way, in the PC Party website there is a page titled "Team '98" at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/cand.html (last revised at 7:08pm 26 February). This is a list of the PC candidates who have been nominated – that is, the candidates whose names will appear on the election ballot. While this page was last uploaded (updated) on Thursday evening, 26 February, it shows a blank space for the Kings North district. Whoever is running this site appears to be blissfully unaware that George Archibald was nominated as the PC candidate in Kings North, last Monday evening, 23 February. Five days later, on Saturday, 28 February, the Kings North district shows blank in the PC website candidates list! Including Kings North, there are eleven blank spaces in this candidates' list. Of course, there's lots of time. Counting weekends, we still have 24 days left before the election.

What was that promise? Oh yes, "real-time information."

Yeah, right.

I should mention that the PC Party is the only one to bother to set up a website for this election. As of Friday, 27 February, neither the Liberals nor the NDP had any election presence on the Internet.

1998 February 9

UARB Power Failure Report Made Public

Power Outages Linked to Layoffs

223 Customers per Employee

Utility Board orders
NSP to take steps
to fix problem

In a 36-page report released this day, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board said that downsizing at Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSP) contributed to power outages during a November storm that plunged thousands of homes into the dark. "The Board is of the opinion that downsizing contributed to the severity of the outages investigated in this study but that was by no means the only cause."

It ordered NSP to investigate and recommend a course of action by Dec. 30, 1998, that will look at some combination of restoring the number of lineworkers to 1994 levels at a minimum and a power management program designed to use the latest distribution automation technology for the worst performing feeder lines. The report noted the investigation came after complaints to the Board from electricity users who lost power in the November storm and political leaders who also complained about the frequency and duration of power outages over the past few years.

The storm November 27-28, 1997, left some 35,000 customers without power for six hours or longer, including 19,976 in Sydney region on the first day. Power outages hit 11,000 customers for between 12 and 24 hours; 3,100 for more than 24 hours and the longest outage – 120 people in McCallum Settlement in the Truro region for 73 hours. During the storm, 59 poles fell and had to be replaced, including six in the Sydney region. The Board agreed that weather conditions, while relatively mild, resulted in widespread icing conditions that resulted in power line damage.

Downsizing at NSP reduced the workforce to 1,907 in 1996 (1997 numbers weren't available) from 2,480 in 1990. The cuts left NSP with 223 customers per employee in 1996 compared to 157 in 1990.

Comparing NSP to other power utilities, the Board reported it has downsized more than New Brunswick Power but less than Central Maine Power. Other findings of the report included: NSP said Monday the report confirms weather conditions caused the severe outages experienced in November. It said the Board has asked NSP to study other factors affecting reliability of service and it is always interested in learning from outages. NSP will respond fully to the report within the time frames outlined, said Robbie Shaw, an NSP vice-president.
[Cape Breton Post, 10 February 1998]

UARB Power Failure Report

Job Cuts Made Blackout More Severe

Utility Review Board Report
Discovers Number of Problems
During November 1997 Outage

If Nova Scotia Power Inc. had pulled the plug on fewer linesmen, an early winter storm wouldn't have left so many homes in the dark for so long, says a report released this day by the provincial regulator, the Nova Scotia Utilities and Review Board, [often called the Public Utilities Board, which was its name 1912-1992]. The number of people responsible for power lines that could stretch halfway around the world has fallen to 253 from 322 since 1990, says the UARB report on how the company provided customer service during power outages in November and December. "The Board is of the opinion that downsizing contributed to the severity of the outages investigated in this study, but that was by no means the only cause," says the report.

About 35,000 customers lost power for six hours or more, and 11,000 experienced outages of between 12 and 24 hours, says the report. About 3,100 customers lost electricity for more than 24 hours, and the longest outage of 73 hours hit 120 homes in McCallum Settlement, near Truro. The storm brought down 59 power poles that had to be replaced. A second storm hit Dec. 2, but the report focuses mainly on the first one. While the staff cutbacks are comparable to other North American utilities, the report says "the reduction of lineworkers was a factor in the duration of the outages that occurred in Nova Scotia on November 27 and 28, 1997."

The Board ordered the company to start providing it with summaries of line crew sizes, what it spent on operations and upgrades, and estimates for the next year, beginning in the spring of 1999.

Whether the company will hire more linesmen "depends totally on the outcome of the report," said Nova Scotia Power vice-president Robbie Shaw. The Board also blames weather conditions, difficulty in reaching trouble spots, the company's maintenance practices, outage protection and system design.

At the time, the company called the November storm the worst it had seen in 15 years. "The weather was not unduly severe, based on extremes of temperature, wind or precipitation," said the report, noting Environment Canada called the storm average. "The Board's finding is that the widespread outages that occurred support the theory that the weather, while not severe from a statistical point of view, resulted in widespread icing conditions that resulted in power-line damage." While the storm wasn't as bad as those experienced last month in Ontario and Quebec, Shaw said "most people in the know would say (it) ... was a humdinger."

Line crews had a hard time reaching some trouble spots because of icy, unplowed, and blocked roads, said the report. The board told the company to file a power outage logistics study that includes co-ordination of NSP activities with emergency services organizations by the end of 1998. The Board directed the company to "continue and accelerate the program currently under way" to move lines located in forested areas "out to roadsides, where practical." Where that is not feasible, the board advised the utility to use devices such as the Sentry, which connects the electrical circuit and the telephone line, and can contact Nova Scotia Power when electric power is lost. The Board told the company to file the estimated cost and work plan for this program by the end of July 1998.

The company's maintenance practices also contributed to the massive outages, says the report. Its two-year inspection cycle for overhead distribution feeder lines is "reasonable and adequate under average conditions," says the report. "More frequent inspections are necessary for older lines or lines more susceptible to failure." Rural lines in problem areas should be checked more often as a preventative measure, says the report. "More frequent visual inspections of this type of line would serve to identify future events that could unfold and enable problems to be corrected before failures occur."

The Board told the company to research inspection methods being used by North American electric utilities and report back by the end of July 1998.

"I think that may be one of the very few points in the report where we'd like to have further discussions with the (board)," said Shaw. "Because I think there's not a clear understanding about what our current policy and practice is. We do inspect everything every two years. When we see something suspicious or a potential problem, we check it much more often."

The report recommends the company consider strengthening "certain feeders" by using multiple guy wires, larger poles, and insulating for higher voltages. The Board told the company to file a cost estimate for shoring up its 30 "worst-performing feeders" by the end of July 1998.

The company plans to implement a power outage management system, says the report. "The various power systems acquired by the Nova Scotia Power Commission during the 1960s had differing standards of construction. Over the years, NSPI has been gradually replacing these facilities with new standardized equipment. However, there appears to be a considerable amount of work to be done." Different design standards and aged equipment "has contributed to, and is likely to continue to contribute to, the frequency of outages in Cape Breton," said the report. The company "should consider accelerating the process of replacement," and take a second look at poles that are heavily loaded with gear, said the report. It is to file a report on the plan and associated cost with the Board by the end of July 1998.

But Shaw said there was no difference between the amount of damage to older and newer equipment in the storm. "We're not absolutely sure about that recommendation," said Shaw. The company's customer call centre "did not seem able to handle the magnitude of incoming calls experienced (75,829 on Thursday evening and early Friday morning)," says the report. Shaw said the company is setting up a machine that will answer calls, tell people why their power is out, and when it should come back on. Nova Scotia Power has to produce the studies recommended by the Board, said Shaw. "We don't have any choice at all," he said.

[The Daily News, 10 February 1998]

1998 February 11

Auditor General's Report to the Legislature

The Year 2000 issue represents a very real threat

Much remains to be done

A rapidly diminishing window of opportunity

There is no time to ponder or debate the issue further

Auditor General Roy Salmon has released his annual report for 1997 to the Nova Scotia Legislature. The report comments on the steps taken within government to address the year 2000 issue related to computerized systems but also identifies that much remains to be done if services are to be uninterrupted.

The Auditor General's complete 1997 Annual Report includes
Chapter 4: Information Technology Management, Year 2000 Readiness

Public Accounts Committee
Discusses Y2K

The following brief discussion, of the Y2K problem, took place on 11 February 1998, during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the Nova Scotia Legislature: [Source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/legi/hansard/comm/pa/pa980211.htm]

Mr. Clifford Huskilson, MLA
Mr. Roy Salmon, Auditor General

ICS comment:
When reading that exchange, I get no feeling that the MLAs present had any real grasp of the Year 2000 computer issue or any sense of urgency about the Millennium Bug and how it might adversely affect provincial government operations.

687 days remaining before 1 January 2000.

1998 February 12

Direct Flights, Halifax - Newark

Continental Express, a regional carrier for airline giant Continental Airlines, this day began operating a daily non-stop flight between Halifax and Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Newark's main attraction is its closeness to New York City, and impressive connections with flights to many destinations. Continental Express will operate 50-passenger RJ145 ExpressJet planes, manufactured by Embraer of Brazil, designed for regional jet routes. Express has 19 of these jets with 31 more on order. Express spokesman Bruce Kink said such an aircraft can run profitably at as low as 38% load factor (seats sold). The schedule now is for departure from Newark at 12:10pm Eastern time and from Halifax at 4:10pm Atlantic time. This arrangement is inconvenient for business flyers because it requires an overnight stay to conduct business. Kink said after this run has been operating for a while, and Express receives more planes, the schedule will be adjusted.

This new service introduces competition for Air Nova, which has had a direct flight from Halifax to Newark for several years. On this route, Air Nova now operates 77-passenger BEA146 planes, providing same-day return flights seven times a week. Beginning in April, Air Nova will be operating two trips on Saturdays. Air Nova's cheapest fare on this route is $199. For a full-fare ticket, same day booking for a person not staying Saturday night, the price is $1,210. These prices may change with the new competition.
[Excerpted from The Daily News, 13 February 1998]

1998 February 12

Colchester Trails Association Incorporated

The Colchester Trails Association (CTA) was formed in 1997 and incorporated on 12 February 1998 as a non-profit society with a Board of Directors ( Ed Symons, Chairperson) representing community members from across Colchester County. The Association's primary aim is to encourage and support trail development in Colchester County. The CTA is working to establish a link through Colchester for the Trans Canada Trail. We are in the process of negotiating a lease for the abandoned CN railroad line from the Pictou County line to the Village of Tatamagouche and from Tatamagouche to the Cumberland County line. There is a short section of this rail line within the village that is presently under lease to the North Shore Community Development Association. We will be working closely with this group to ensure that the planning, dvelopment and construction of the Trans Canada Trail continues uninterrupted through Colchester County and meets the standards that have been established for this important millennium project. Recently, the CTA has begun the work of determining the location of a branch line of the Trans Canada Trail which will extend south from Tatamagouche to Truro and then on to Halifax. This is in support of the national Trans Canada Trail vision which requires that links be established from the main route to major metropolitan areas across Canada.
Source: Colchester Trails Association website at
    http://www.trailtc.ns.ca/page16colch.htm

References:
Regional Trail Councils in Nova Scotia
    http://www.trailtc.ns.ca/page2.htm
History of the Great American And European Shortline Railway at
    http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Histories/NS/
        GreatAmericanAndEuropeanShortlineRailway.htm

1998 February 18

First Personal Computers
to be Y2K Compliant

On this day appeared the first advertisement offering personal computers for sale, that were explicitly stated to be able to operate properly after the year number rolled over from 1999 to 2000. This Business Depot flyer offered two computer packages, both prominently stated to be "Year 2000 Ready": [Flyer distributed in The Daily News and The Chronicle-Herald, 18 February 1998, offering office supplies for sale at Business Depot stores at 800 Grand Lake Road, Sydney; Cambridge Centre, Burnside Industrial Park, Dartmouth; and Bayer's Lake Centre, Halifax. "Flyer effective February 18 - March 1, 1998" Note: Cost to customer would be as stated plus 15% HST (harmonized sales tax) added at the time of sale.]
[ICS (webmaster) – On this day, there were 680 days remaining before 1 January 2000, counting weekends and holidays. This was the first ad that I saw anywhere offering Y2K compliant personal computers, and I made a considerable effort to stay abreast of current developments in computer technology available to the general public. My interpretation of the "Year 2000 Ready" claim was that it applied only to the hardware, not to the software. The flyer was unclear about this; it did not mention whether the software supplied with these computers was compliant with Year 2000 requirements, and – in view of Microsoft's recent public admission that much of its software was not compliant – it is highly doubtful that the software included in these offerings could handle the rollover from 1999 to 2000. Of course, the user with complaint hardware could install Y2K compliant software upgrades as (and if) they became available.]

1998 February 18

Imperial Oil Refinery
Marks 80th Anniversary

"...Imperial Oil has a long history in common with Nova Scotians. One week from today [11 February 1998], our Dartmouth refinery will mark 80 years of continuous operation. And Imperial was part of Nova Scotia for more than 20 years before the refinery was built. It's an association that started with Sid and Frank Shatford's fuel business in the bustling city of Halifax – population 31,000 – just about 100 years ago! For an 80-year-old, our Dartmouth refinery has plenty of life in it yet. Over the past two years, the refinery has made amazing progress in terms of efficiency and remains a strong and important performer in Imperial's refining network in Canada. Some 200 men and women work at the refinery. About 100 more work in distribution, wholesale and service station operations that have kept Esso as a familiar and trusted name to Nova Scotians..."
[Source: http://www.soep.com/nr/pr887315098.html Long History in Nova Scotia Speech by Roy Millar, Project Executive,Imperial Oil Resources Limited, at the official launch of Sable Offshore Energy Incorporated in Halifax, 11 February 1998.]

1998 February 27

Election Status Report

[Written 2:00am-4:00am, 27 February 1998]
At this time, a general election is underway in Nova Scotia. On 12 February 1998, at the request of Premier Russell MacLellan, the Lieutenant Governor dissolved the General Assembly, and Writs of Election were issued. The general election will be held on 24 March 1998. As of this day, 27 February, the election campaign has been in progress for 15 days, and 24 days remain before the election is held, to decide who will lead Nova Scotia into the new millenium.

I looked around the Internet to see what is the current status of the three political parties, in using the Internet to inform and involve the voters. The three parties (in the order of their numerical representation in the Legislature immediately before the election writs were issued) were the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives, and the New Democrats.

There is only one party website now in existence. (This refers to party websites, not to caucus websites.) The Liberal Party has no website that I could find, and the Liberal Caucus website makes no mention of a party site. The NDP Party has no website that I could find, and the NDP Caucus website makes no mention of a party site (but the NDP Youth Wing does have an online presence with election content).

The PC party has a website at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/ which was set up on 5 February 1998. The party platform (the statement of what they say they will do if elected) was posted online, in this site, on Monday, 23 February, at http://www.pcparty.ns.ca/plathome.html (last revised at 5:03pm 23 February).

The Nova Scotia NDP Youth Wing has a website at http://www.kayhay.com/~ndpyouth/home.html (last revised at 7:51pm 16 February). This site is alive and well, and fully aware there is an election campaign going on. At the top of the entry page we see "Election '98 – The NDP couldn't be more ready for an election. We have a strong leader and strong candidates. Last June Nova Scotians elected NDP MPs in six out of eleven ridings. It's time to finish the job!" After two hours of intensive searching for Nova Scotia Election material on the Net, this site conveys by far the highest level of election enthusiasm.

The three caucus sites are located at:

[As of 4:00am 27 February 1998, that's the online status of the Nova Scotia Election.]

Go To:   Index with links to the other chapters

Go To:   Index to other online Nova Scotia History
    http://alts.net/ns1625/histindx.html
Go To:   Home Page
    http://alts.net/ns1625/index.html

Latest revision: 2000 March 08