History of Nova Scotia, 2001 January onward

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

Chapter 45
2001 January onward

Go To: Index with links to the other chapters

2001 January 1

01/01/01

First Day of the
New Millennium

2001 January 1

Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company
Goes Out of Business
After 90 Years as Nova Scotia's Biggest Telephone Company

Aliant Bondholders Approve Amalgamation of Subsidiaries

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, Dec. 22 – At meetings held in Toronto on December 15, 2000, the bondholders of NewTel Communications Inc., Island Telecom Inc. and Maritime Tel & Tel Ltd. approved changes to their trust indentures which will allow for the amalgamation of Aliant Telecom Inc. with certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries including those three companies and NBTel Inc.

Amalgamation Effective 1 January 2001

Under the amalgamation, these subsidiaries will legally begin to operate under the Aliant Telecom name. Aliant Telecom will continue to use existing brand names – MTT, NB Tel, Island Tel and NewTel in their respective provincial markets. The reorganization will be completed on January 1, 2001.

The rationale for the amalgamation is to align the legal structures of the telecom business of Aliant to reflect the actual operational practices, which have developed since the merger of the parent companies in June of 1999. Approval from the bondholders means Aliant can now proceed with the amalgamation which will streamline accounting, financial and cash management processes as well as tax, legal and regulatory filings.

Dominion Bond Rating Service has confirmed that Aliant Telecom will now have an "A" rating on all of its secured and unsecured debt. The recently merged Standard & Poor's and Canadian Bond Rating Service have confirmed that Aliant Telecom will now have an "A" rating on its unsecured debt. The secured debt of the former Maritime Tel & Tel Ltd. will be rated "AA-"; and the secured debt of the former NewTel Communications Inc. and Island Telecom Inc. will be rated "A+".

Source:
Aliant Inc. press release, 22 December 2000
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/December2000/22/c6027.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/001222/aliant_ama.html

Aliant Board Approves Amalgamation

6 November 1999

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, Nov. 6 – Aliant Telecom Inc.'s Board of Directors has approved an amalgamation with certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries including NBTel Inc., NewTel Communications Inc., Island Telecom Inc. and Maritime Tel & Tel Ltd. pursuant to provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act. The reorganization will be completed on January 1, 2001, subject to the approval of certain bondholders for some of the individual subsidiaries. Meetings with bondholders will be held in Toronto in December.

The rationale for the proposed amalgamation is to align the legal structures of the telecom business of Aliant to reflect the actual operational practices, which have existed since the merger of the parent companies in June of 1999. If approved, this amalgamation will streamline accounting, financial and cash management processes as well as tax, legal and regulatory filings.

Provided bondholders approve, this amalgamation will mean these subsidiaries will legally begin to operate under the Aliant Telecom name. Aliant Telecom will continue to use existing brand names – MTT, NB Tel, Island Tel and NewTel – in their respective provincial markets.

Source:
Aliant Inc. press release, 6 November 2000
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/November2000/06/c1793.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/001106/aliant_sub.html

2001 January 1

Postage Goes Up to 47¢

On this day, the postage for a first-class letter increased by one cent to 47¢. In recent times, the first-class letter rate within Canada has been:

43¢ beginning 1 Jan 1993 (50¢ to USA)

45¢ beginning 1 Aug 1995 (52¢ to USA)

46¢ beginning 1 Jan 1999 (55¢ to USA)

47¢ beginning 1 Jan 2001 (60¢ to USA)

Reference:
Canadian Stamps Online
http://www.geocities.com/cdnstampalbum/

2001 January 1

Free Public Access to Electronic Journals

The Government of Canada is providing free access to the scientific and technical electronic journals published by the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information's NRC Research Press. As of January 1, 2001, these 14 journals are free to anyone with a Canadian IP (Internet Protocol) address. The journals can be accessed at
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_jour_e

Biochemistry and Cell Biology
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?bcb
Published since 1929, this bimonthly journal explores every aspect of general biochemistry, and includes up-to-date coverage of experimental research into cellular and molecular biology, review articles on topics of current interest, and notes, contributed by recognized international experts. Special issues each year are dedicated to expanding new areas of research in biochemistry and cell biology. Papers are published electronically within 6 weeks of acceptance...

Canadian Geotechnical Journal
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cgj
Published since 1963, this bimonthly journal is one of three leading geotechnical publications with an international authorship and circulation. Topics include foundations, excavations, soil properties, dams, embankments, slopes, new developments in geohydrology, rock engineering, geochemistry, waste management and contaminant transport, frozen soil, ice and snow, offshore soils, and geostatistics...

Canadian Journal of Botany
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjb

Canadian Journal of Chemistry
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjc

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjce

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjes

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjfas
Published continuously since 1901 (under various titles), this monthly journal is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. The Journal has been ranked by ISI as one of the top three journals in its field for the past decade. It publishes perspectives (syntheses, critiques, and re-evaluations), discussions (comments and replies), articles, and rapid communications, on cells, organisms, populations, ecosystems, or processes that affect aquatic systems, to amplify, modify, question, or redirect accumulated knowledge in the field of fisheries and aquatic science...

Canadian Journal of Forest Research
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjfr
Published since 1971, this monthly journal has been ranked by ISI as one of the top forest science research journals in the past decade. The Journal features articles, over 65% by international scientists, in silviculture, forest mensuration, harvesting, vegetation management, tree physiology, ecophysiology, dendrochronology, forest ecology, forest fire ecology, forest soil biology, biotechnology, forest genetics, tree improvement, forest entomology and pathology, pollution effects, global change impacts, forest practices effects on biodiversity and sustainability, and forest economics...

Canadian Journal of Microbiology
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjm
Published since 1954, this monthly journal publishes contributions by recognized scientists world-wide and has an international readership in more than 58 countries. Journal topics include applied microbiology and biotechnology; microbial structure and function; fungi and other eucaryotic protists; infection and immunity; microbial ecology; physiology, metabolism, and enzymology; and virology, genetics, and molecular biology...

Canadian Journal of Physics
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjp
Published since 1929, this monthly journal publishes research and review articles, rapid communications, and thematic issues on atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter, elementary particles and nuclear physics, gases, fluid dynamics and plasmas, electromagnetism and optics, mathematical physics, and interdisciplinary, classical and applied physics, and physics education...

Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjpp
Published since 1929, this monthly journal is a leading international research publication that reports current research in all aspects of physiology, nutrition, pharmacology and toxicology, contributed by recognized experts and scientists with special areas of expertise. It publishes symposium reviews and award lectures, and on occasion dedicates entire issues to subjects of special interest...

Canadian Journal of Zoology
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?cjz
Published since 1929, this monthly journal is Canada's best known publication in the broad field of zoology. It has achieved international prominence due to contributions by respected scientists in the areas of behaviour, biochemistry and physiology, developmental biology, ecology, genetics, morphology and ultrastructure, parasitology and pathology, and systematics and evolution...

Environmental Reviews
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?er
Published since 1993, this quarterly journal presents authoritative reviews on a wide range of environmental science topics, with emphasis on the effects on and response of both natural and man-made ecosystems to anthropogenic stress. Specific topics include climatic change, harvesting impacts, air pollution, ozone, acid rain, pesticide use, lake acidification, marine pollution, ecology of oil spills, biological control, food chain biomagnification, rehabilitation of polluted aquatic systems, erosion, agroforestry, and bio-indicators of environmental stress...

Genome
http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_desc_e?gen
Published since 1957, this is an international cytogenetics bimonthly journal which publishes reports in the fields of population, evolutionary and developmental genetics, mutagenesis, genetics and cytogenetics of animals, plants and fungi. Reports are based on the most advanced techniques available. Associate editors in Australia, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, U.K., and U.S.A. receive and handle manuscripts directly facilitating the rapid processing of papers...

2001 January 3

Memories of 1970s Television

Bangor Offered Folksy Glimpse of U.S. Glamour
for Nova Scotia TV Viewers

Goofy small-station personalities big hits
in 1970s, '80s Atlantic Canada

If the name Eddy Driscoll doesn't ring a bell, maybe this will: One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies.

Anyone who watched cable TV in Atlantic Canada in the 1970s and '80s might recall the New England-accented Driscoll dressed as a robot, a cowboy or even a woman, handing out paltry amounts of cash over the phone during breaks in the afternoon Great Money Movie.

Community groups in places called Brewer and Dover-Foxcroft could submit public service announcements and Driscoll promised "We'll put 'em on foh yah."

Driscoll was an on-air personality with WLBZ-TV in Bangor, Maine, and an unwitting influence on millions of Canadians.

While the world was under the spell of Hollywood, Atlantic Canada was taking its cultural cues from Bangor.

Only Five TV Channels Available

The only cable package available at the time brought the total number of English-language stations on the tube to five. All three imports were broadcast out of Bangor, a distant city of fewer than 35,000.

"Cable was new, and it was the first real view we had into the United States," says Brian White, 34, who watched his share of Maine TV as a kid. "I wouldn't say it was the big city, but it was America."

The characters seem absurd in hindsight, Dalhousie University history professor Michael Cross says, but Bangor TV would have made sense to Nova Scotians at the time.

In the 1970s, our province's biggest cultural exports were Hank Snow and Carroll Baker, and Don Messer's Jubilee had only recently gone off the air. Halifax was smaller and quieter than it is today, and Bangor offered down-home familiarity with a taste of U.S. glamour.

Cross recalls that when his son was seven or eight, he asked to go on a road trip to the capital of TV-land. "He was crushingly disappointed when we got there," Cross says. "He expected it to be much bigger, much more happening there."

Pilgrimages south across the bumpy Airline Route from Calais (pronounced callous), Maine to Bangor became common when the TV audience was saturated with U.S. commercials. Cross recalls that bus tours embarked for monster bingo games, and it seemed everyone went there on shopping excursions.

Ultra low-budget variety show

The traffic went both ways. Driscoll took a publicity tour of New Brunswick and Dick Stacey of the ultra low-budget variety show Stacey's Country Jamboree travelled to Nova Scotia on a talent search.

The tie was severed in 1990 when Atlantic cable companies switched to feeds from Detroit. After complaints mounted that Detroit news was too violent, the companies switched again, but chose Boston over Bangor. "We've outgrown Bangor, but we're not yet in Detroit," Cross says.

[The Halifax Daily News, 3 January 2001]

Nova Scotian Exodus Spelled End
for Stacey's Country Jamboree

Brian White remembers that when he was allowed to stay up late on the weekend, it was more often to watch Stacey's Country Jamboree than to see the John Belushi-era Saturday Night Live. It wasn't that his family was into country music; Stacey just offered more laughs.

Dick Stacey was a Bangor, Maine, showman and businessman who hosted what must have been one of the most entertaining variety shows in the history of television.

"Saturday Night Live was trying to invent characters like this," White says. "These were real people, but they were characters who couldn't be manufactured."

Guests of uneven talent would sing, pluck and yodel on Stacey's spartan stage. White remembers the big celebrity seemed to be an elderly woman named Jenny who sang On The Wings of a Snow White Dove every week. There was one time when Stacey and a friend listened to a record player on air.

The host would also use the show to promote his motel and fuel mart, which featured full service. "See these hands? These hands smell like gas," Stacey would say, holding up his stinky paws.

Atlantic Canada cable companies
switched to Detroit stations in 1990

WVII-TV promotions manager Jean Hardin said Stacey's show didn't survive the loss when Atlantic Canada cable television operators switched to Detroit stations in 1990. Canadian viewers made up the backbone of Stacey's audience toward the end of his run.

Hardin said there was a reunion show in the early 1990s, but the station has lost contact with Stacey, who sold his hotel and gas station and rolled out of town like a tumbleweed.

Eddy Driscoll, the personality from rival WLBZ-TV, is living in southern Maine but is in poor health, says long-time colleague Paul Salisbury.

Driscoll was a joker with vaudeville sensibilities, says Salisbury, now the station's senior news photographer. Driscoll would try to make the crew laugh with off-colour jokes, while they would try to knock him off balance. Once they started to dismantle his set on live TV. "He was a great, great person to work with," Salisbury said. "He was crazy. He would go along with anything."

Dalhousie University professor Michael Cross said the characters on Maine TV must have had an influence on viewers here. "It's bound to affect people. But most of us have had so many waves of other cultural forms splash over us since that, it's pretty hard to get a sense of what the lingering impact is."

[The Halifax Daily News, 3 January 2001]

Stacey's Country Jamboree

By Terry Hussey

"There were no rehearsals, and auditions were unheard of. The only thing you had to be to be on Stacey's Country Jamboree was to be sincere and sober," said Charlie Tenan to the Milbridge historians, talking about the popular local TV talent show from the 1970s.

The real origin of the Country Jamboree was in Milbridge, Maine, when local merchant Bob Whitten initiated the show in the late 1950s. Whitten was the owner of a Ben Franklin store on Main Street, where the Milbridge Market is today. According to Tenan, Whitten had a falling out with the Franklin chain and changed the name of his store to Frankenstein's. It was Whitten's Frankenstein Store that sponsored the Country Jamboree.

$75 for two hours of air time

"Bob bought two hours of air time [on TV channel 7 in Bangor] for $75," said Tenan. Then he invited his friend Tenan to MC the show. "What would I do?" asked Tenan.

"I don't care what you do," said Whitten. "Just have a good time." And thus began Tenan's 30 year career as host of the show. Others took over occasionally for short periods, but the show was largely Tenan's.

The format was relaxed and unrehearsed. Anyone who played a guitar or sang could come to the studio and perform on the air. "We were just doing what a lot of people were doing in their own homes," said Tenan. "People loved it."

"It was all done live, and sometimes we made mistakes, but people loved us anyway. Made us more human. Most of the people were pretty good at what they did, but a few were 'less than talented,' " according to Tenan. But that was OK too. The show aired late at night, every Saturday night, and became a local legend Downeast.

Tenan's job was to keep the show moving at a good pace, and to make everyone feel comfortable. He had to keep talking to smooth out the rough places. He had to be able to think fast, respond to any possible situation, and never lose his cool. "We couldn't prepare," said Tenan. "We never knew who was coming."

"Performers would walk in the studio and feel like they knew everybody up front. They felt like we should know them, because they knew us," he said.

"A lot of people don't know about all the other things Bob Whitten did," said Tenan. Whitten was also the owner of Minot Film Exchange, the largest provider of education films in the United States at that time. You would be amazed at the number of films he mailed around the country."

Tenan said that Whitten owned the original film copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Leave Her to Heaven. Whitten and Charlie Smith would take his films all over eastern Maine, showing them in town halls and theaters. They used carbon arc projectors to show the films.

Tenan said that Whitten told him that "One night the film we were showing was terrible. We weren't very proud of it. When we put the last reel on the projectors, we showed the janitor how to turn it off, grabbed the cash box and ran out the door."

Whitten showed films in Milbridge at the old roller rink, which was then located where the municipal safety complex is today. Later he converted it to the opera house. And he held dances at the rink. Most of the old timers in the room had fond memories of attending those dances.

"Each time a new station manager came into WAII, the first thing they would say was that they were going to cancel the Jamboree. And then he would take a look at the Nielsen ratings. We could outrank the big network late shows every time, so they left us alone," said Tenan.

All the way to Nova Scotia

"A couple of times we took the show on the road, all the way down to Nova Scotia. We filled a 2,000-seat auditorium in Dartmouth and played for a full house two nights in Saint John.

Faithful listeners soon got to know regulars like Wanda Harris, who went on to be the top female vocalist in Florida, and Perley Curtis, who today plays for Loretta Lynn. Jeff Simon started on the show when he was about 11 or 12 years old. He has his own band today. Donnie and Dwayne Nickerson started on the show, and today are touring with their own band.

On the Wings of a Snow White Dove

"Everybody remembers Jennie Shontell from Bucksport," said Tenan. Her trademark was her song, On the Wings of a Snow White Dove, one of her repertoire of about five songs that she could sing, according to Tenan.

Tenan showed the historians a film of the show, put together by Alan Grover of Channel Five News. It was made from the original show masters, and showed clips of many of the old stars.

Ended in 1983

"Of course as our ratings went up, the price for advertising went up too. Soon it was $70,000 for what Whitten had paid $75. The end finally came in 1983 when the production of the show was getting just too costly, and advertising was just too hard to come by," said Tenan.

"The group had a reunion in 1990 at Jordan's Snack Bar in Ellsworth, and it was wonderful," he said. "We were just like a family, and it was great to be together again."

Morrill Worcester tried to revive the show on cable a few years ago. He could send it from Maine to Alaska by satellite. "It worked for a while," Tenan said, "and we were still getting 35-40 phone calls every night we were on the air. There's still plenty of people who enjoy this kind of show."

"I did it for 30 years, and I loved it," said Tenan. "If my health allowed, I'd do it again tomorrow." Tenan is hoping to get a reunion group together next summer.

Source:
Milbridge, Maine, Historical Museum website
http://www.quoddyloop.com/milbridgehistoricalsociety/
programs/previous/country_jamboree.html

Dick Stacey pumped the gas himself

...Remember Dick Stacey from Maine, who proudly announced that Canadian money was accepted at par and that he pumped the gas himself at his establishment...
Source:
http://www.isn.net/kj4mayor/page3.html

2001 January 8

Nova Scotia Learning Interchange Up and Running

Apple Computer is providing the engine, the storage
and the technical support at no cost to Nova Scotia

The only site outside of the USA

http://ali.apple.com/nsli/

As part of their response to the Information Economy Initiative tendering process, corporations were asked to provide, not just the tendered equipment, software and services, but "Value Added Products". Apple Computer Inc. offered Nova Scotia an internet-based resource for teachers that would provide a collection of educational resources, lessons, timely information and a collaborative space.

The Nova Scotia Learning Interchange (NSLI), a clone of the successful Apple Learning Interchange, was donated to Mount Saint Vincent University's Department of Education with the mandate to get the service "up and running" to support educators across Nova Scotia. The NSLI is one of seven Apple Learning Interchange affiliate sites in operation, and the only site outside of the USA.

Early in the process of establishing the Nova Scotia Learning Interchange, Mount Saint Vincent – located in Rockingham, a Halifax suburb – invited the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and the Learning Resources and Technology division of the NS Department of Education to collaborate on the design, management, resource development and usage of the site. This collaboration has resulted in the "birth of the NSLI" on January 8th, 2001. It is up and running at http://ali.apple.com/nsli.

The ALI site already contains over 30 000 resources which have been created and vetted by educators. Rather than having to start from scratch, the NSLI is able to draw on this large resource base from the beginning.

Nova Scotia's history and geography...

The challenge for NSLI is to begin to reflect our communities, our history and geography, our philosophies and culture.

It has become very obvious through the IEI project that Nova Scotia educators have talents and perspectives on the use of information technology that they can and should share with each other. The NSLI is a well designed structure to allow teachers from across Nova Scotia to share internet-based resources with each other. The NSLI is completely under the control, direction and ownership of Nova Scotia. Apple Computer is providing the engine, the storage and the technical support at no cost to Nova Scotia.

It works, it looks good, and it is ready to receive as much Nova Scotia content as we have time and talent to create. – Nancy MacDonald

Reference:
the Nova Scotia Learning Interchange website
http://ali.apple.com/nsli/

Source:
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 10:32:47 -0400
From: "Nancy MacDonald" <MACDONNC@gov.ns.ca>
To: <lrt-update@ednet.ns.ca>, <rbts@ednet.ns.ca>
Subject: NS Learning Interchange is Born!

2001 January 17

CanWest Global Communications Corporation
Wants to Shorten Name

Canada's largest media company wants to change its name from CanWest Global Communications to CanWest Communications, but will continue to use Global to promote its television network in Canada. Shareholders will vote on the name change at CanWest's annual meeting next month in Ottawa, during which time they will also vote on electing Hollinger Inc. chairman Conrad Black and Hollinger president David Radler to the board. "The purpose of the change is to promote brand distinction between the company's corporate and operational functions," said a management proxy circular mailed to shareholders yesterday. CanWest became the country's largest media company on November 15, 2000, with the closing of a $3,200,000,000 deal which included most of the Hollinger newspaper chain – including four daily newspapers in Nova Scotia: the Halifax Daily News, the Cape Breton Post, the Truro Daily News, and the New Glasgow Evening News – and a 50 per cent interest in the National Post.
[The Halifax Daily News, 17 January 2001]

Reference:
SEDAR's corporate profile of
CanWest Global Communications Corporation
http://www.sedar.com/dynamic_pages/issuerprofiles_e/i00001586.htm

CanWest Ink-on-Paper Publications in Nova Scotia

The Daily News (Halifax)
The Sunday Daily News (Halifax)
Cape Breton Post
Evening News (New Glasgow)
Truro Daily News
The Bedford-Sackville Weekly News
The Nova Scotia Business Journal
The Burnside News
Marketplace
Post Record (Cape Breton)
Island Shopper (Cape Breton)
TV Scene (New Glasgow)
TV Scene (Truro)
CB Post Real Estate Guide
Real Estate Guide (Truro)
Real Estate Guide (New Glascow)
Helpful Pages Telephone Directory (Truro)
Helpful Pages Telephone Directory (New Glasgow)
North Nova Shopper
Northumberland Business Report
Pictou County this Week
Colchester Sunday

Source:
CanWest Global Communications Corporation website
http://www.canwestglobal.com/

CanWest Global Communications Corporation's directors are:

Israel Harold Asper, Executive Chairman

David A. Asper

Gail S. Asper, Secretary

Leonard J. Asper, President and CEO

Lloyd I. Barber

Jalynn H. Bennett

Conrad Moffat Black

Frank J. McKenna

F. David Radler

Peter D. Viner, Vice Chairman

Sheelagh D. Whittaker
Source: CanWest Global Communications Corporation: Notice of Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders, 7 December 2000
http://www.sedar.com/dynamic_pages/issuerprofiles_e/i00001586.htm

2001 January 17

Mint Tells Ottawa to Keep the Penny
Put $5 Coin on Hold

OTTAWA (Southam) – The penny has won a reprieve. And Canadians won't be fishing a $5 coin out of their pockets any time soon. The Royal Canadian Mint has advised the federal government to keep the lowly one-cent coin – at least for now – based on the findings of an Ottawa consulting firm.

The report by Sussex Circle on possible coin changes says the penny should not be eliminated "as there is no compelling case to do so at the present time." The consultants also found no pressing need for a $5 coin, but say its introduction will be "progressively more likely" if inflation keeps climbing. The mint released a copy of the September 2000 report yesterday in response to a request from Southam News. The report's recommendations formed the basis of advice to the government last fall, said mint spokesman Pierre Morin.

Many people consider pennies a nuisance, hoarded in jars and boxes in countless closets and drawers. Some have called for Canada to follow the lead of countries such as Australia and New Zealand and get rid of the one-cent coin.

A 1997 poll suggested 34 per cent of Canadians would see the penny's disappearance as good news, while 40 per cent didn't seem to care one way or the other and just 26 per cent felt it would be bad news. But the report notes that since the mint produces more than 700 million one-cent coins annually, "there is clearly a demand the public for them."

One-cent pieces used to cost more than a penny to make, but the production price has dropped to 0.9 of a cent since the mint switched to copper-plated zinc from solid copper. The report uncovers no evidence to suggest rounding prices because of the penny's demise would fuel inflation. But it stresses the importance of public perception in deciding the coin's fate. "Experience in other countries suggests the public can be very skeptical about possible price increases and other inequities, real or imagined," says the report.

Many countries have already introduced a coin with a value of close to $5 or more. But the report identifies potential stumbling blocks to such a move in Canada:

Little enthusiasm from the vending industry.
Major concerns on the part of financial institutions.
A $5 coin might be attractive to counterfeiters.
Consumers may be angered by the number and weight of coins they must carry.

[The Halifax Daily News, 17 January 2001]

2001 January 17

Redesigned $10 Bank Note Launched

OTTAWA, January 17th – The Bank of Canada launched the first in a new series of bank notes today. The new note contains many new sophisticated security features designed to thwart counterfeiters. Since the current note series was introduced in 1986, significant technological advances in bank note production have made it possible to incorporate better security features into paper currency. This comes at a time when affordable high-resolution colour copiers, inkjet printers, and computer scanners have increased the potential for counterfeiting.

A major enhancement to the new series is the addition of a durable tactile feature that will greatly improve the ability of the blind and vision-impaired to recognize different denominations.

The images on the backs of the notes are changing but the Queen and prime ministers who are featured on the front of the current notes will remain, with new portraits. The notes will be the same size, and the existing dominant colours on each denomination will be maintained.

The new $5 note will be issued later in 2001, and the remaining new notes ($20, $50, and $100) will be introduced over the next two to three years. The current notes will remain legal tender even after the new notes are introduced.

Source:
Bank of Canada press release, 17 January 2001
http://www.newswire.ca/government/federal/english/releases/January2001/17/c9895.html

2001 January 18

1960s Technological Mistake
Evicts Hundreds in 2001

Hundreds in Shock, Scramble for Shelter in Mid-Winter

Almost 400 told free hotel stay over
apartments closed for three months

More than 350 residents of a fire-damaged apartment highrise awoke on Thursday, January 18th to learn they are homeless. Inspectors assessing Armdale Place Apartments in Cowie Hill, a Halifax suburb, following Tuesday night's electrical fire discovered the building has aluminum wiring, which was outlawed in the 1970s.

Tenants can't return to the 36 Abbey Road building until the aluminum wiring – considered a fire hazard – is replaced. That could take three months or longer.

The news went from bad to worse for the 370 tenants as they learned their free stay at Keddy's Halifax Hotel, courtesy of the building's owner, was over.

Most of the displaced spent their afternoon waiting in long line-ups at the Chocolate Lake Community Centre to register with public housing and to tell Red Cross volunteers their needs.

Tempers blew and tears fells as property manager Kurt Nordqvist failed to give the crowd answers to their questions.

Who would pay for the thawed food in their freezers? Who would cover their moving costs? Where were they supposed to go with little kids and pets until they find a new place?

"I can't answer any questions about the building, because we don't know," Nordqvist said, while the crowd peppered him with questions and accusations. He could only assure them they would receive their damage deposit along with the balance of January's rent, and that their possessions would be secure, should they choose to leave them in the building. "You have your health, you have your clothing for the day, and all belongings are in the building," Nordqvist said.

Last night, about 15 people who didn't have anywhere else to stay bunked down on cots at the recreation centre.

"We feel like homeless people," complained Morad Alkhasawneh, 16. He, his mother Hanan Alkarmi and nine-year-old sister Haneen arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. "Our lives are upside down," said Hanan, who worked at the daycare located inside Armdale Place. "I lost my job and I lost my home. I never dreamed I would be in a situation like this."

Tracy Oldham filled out public housing applications while her four-month-old baby girl slept in her carrier and her boys raced around the recreation centre. "They're trying to get us out of the hotel tonight, but that's pretty hard for them to do because we've got no place to go," Oldham said.

Tara Armstrong just recently moved to Halifax from Ontario with her husband, a dog and two cats. She said they have no one to stay with while looking for an apartment that will allow pets.

[The Halifax Daily News, 19 January 2001]

55 times more likely to be a fire hazard

Aluminum wiring, used in some homes from the mid 1960's to the early 1970's, is a potential fire hazard. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, fires and even deaths have been reported to have been caused by this hazard. CPSC research shows that homes wired with aluminum wire manufactured before 1972 are 55 times more likely to have one or more connections reach Fire Hazard Conditions than are homes wired with copper.
Source:
Aluminum Wiring in Residential Properties: Hazards and Remedies
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum.htm

Many Thousands of Canadian Homes with Aluminum Wiring

The Facts About Aluminum Wiring In The Home
It is estimated that there are over 450,000 homes in Canada that are wired with aluminum wiring. How do you find out what type of wiring has been installed in your home? Well, if you weren't told when the sale was made, you can probably check the wiring yourself. This can usually be done by looking at the electrical wiring, either between the open floor joists, in the basement, up in the attic, or at the service panel. If the wiring is aluminum and was manufactured before May 1977, the outer covering of the cable will be marked, at least every 12 inches, with the word ALUMINUM, or an abbreviation, ALUM, or AL. If the cable was manufactured after May 1977, the marking may be either ALUMINUM ACM, ALUM ACM, or AL ACM...
http://www.marh.gov.bc.ca/SES/ESP/aluminum.html

Very High Probability Of Overheating

...Aluminum-wired connections in homes have been found to have a very high probability of overheating compared with copper-wired connections. The aluminum-wired connections that fail tend to progressively deteriorate at a slow rate, and after many years can reach very high temperature while still remaining electrically functional in the circuits. A large number of connection burnouts have occurred in aluminum-wired homes. Many fires have resulted, some involving injury and death...
Source:
Reducing the Fire Hazard in Aluminum-Wired Homes
Written By: Jesse Aronstein, Ph.D., P.E.
January 25, 1982 – Revised May 10, 1996
This report was originally prepared for: Electrical Safety Conference – Electrical Fires, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Madison, Wisconsin, April 14, 1982
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/alreduce.htm

1965 to 1973 the most dangerous years

Homes or apartments built, or rooms added, or circuits rewired or added between 1965 and 1973 may contain aluminum wiring. Don't assume that there's no aluminum wire if your house was not built during these years. Circuits may have been added, extended, modified using aluminum wiring. Or an installer may have had leftover aluminum wire and used it after these dates.

In the attic look at the wire gauge or "size." Look for #12-gauge wires in the attic or other places where wiring is readily available. The wire-gauge size is printed or embossed on the wire jacket. If you see only #12 and no #14, look further. Aluminum wire must be two wire gauge sizes larger for a given circuit than if copper was used. So while #14 copper wire is permitted on a 15-ampere electrical circuit, if aluminum wire was used for the same circuit it would have to be #12. Similarly, a 20-ampere circuit uses #12 copper wire or #10 aluminum wire. Common residential lighting and electrical-receptacle circuits are 15-amp or possibly 20-amp (e.g. in a kitchen). So if you see only #12 or larger wires in the attic of your house look further to see if it's aluminum.#12 does not guarantee it's aluminum, it's just more data to point in that direction.

Source:
Recognizing Aluminum Electrical Wiring
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/recogniz.htm

Aluminum Wiring References

A Brief History of Aluminum Wiring
A number of homes and apartment buildings that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s were wired using #10 and #12 gauge aluminum branch circuit conductors. This aluminum wiring supplies power to switches, light fixtures and receptacle outlets. Since the mid-1970s the use of aluminum branch circuit wiring in gauges #10 and #12 has been prohibited (in the United States)...
http://www.cooper-electric.net/proalum.htm

Homes built before 1965 are unlikely to have aluminum branch circuit wiring. Homes built, rooms added, and circuits rewired or added between 1965 and 1973 may contain aluminum wiring. In 1972, manufacturers modified both aluminum wire and switches and outlets to improve the performance of aluminum wired connections. Sale of the old style wire, switches and outlets still on dealer's shelves however, continued after 1972...
http://www.heimer.com/information/aluminum_wiring.html

Electrical fires and other electric system malfunctions involving buildings containing aluminum wiring began to occur at an increasing rate ... Further investigations indicated that the intrinsic physical characteristics of aluminum wire were the basic cause...
http://www.new-all.com/alumwiring.htm

Repairing Aluminum Wiring – U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/awrepair.htm

Aluminum wiring
http://www.landfield.com/faqs/electrical-wiring/part2/section-16.html

Reducing the Risk of Aluminum Wiring Hazards
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company
http://www.hsb.com/thelocomotive/Story/FullStory/ST-FS-ALUM2.html

Aluminum Wiring
http://www.pillartopost.com/techtalk/info01.html
http://www.pillarwi.com/infoseries/info01.htm

Aluminum Branch Circuit Wiring
http://www.cornerstone-inspection.com/aluminum_wiring.html

Aluminum Wiring in Residential Properties – The Hazard
http://www.bycapricorn.com/consolidated/aluminum.htm

Aluminum wiring: is it really a problem?
http://homerepair.miningco.com/homegarden/homerepair/library/weekly/aa021700.htm

2001 January 19

Thousands of Tonnes of Road Salt

Kings County

It involves thousands of tonnes of salt spread over more than 1500 kilomtres of roads and streets, but local snow removal and ice control efforts are bearing up under the pressure of this winter, in which we are seeing more snow than we have become accustomed to recently.

Though major blizzards have not appeared here, there have been several bouts of aggravating snowfalls over the last few weeks. One such incident earlier this week brought 12 centimetres of snow on Monday, January 15th, with a further 3 cm the following day, according to the Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre in Kentville. As well, the snow is accumulating this year, not melting away between storms.

Provincial Transportation Department area manager Bob Bieren said on January 16th that the salt usage is about 78 per cent more than the five-year average for the Kings County zone, but crews and equipment "are holding up very well." The Kings County region includes about 1500 km of road, served by 15 salt trucks and snowplows, and 4 sanders.

So far this year, the Transportation department has used 9500 tonnes of salt on Kings County roads, at a cost of $33.25 a tonne. There's no difficulty getting as much salt as they want, other than the long lineups of trucks waiting to be loaded at the Canadian Salt Company Ltd. salt mine in Pugwash, Cumberland County. Bieren noted that the weather this season is not a small number of significant snowfalls, but "a little bit" today and a little bit tomorrow and so on, which drives up the amounts of salt needed and the accompanying costs.

Kentville's engineering and works director Hal Henderson says that the town has spent about $75,000 of its $155,000 snow and ice control budget so far – about half. "Normally, we'd be at one-third of the budget at this time." The final tally depends on how the rest of the winter works out. The town of Kentville has about fifty kilometres of streets and roads. To control snow and ice on them, the town has a new loader/snowplow, two three-tonne snowplows and a one-tonne snowplow. Also there are two contracted snowplows available if needed.

Wolfville crews maintain about thirty kilomteres of streets and roads. Wolfville's operational services director Gregg Morrison said that snow removal crews "have been quite busy over the last few weeks. We're doing a lot of work on snow removal." The town has a loader-snowplow and a salt-truck/snowplow as well as smaller equipment for sidewalks and parking lots. The town of Wolfville has used about 500 tonnes of road salt so far this season "which is around what we've expected

[The Kentville Advertiser, 19 January 2001]

2001 January 21

Guysboro Railway Being Planned

The District of Guysborough's regional development authority is hoping to bring rail service to the region with the construction of a 50-kilometre spur into the Goldboro industrial park.

Authority spokesman Bill Connolly said the 700-acre park will eventually double in size as the demand for industrial space grows with the offshore oil and gas boom that has already made the eastern county the landing point of Sable Island natural gas.

Since gas began coming ashore, he said, the authority has been approached by investors seeking to establish spin-off business in the liquid gas condensate and plastics industries, but their main concern has been the availability of rail transportation.

Link to Truro-Sydney railway

The municipality has already conducted a feasibility study for the spur, which would link the park with the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway's main line from Antigonish to Sydney. The junction would be at a point somewhere between Antigonish and the yard at Havre Boucher, possibly at Heatherton, Connolly said. Initial surveys show the area to be relatively free of expensive and heavy engineering such as bridges or tunnels, with only culverts being necessary, and few, if any, steep grades.

The line will be built in anticipation of heavy traffic, with 115-pound rail capable of supporting 286,000-pound loads, far heavier than the CB&CNS has on its road bed. Connolly said the railway is already into a five-year upgrade program that will see its rail improved to those specifications. "We're not taking a Field of Dreams approach to this," Connolly said. "We're not working on the idea that if we build it, they will come. We have asked the interested investors what kind of traffic volumes they are anticipating, and we're evaluating whether that traffic will make the line a paying proposition."

If the project proves feasible, the authority would negotiate with CN, the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway or both to build and operate the spur. Connolly said the plan is being planned in two phases, with the first phase to be completed by 2004, and the second by 2010.

[The Halifax Sunday Daily News, 21 January 2001]

Traditional railroad cars weight up to 263,000 pounds 119,000 kg and have 33 ton 30 tonne axle loads, compared to the new-generation 286,000 pound 129,000 kg cars with 36 ton 33 tonne axle loads. The 286,000 lb. heavy axle load car carries almost 10% more commodity than does the conventional 263,000 lb. car with only a minimum increase in the empty weight of the car. This results in an increase in the efficiency of rail freight movement due to an improvement in net/tare ratio, the ratio of a freight car's carrying capacity (net load) to its empty (tare) weight. If cars can be loaded more heavily without significantly increasing their tare weight, railroads stand to realize savings in:

Capital costs (fewer cars needed to move a fixed volume of traffic)
Fuel costs (reduced tare weight means an improved ratio of net load to gross weight)
Crew costs (fewer car trips may permit a reduction in the number of trains operated)
Locomotive costs (if train net load can be increased within the same gross train weight, there is more revenue for the same locomotive mileage)

http://www.house.gov/transportation/ground/07-25-00/zarembski.html

Rail is identified by its weight per yard and its cross-sectional shape. The rail weight is referred to as its nominal weight per yard or metre, such as 115 pounds per yard 57 kg/m. Rail can be manufactured in many different lengths. In the United Satates (and in Canada) the standard manufacturing lengths for rail are 39 feet 11.9 m and 78 feet 23.8 m...
http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/55-20/ch7.htm

Excellent description of the basic components used in building railway track

Ballast
Crossties – wood ties and concrete ties
Switch ties – Switch ties are specially cut and formed crossties, and should always be made of hardwood.
Rails
Rail joints, splice bars, track bolts – The track bolt is made from heat-treated, high-carbon steel. It has an elliptical neck under the bolt head which mates with a matching elliptical hole in the joint bar. This provides a means of holding the bolt during the tightening operation. These holes are normally alternated in the joint bar so that every other bolt is put through the assembly from the opposite side. This practice makes it extremely unlikely that all the bolts in a joint would be broken during a derailment.
Continuous-welded rail (sometimes called "ribbon rail")
Rail anchors
Tie plates – single-shoulder and double-shoulder
Track spikes
Track switches, switch crossties, switch stands
Derailers – Derails are safety devices designed to limit unauthorized movement of a car or locomotive beyond a specific point. The most frequent use of derails is to prevent unauthorized movement of equipment from a side track onto a main track.
Frogs
Guard rails

http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/55-20/ch7.htm

Railway Track & Structures
Optimizing Wheel, Rail Profiles
National Research Council of Canada's Center for Surface Transportation Technology
The wheel/rail contact zone is a variable, changeable interface at which more than 60 variables, or parameters with complex interrelationships, are at work ... On heavy-haul freight systems, a wheel may have a life of 150,000 miles – roughly 80 million revolutions. Rail with a 750-mgt (million gross tons) life endures about 40 million wheel contacts...
http://www.rtands.com/jul99/optimizing.html

Municipality Helps Fund Transportation Corridor Study

Councillors for the Municipality of the District of Guysborough have agreed to increase the funding they will put into a transportation corridor study. A motion was passed which authorizes council to pay for up to 25 percent of the study to a maximum of $50,000. The study, which is being done by the Guysborough County Regional Development Authority, will look for a corridor to serve railway, highway, communication and utility purposes. Councillor Derek Hayne said the municipality is kicking in the money so the survey can be completed quickly. "We're looking at companies who specialize in this type of study," says Hayne. "They'll look at where the corridor should run to know how many spikes will be needed for the railway."

The other 75 percent of the funding will come from a federal program. The study will cost $200,000. Hayne said the municipality is moving on the project because expected public-sector funding didn't materialize. "Once we have the study we can use it as part of the pitch for land sales in Goldboro."

Warden Lloyd Hines added the municipality suffers from an absence of infrastructure and that it is in its best interest to make the investment. "When you look at the requirement to grow these things you have to have the infrastructure in roads and rail," said Hines. "We're taking a bold step in macroplanning – road, rail, utility, IT (Information Technology), pipeline easement – all into Goldboro. That doesn't exist now."

The study contract hasn't been awarded yet but Hines says it has been narrowed down to a short list, all of which are international companies. He added he hopes it will be awarded by mid-February.

[The Guysborough Journal, 17 January 2001]

References:
Guysborough County Regional Development Authority website
http://www.gcrda.ns.ca/
Municipality of the District of Guysborough
http://www.munisource.org/unsm/mguysbor.htm
http://www.municipalities.com/Guysborough/

2001 January 23

CJCH Part of National All-Sports Radio Network

Halifax's 920 CJCH is switching from talk to jock. The CHUM station is hanging up the news-chat format and strapping on athletic gear to become part of a new, countrywide 24-hour-a-day sports radio network, to be known as The Team.

"This is an exciting time for us," Bill Bodnarchuk, vice-president and general manager of Talk Radio 920 CJCH, said yesterday after announcing the shift to station employees. "I think it's long overdue." Bodnarchuk said the schedule will still have room for local news and weather, but the main focus of The Team will be sports, with national programming and local content figuring prominently.

The Team will be unique concept in radio, especially with the combination of local and national sports coverage, Bodnarchuk said. "We are making a major commitment to local sports," he said. The announcement comes at a time when Halifax is preparing to host the world junior hockey championships in 2002-03. "Guess what, everybody in the country is going to want to know about it and we will be there," Bodnarchuk boasted.

CHUM-owned stations in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg and the Ontario cities of Peterborough, Kingston and Kitchener will all change to the all-sports format. The launch date hasn't been set, but Bodnarchuk expects the new format to be running by spring.

Talk Radio 920 CJCH began its all-talk format in 1995, after years of playing Top 40 music on the AM band.

Jim Waters, president of the CHUM Group Radio, told reporters in Toronto that while FM stations have prospered, moving listeners towards the AM dial has been a challenge. Changing the format will help the company and draw new listeners to AM radio, he said. "We think we can do better on our AM side by doing all-sports," said Waters.

One of the big local question marks is the future of Hotline with Rick Howe, CJCH's popular morning talk-show. Bodnarchuk said there are no plans to continue the talk-show format at this time, but added the station is looking at alternatives. He said there will be no layoffs in the format switch. "Right now a lot of things are still up in the air," he said.

[The Halifax Daily News, 23 January 2001]

Allan Waters started in radio in 1954

In 1954, Allan Waters, then a pharmaceutical salesman, bought Toronto radio station CHUM 1050 AM from a friend in the drug-supply business.
[The National Post, 25 January 2001]

Fans rally to rescue CJCH morning show

24 January 2001

Less jock, more talk. That's how fans of 920 CJCH's Hotline with Rick Howe are taking word the station is switching from its news-chat format to a 24-hour-a-day sports outfit this spring. Hotline fans want to save the morning talk show.

The station is part of CHUM Radio Group's move to switch its AM stations in eight cities across the country to an all-sports format. The change was announced Monday, January 22nd.

John MacDonald, a Halifax businessman, has decided to use words on the Web to save talk on the air. He's set up a Web page www.es-can.com/talk.html to collect names of people who want to save the Hotline. "This is going to be a major blow for Halifax," MacDonald said yesterday. "Issues get discussed on the Hotline that don't get discussed anywhere else."

The electronic petition had only been posted for a few hours when it had collected 28 names, all wanting to keep the Hotline on the air. Comments will be posted on the site and MacDonald promises to update the page as responses come in.

Some of the comments so far: "It's not just information, it's a public service," argued one Hotline lover. "I don't listen to sports," another Talk Radio fan complained.

MacDonald said most fans of the Hotline think the station should allot time for the popular weekday morning show. "I agree with what people are writing," he said. "I don't think a 24-7 sports station is going to fly."

CJCH vice-president and general manager Bill Bondarchuk said following the announcement of the format switch that no jobs would be lost. The future of the current-events morning talk show appears to be up for grabs, however. Bondarchuk said the talk show isn't part of the plan for the station. Howe wasn't available to comment.

[The Halifax Daily News, 24 January 2001]

Reference:
John MacDonald's petition webpage
It has come to our attention that the programming at 92 CJCH is changing to an all sports station and we are not happy to hear this. If you would like to show your support for 92 CJCH Talk radio, please sign this petition:
http://www.es-can.com/talk.html

2001 January 25

Software Glitch Costs Sobeys Millions

Sobeys executives were meeting Thursday, January 25th, with analysts in Toronto over a computer software debacle that may have cost the company millions of dollars.

It's believed Sobeys brass were trying to calm the waters as its stock took a beating on news of the problem. Shortly after the TSE opened Thursday, Sobeys stock dropped by 16 per cent. It finished the day at $20.35, down $3.25, about 14 per cent.

The grocery executives also plan to meet as soon as today with the German systems supplier SAP over a database problem that left employees scrambling to ensure store shelves were full early in December.

Sobeys announced late Wednesday, January 24th, it was abandoning SAP's distribution product but will retain SAP's payroll and financial systems. "We do have a meeting set up with them (SAP)," said Stewart Mahoney, vice-president of treasury and investor relations for Empire, parent company of Sobeys. Empire holds 62 per cent of Sobeys. "We will be having thorough discussions on the phase-out ... of that (distribution) system."

Mr. Mahoney wouldn't say whether Empire, which invested $89.1 million in the planned companywide software system, would take further action. The glitch affected Atlantic Canadian Sobeys stores and 30 of its Ontario outlets. "We'll be handling this with SAP ... and it's privy between ... SAP and ourselves. We have made the decision to move ahead without SAP."

Mr. Mahoney said shareholders he's spoken to appear to support the decision to abandon SAP and use another system. "They understand that it's a one-time event."

Sobeys executives told shareholders Wednesday, January 24th, the company will record an after-tax special charge of $49,900,000, or 82 cents a share, ($89,100,000 or $1.47 a share pre-tax), due to dropping the SAP distribution system.

They were hopeful the situation would go over well Thursday on Bay Street.

Mr. Mahoney said he'd fielded about 25 calls from shareholders since the company put out its initial release Wednesday. "We'll be doing what's in the best interest of (the shareholders). I was here ... quite late last night. Things have calmed down now."

The country's major brokerage houses reacted Thursday, downgrading Sobeys stock. Merrill Lynch termed it mid-neutral, down from accumulate. CIBC World Markets and Scotia Capital also lowered their ratings to buy from strong buy.

Mr. Mahoney said that for five days the affected Sobeys stores had trouble replenishing stock because of the software problem. Contingency measures and the hard work of staff helped alleviate the situation, he said.

SAP said Thursday, January 25th, it is "surprised and disappointed" at the decision by Sobeys to discontinue using the SAP system. "There also has been clear and open communication between SAP and Sobeys at all levels of the relationship, including the executive level," SAP said in a statement e-mailed to this newspaper. "In fact, SAP America CEO Wolfgang Kemna and SAP Canada senior vice-president and managing director Peter Blackmore are scheduled to attend a previously arranged visit with Sobeys (today)."

SAP brass also alluded to recent shuffling in the Sobeys management structure as possibly being behind any technological trouble. "When companies change executive management, this sometimes results in changes in a company's information technology strategy," SAP's release said.

Former Sobeys CEO Doug Stewart left last fall, while his successor Bill McEwan took over Nov. 25.

"Sobeys' CEO arrived very recently ... and many of the senior management team, including the (chief information officer), also changed. As such, SAP regards the very surprising nature of this announcement as disappointing."

SAP spoke of the strong team it has "on the ground" with Sobeys, adding that it worked "hand in hand" to identify and resolve issues. "Particularly those related to the IBM database, an issue specifically identified by Sobeys in its press release. The SAP project team has full confidence in the SAP solution and believes there is a very clear path to resolving current, identified issues at Sobeys," SAP said.

Mr. Mahoney wouldn't say whether Sobeys incurred extra costs because it is leaving SAP. (Sobeys has been using an interim system and plans to announce a replacement soon.) He said the December troubles led to a more in-depth evaluation of the SAP system, and executives decided it wasn't a good fit for Sobeys. "It's important (that as) an $11,000,000,000 (company) ... that we have robust, flexible systems which really result in a company being more efficient and productive. That helps all of the stakeholders."

[The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 26 January 2000]

Tech Foul-Up Sinks Sobey's Stock

Lawsuits predicted in Sobeys computer kerfuffle

Investors pummelled the stock of Sobeys Inc. yesterday, in the wake of an information-technology foulup that cost Canada's second-largest grocer at least $89,100,000. By the day's end, Sobeys stock had fallen almost 14 per cent, and some analysts were predicting the computer problems could lead to a flurry of legal actions between Sobeys and German-based international software giant SAP AG.

The share-price drop, by $3.25 to $20.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, is a sign investors were shaken by the announcement late Wednesday from Sobeys's new chief executive officer, said several stock watchers.

"I don't think investors are going to give (Sobeys) managers the benefit of the doubt until they prove out a bit," said Perry Caicco, a retailing analyst with National Bank Financial.

The computer system to track the flow of groceries throughout the company's 1,400 stores has "been years and $90 million" in the making, said Caicco. "It was meant to have a massive amount of benefit to the company." Instead, Sobeys stated it will take an after-tax charge of $49.9 million in the current quarter to reflect the abandonment of the system.

The decision was precipitated by a massive five-day database system crash in early December, said president and CEO Bill McEwan – who had taken over as head of Sobeys just a few days before the crisis hit. He says the company had to take special measures to supply stores during the Christmas period, and some stores ran out of goods that customers wanted.

But a spokesman for SAP said the company doesn't agree there are serious problems with its software and was "shocked and disappointed" by the Sobeys move. SAP's Bill Wohl said two senior executives were scheduled to meet with Sobeys executives today at the supermarket operator's headquarters to discuss the problems.

One Halifax-based analyst who follows Sobeys said investors won't let management off the hook for the computer woes. Jonathan Norwood of Beacon Securities noted several massive block trades yesterday. "You had institutional investors buying this stock at $27 a few months ago; they're not going to be too happy," he said. "You have to wonder, whose fault is it? Is it SAP's fault? Is it management's fault? I'm not sure why this thing wasn't tested."

[The Halifax Daily News, 26 January 2001]

Sobeys Stock Sinks on News of Charge

Sobeys Inc. shares fell 13.8 per cent yesterday after the company said it is abandoning a new software system, a move that will cost the company $49.9-million this quarter.

Canada's second-largest supermarket operator announced Wednesday that it will take an aftertax charge of $49,900,000 or 82 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter, ending in January.

Its shares closed at $20.35 yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down $3.25. More than three million shares moved, almost 40 times the typical daily average.

Stellarton, Nova Scotia-based Empire Co. Ltd., which holds a 62-per-cent stake in Sobeys, said it will record an aftertax charge of $30,800,000 because of Sobeys' move. Its shares fell 8.1 per cent yesterday, down $2.75 to $31 on the TSE.

Sobeys, which is also based in Stellarton, decided to drop software provided by SAP AG of Germany after a "serious" five-day disruption at some stores in early December.

In a conference call yesterday, Sobeys chief executive officer Bill McEwan said a new chief information officer "will be joining us in the coming very few weeks."

SAP said it was surprised to hear that Sobeys decided to stop using its enterprise-wide systems.

Bill Wohl, an SAP spokesman, said yesterday the company had not been officially notified by Sobeys and was "surprised and disappointed." Mr. Wohl, who noted there are no serious problems with the software, said two SAP executives will visit Sobeys in Stellarton to discuss the situation. "We don't see any reason for Sobeys to pull out the SAP solution," Mr. Wohl said. "We have full confidence it can work very well for Sobeys. There's a strong SAP team on the ground to resolve issues."

Mr. Wohl said it was too early to discuss possible legal action.

Sobey's Mr. McEwan said the SAP software couldn't deal with his firm's large transaction volume. Mr. McEwan said Sobeys has plans for a new system that would provide "better functionality in half the time."

SAP is the largest software company in Europe and the world's leading supplier of inter-enterprise software.

Food industry analyst Perry Caicco of investment dealer National Bank Financial Inc. welcomed Sobeys' plan to abandon the SAP system but said operational problems "run deeper." "On the positive side, Sobeys is finally ditching their cumbersome ... SAP system," Mr. Caicco wrote in a report to clients. "However, we believe that the problems run deeper than they appear."

Mr. Caicco said inefficiencies in Sobeys' basic core systems are leading to high operating costs. In addition, he said its food-service distributor, SERCA Foodservice, may be in trouble, and faces a growing challenge from Houston-based Sysco Corp., the largest food-service marketing and distribution organization in North America. But Mr. Caicco, who lowered his 12-month target on Sobeys' stock price to $23 from $27, remained optimistic on the company's outlook. "Despite Sobeys' modest valuation and recent troubles, we have always maintained that it has excellent strategic prospects."

[The Globe and Mail, 26 January 2001]

Sobeys takes one-time $50,000,000 writedown

To phase out SAP software system that failed in December

Sobeys Inc., Canada's No. 2 grocer, has been forced to take a $50,000,000 writedown after a software system developed by SAP AG of Germany crashed before Christmas, leaving many supermarket shelves bare. Sobey's head office is at 115 King Street, Stellarton, Nova Scotia.

The system, which Sobeys is phasing out, suffered a five-day meltdown in early December, Bill McEwan, president and chief executive, said during a conference call. "The bottom line is that SAP was not going to create a sustainable systems solution for this organization," he said.

Sobeys has new plans for an IT solution that will provide better functionality in half the time, with a whole suite of options, he said. The SAP software will be phased out of Sobeys' Atlantic division and its 30 corporately owned stores in Ontario.

Sobeys shares dipped 14% on the news, closing at $20.35 yesterday, down $3.25.

Bill Wohl, an SAP America spokesman, said there are no serious problems with the software and the company is surprised and disappointed with the Sobeys announcement. "We don't see any reason for Sobeys to pull out of the SAP solution ... we have full confidence it can work very well," he said. "Sobeys has been an active SAP customer in Canada, and right now there is a strong SAP team on the ground there, working hand in hand with them to identify and resolve issues encountered in the SAP implementation project, particularly those related to the IBM database, an issue specifically identified by Sobeys."

Industry analysts have said retail companies represent some of the most difficult businesses for the implementation of enterprise-wide solutions, given the large numbers of transactions and the wide range of products.

Sobeys disagrees.

"What appeared to be growing pains with the implementation of the system are in fact systemic problems of a more serious nature," Mr. McEwan said. "We have determined that there is insufficient core functionality in the SAP software component to effectively deal with the extremely high number of transactions in our retail operating environment."

However, Mr. Wohl said it is still too early to analyze the complete picture at Sobeys, including internal issues at the company, business and market conditions, and the full range of technology and partner issues that may have had an impact on the technology project there.

Wolfgang Kemna, SAP America president and chief executive, was scheduled to meet senior Sobeys officials later today to discuss the situation, Mr. Wohl said.

The one-time accounting writedown reflects the abandonment of assets related to the SAP enterprise-wide systems initiative at Sobeys, which has about 400 company-owned stores and 1,000 franchised outlets, making it second to Loblaw in its share of Canada's retail food market.

[The National Post, 26 January 2001]

References:
Sobeys Incorporated, Empire Company Limited...
http://www.sobeys.com/
http://www.sobeysweb.com/
http://www.iga.net/EN/corporate/sobeys.htm
http://www.empireco.ca/main.htm

SEDAR profile of Sobeys Incorporated
http://www.sedar.com/dynamic_pages/issuerprofiles_e/i00011299.htm

Hoovers' profile of Sobeys Incorporated
http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/0/0,2163,100300,00.html

Wright's profile of Sobeys Incorporated
http://profiles.wisi.com/profiles/scripts/corpinfo.asp?cusip=C124I6510

Federal Competition Bureau profile of Sobeys Incorporated
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ct01672e.html

SAP Canada Inc. website
http://wwwext03.sap.com/canada/home/index.asp
SAP Aktiengesellschaft
Founded in 1972, SAP is based in Walldorf, Germany
http://www.mysap.com/germany/
Investorenkonferenz mySAP Customer Relationship Management
http://www.mysap.com/germany/investor/index.htm
Archived shareholder conference call, in English, Nov. 2000 (1:19:23)
http://www.mysap.com/germany/investor/asx/invconf_1100.asx

Sobeys tackles growth with massive SAP and DB2 deployment
http://www2.software.ibm.com/casestudies/swcsdm.nsf/cs/wmaz-49jnwr

Sobeys Canada Inc. was incorporated under the Companies Act of Nova Scotia. The registered head office of Sobeys Canada Inc. is located at 115 King Street, Stellarton, Nova Scotia.
Empire Company Limited was incorporated under the Companies Act of Nova Scotia on February 12, 1963 and became a public company in April 1982. The registered head office of Empire Company Limited is located at 115 King Street, Stellarton, Nova Scotia.
Empire, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, owns 34,344,115 Sobeys shares (as of 19 October 1999), representing approximately 62% of the outstanding Sobeys shares.
Sobeys Inc. was incorporated on October 27, 1998 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited under the Companies Act of Nova Scotia. Sobeys Inc. was formed to operate all of Empire Company's food distribution and food service businesses carried on through Sobeys Capital Incorporated, including Sobeys Group Inc.
Source: Ontario Securities Commission
http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/en/Regulation/Orders/sobeyscanadainc_19991019.html
http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/en/Regulation/Orders/sobeysinc_20000623.html

The common shares of Sobeys Canada Inc. began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, December 9, 1998...
http://www.tse.com/news/fyi/fyi_145.html

General overview of the Canadian food retail industry, November 2000 – the combined market share of the two major national players, Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Sobeys Inc., exceeds 50%, and each is more than double the size of the next largest competitor...
http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/
canada/canadianfocus/supermarket.html

Sobeys Moves Ahead Without SAP

For immediate release, January 24, 2001

Sobeys Inc. announced today its decision to discontinue further development and implementation of the SAP enterprise-wide software and systems initiative. SAP will be phased out of operation in Sobeys Atlantic Division and 30 corporate Sobeys stores in Ontario. The operations of Sobeys Quebec, Sobeys West, Serca Food Service and the remaining 379 stores in Ontario had not been converted to SAP. The Company has identified alternate software options which will fully meet all the business requirements. The present intentions are to continue to use only the financial statement and human resources modules of SAP software.

Bill McEwan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sobeys Inc. said: "We have come to the conclusion that what appeared to be growing pains with the implementation of these enterprise-wide systems are in fact systemic problems of a more serious nature. We have determined that there is insufficient core functionality in the SAP software component of our enterprise-wide systems to effectively deal with the extremely high number of transactions in our retail operating environment."

In connection with this decision an after-tax special charge of $49,900,000 or 82¢ per share ($89,100,000 or $1.47 per share pre-tax) will be incurred in the current quarter to reflect the abandonment of assets related to the Company's SAP enterprise-wide software and related systems initiative.

Mr. McEwan added: "The systemic complexities of the SAP software, combined with a serious 5-day database and systems disruption in early December led to a comprehensive evaluation of the enterprise-wide software and systems initiative that resulted in today's decision. The 5-day business disruption forced 'work-around' accounting procedures and resulted in unprecedented out-of-stocks in out Atlantic and Ontario corporate stores. All of our employees are to be commended for their extraordinary efforts to maintain service to our customers and refill the distribution pipeline in the weeks following. We are compelled to indicate in conjunction with our SAP announcement that out reconciliation of 'work-around' processes to date currently indicates third quarter operating earnings of approximately 22¢ per share, well below our previously expected results. As this was a significant one time disruption, we remain confident that out fourth quarter earnings will materialize as expected."

Mr. McEwan added: "The Sobeys organization is at an important juncture as we advance to our next stage of development and our firm decision to move forward with alternate, more flexible and adaptable supporting technologies reflects the confidence we have for the great potential for this Company."

Mr. McEwan concluded: "Since joining Sobeys Inc. on November 25 it has become very clear to me that we are very well positioned for growth, we have the committment of the entire leadership team, and I believe the most dedicated and capable employees and franchisees in the industry. We are entering our next stage of development with continued optimism and renewed confidence."

The Company will provide additional detail on a conference call to be held today at 5:00pm EST. Participants may listen to a live audio Webcast of the conference call by visiting the Company's web site located at www.sobeys.ca ...

Source:
Sobeys Incorporated press release, 24 January 2001
http://www.sedar.com/data22/filings/00327698/
00000001/c%3A%5CSEDARFIL%5CSobeys%5Cpr24ja01.pdf

Appointment of Bill McEwan as President and CEO

Effective November 25, 2000

STELLARTON, NS, Oct. 24 /CNW/ – Sobeys Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Bill McEwan as President and Chief Executive Officer. McEwan's appointment will be effective November 25, 2000. He will also be appointed to the Sobeys Inc. Board of Directors and be located at the company's Stellarton Executive Head Office, 115 King Street, Stellarton, Nova Scotia.

David F. Sobey, Chairman of the Board of Sobeys Inc. commented, "We are pleased and excited to obtain a leader of Bill's quality with an in-depth retail food distribution background and a proven track record at this important stage in the continuing development of our company. We welcome Bill and are looking forward to capitalizing on his excellent marketing, merchandising, store operations and general management experience. This background in conjunction with our excellent current executive leadership team will allow us to make further progress in achieving the full potential of our business. We have never been more optimistic about the future of our company and Bill's addition will position us for immediate growth while building a solid foundation for the company's longer term significant development."

Throughout a successful business career of twenty-five years, McEwan has developed strong managerial, operational, strategic planning, leadership and communication skills. Most recently he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Region of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Inc. with overall responsibilities for the company's operations in the Northeastern United States market. Prior to joining A&P he was Vice President, Market Development, Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd.

Concurrent with McEwan's appointment, Doug Stewart, Vice Chairman and CEO will be retiring from Sobeys Inc. as part of the previously announced orderly transition of the key executive leadership of the company. Stewart will stay on for a period of time to assist in McEwan's orientation and to achieve a functional leadership transition. In addition, Stewart will continue to be a member of the Empire Company Limited Board of Directors which is the majority shareholder of Sobeys Inc.

Sobeys Inc., headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, is the second largest food distribution organization in Canada in terms of sales and retail stores, doing business principally under the banners of Sobeys, IGA, Price Chopper, Knechtel and Foodland and operates Canada's only national foodservice distributor, SERCA.

Source:
Sobeys Incorporated press release, 24 October 2000
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:biz.yahoo.com/
cnw/001024/sobeys_inc.html+Sobeys&hl=en

2001 January 26

Canadians watching less TV: StatsCan

Shift to movies, Internet

Canadians are watching less television as they spend more time going to the movies and using the Internet, according to a Statistics Canada survey. Canadians watched television an average of 21.6 hours a week in 1999 – the lowest figure in two decades. The peak of viewership was 23.5 hours in 1988.

Statistics Canada said the decline "may be attributed to the fact that overall attendance at movies increased for the seventh year in a row in 1998-99, hitting a 38-year high of 112,800,000 visits, a 12% increase from the previous year. "Canadians are also logging on to the Internet in growing numbers. In 1999 about 42% of households contained at least one regular user, up from 36% in 1998."

Michael McCabe, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said: "I think it's a significant drop – and it's serious."

Bob Reaume, vice-president of media and research at the Association of Canadian Advertisers, said the shift has major implications for TV's future quality. "Advertising is really simple – it goes where the eyeballs are. And advertising pays for content. "You only get to watch good, entertaining television shows because of the advertising," he said. "If the viewers are starting to dissipate," said Mr. Reaume, "I suspect they are going to the Internet ... And we'll go there."

Sunni Boot, president of Optimedia, a company that tells advertisers where to place their ads, says the news that viewers are vacating the TV room offers a good prognosis – not a death sentence – for the future of the medium. "Television isn't dead," she said. "If television is in rack and ruin, then tell me why millions of eyes are going to be glued to Survivor this Sunday?"

The largest drop in television-viewing habits was among children aged two to 11. From 1990 to 1999, their viewing plunged 19.3% from 19.2 hours to 15.5.

Men and women aged 18 to 24 both saw the amount of television they watched drop by about 18%, but with different viewing figures. In 1999, men watched 13.8 hours a week (as opposed to 16.3 in 1990), whereas women watched 17.6 hours in 1999 (as opposed to 20.8 in 1990). Women 25 and older spent the most time per week – 26.4 hours – watching television.

Quebeckers, especially francophones, led Canadian television viewing in the fall of 1999, planting themselves in front of the television for 24.7 hours each week.

A majority – 62% – of the programs Canadians sat down for were foreign, most of which came from the United States, roughly proportionate to the numbers generated a year earlier.

Francophones spent 66% of their viewing time watching Canadian programs, compared with 28% of anglophones.

However, Paul Robinson, of Nielsen Media Research, and a competitor of the Bureau of Measurement, which compiled the data, disputed the figures. His figures indicate television viewing has not decreased at all, but rather is on the rise. Nielsen numbers show the average Canadian spent 21.5 hours transfixed in front of the box in 2000, compared to 20.4 hours in 1995. The survey was conducted between October 21 and November 24.

[The National Post, 26 January 2001]

2001 January 26

Shares Soar Amid Rumours of Takeover at Salter Street

Stock up 36%

Corus mentioned as possible bidder for film house

Takeover rumours swirled around Salter Street Films Ltd. yesterday, with Corus Entertainment Inc. being added to the list of potential buyers.

Over the past three weeks, shares in Halifax-based Salter Street have soared 36% on trading volume far exceeding the stock's daily average as investors speculate the film and TV production company could be in play. Analysts, too, have recently begun to warm up to Salter Street, whose shares traded at close to book value for much of last year, on the strength of its increasing success in the market with productions such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, These Arms of Mine and science fiction co-production, Lexx.

The latest talk suggests Corus has joined the fray with an offer of $10 a share. Other players said to have made offers include Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. and Astral Media Inc.

Though Salter Street shares have traded flat for the past three days, they have gained $1.60 since January 10th. For the past four sessions, they have have been trading at as much as six times average daily volume

"There are rumours that Salter Street is a takeover candidate, but it is hard to evaluate these rumours, " said Roger Dent, an analyst at Yorkton Securities Inc. "The shares have been trading in quite unusual volume for the past couple of weeks, and that could be attributable to the rumours, or it could be attributable to reality."

Corus, which was formed back in 1999 as a result of the divestment of broadcasting properties held by Shaw Communications Inc, owns and operates a string of radio and television stations in western and central Canada. The entertainment industry, particularly the specialty broadcast sector, is in the midst of a period of consolidation which has already seen the merger of Alliance and Atlantis and the acquisition of Nelvana by Corus. Observers speculated that under current market conditions, Salter Street might make a tempting acquisition target. Said Mr. Dent: "From a specialty broadcast point of view, everyone is looking for specialty assets."

Adding to the glow around Salter Street is the company's recently acquired licence for a television channel that would showcase independent films. The licence, highly prized in the broadcast industry, was awarded by the CRTC in November.

The trouble is, Salter Street has not yet lined up financing to launch the channel, according to observers who added the need for financing might be a strong incentive for Salter Street to agree to be taken over.

Though the company is publicly held, most of the voting shares are held by brothers Michael and Paul Donovan, who founded the company in 1983. Despite some critical success with groundbreaking productions such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Salter Street has failed to wow the market. Some observers believe that lack of success has caused the controlling shareholders to consider new strategies such as allowing Salter Street to be taken over.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the rumoured takeover.

Corus, which also declined to comment, yesterday posted earnings of $13,800,000 for the period ended November 30th, up from $10,000,000 for the same period of 1999. On November 24th, Corus was awarded 18 licences for new digital pay and specialty television services as well as a licence to operate a video-on-demand service. Observers speculated that Corus is under pressure to acquire more production companies so it can provide content to its growing stable of broadcasters.

Also yesterday, Shaw Communications said that it had a first quarter loss of $33,100,000 compared to a profit of $39,900,000 the year before. It blamed the loss on amortization costs because of acquisitions and debt restructuring charges.

[The National Post, 26 January 2001]

2001 January 28

Smart Pavement Helps Snowplows

Saves money too

Workers battling slippery roads have started installing high-tech weather "pucks" under Highway 102 between Halifax and Truro in Nova Scotia.

The $1,500 pucks – so called because they are small, round and black – radio asphalt temperatures, salt and wetness levels to meteorologists in Bedford. The numbers are crunched by supercomputers in Fredericton and Quebec City and beamed back to pagers carried by snowplow drivers in Dartmouth. They are part of experimental new anti-icing techniques designed to use less salt while keeping cars from skidding into ditches.

"Nobody in the world has mastered (anti-icing) yet. It's kind of the Holy Grail that road maintenance people pursue," said Peter Adams, a Transportation Department engineer heading the experiments.

This year, the trials are taking on new importance. A study released last fall says road salt is toxic to small organisms and plants. If that is confirmed by federal Environment Minister David Anderson, provinces might have to reduce salt use dramatically.

Road Weather Information System

The pucks are part of a group of instruments in a Road Weather Information System station being built near exit 5A on Highway 102 – the first on the highway. Five other stations were installed on Highway 101 in the mid-1990s.

All six stations have underground temperature sensors and roadside weather masts. The pucks are flush with the road and can't be felt by motorists. "You don't even know they are there," said Adams.

The system gives an immediate and exact picture of what is happening on the asphalt – information that often can't be predicted by weather forecasts.

The information is fed to drivers of two specially equipped snowplows. Instead of spreading rock salt, the trucks spray water containing dissolved salt. The saline solution sticks to the road, an improvement over rock salt, which tends to bounce into ditches. More important, the solution is applied before black ice or slippery conditions develop.

"The real kicker is if you know what the temperature is going to be, you can put (down) a small amount of salt before the snow arrives," said Paul Delannoy, an Environment Canada meteorologist and an expert on the Road Weather Information System.

Reduce salt use by a third

Delannoy said the method can reduce salt use by a third, and save snowplows from repeat trips. "You will need much less salt if you put it on before a bond is formed between snow and ice and the road," said Delannoy.

Adams hopes the anti-icing method will lead to big savings for the Nova Scotia government, which budgeted $36,000,000 for snow and ice control this year.

Nova Scotia is the only government in Atlantic Canada experimenting with the system, though a privately operated highway in New Brunswick is also doing tests.

Canada is playing catch-up to many American states that have better developed system networks. Minnesota alone recently installed 92 stations – all of them spaced about 20 kilometres apart.

Delannoy said the U.S. has about 1,200 Road Weather Information System stations, while only 100 exist in Canada, mostly in Ontario and B.C. Some Scandinavian countries have networks of the system where the pucks are plugged into speed limit signs. When black ice is predicted, the signs change to show lower limits.

[The Halifax Sunday Daily News, 28 January 2001]

References:
Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Nevada Department of Transportation
http://www.nevadadot.com/motorist/rwis/
The Nevada system has sensors imbedded into the pavement that send information about road temperatures and conditions to computer systems for analysis. They also collect information about air temperatures, wind speed and the actual detection of rain, snow and ice on the road. Engineers and maintenance workers use that information to determine the best response to current and anticipated road conditions. Each sensor, along with surface pavement forecasts, can determine when the road is going to freeze. This information allows crews to efficiently determine strategies before the storm and reduce unnecessary application of sand and salt, especially in environmentally sensitive areas ... Studies of roadway test sections using RWIS in conjunction with magnesium chloride decreased the application of abrasives and salt by 73%...
http://www.nevadadot.com/about/news/news_00045.html

Clearer Roads at Less Cost
Massachusetts Highway Department
http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsvr/CS036.htm

Road Weather Information System in Finland
Finnish National Road Administration, Kouvola, Finland
http://ams.confex.com/ams/AugDavis/3Urban/abstracts/14443.htm
http://ams.confex.com/ams/AugDavis/3Urban/abstracts/14154.htm

Road Weather Information System in Sweden
http://www.confex2.com/ams/nov98/abstracts/321.htm
http://www.ertico.com/what_its/succstor/rwiscon.htm
http://www.enator.se/telub/LV/aeLV_eng.htm

Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Ohio Department of Transportation
http://www.odotonline.org/otis/rwis/default.asp

Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Oregon Department of Transportation
http://www.odot.state.or.us/trucking/its/green/roadwea.htm

Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Minnesota Department of Transportation
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/guidestar/rwis.html

Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Iowa Department of Transportation
http://www.dot.state.ia.us/rwis.htm

Optimum Placement of RWIS Stations Across New Jersey
http://www.cep.rutgers.edu/project/Optimum%20placement/optimum.htm

Road Weather Information System
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
http://208.9.196.31/site/site.nsf/mainpage

How Does the Road Weather Information System Work?
United States Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/winter/roadsvr/rwis.htm
http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsvr/rwis.htm

Protecting a National Forest with New Snow Removal Methods
California Department of Transportation
http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsvr/CS018.htm

Colorado Department of Transportation
http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsvr/CS117.htm

Road and Weather Data Give Colorado DOT a Jump on Snow Storms...

Better Weather and Pavement Information Mean Faster Storm Cleanup
Illinois Department of Transportation
http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsvr/CS039.htm

Anti-icing With Salt Brine
http://www.saltinstitute.org/anti-icing.html

Manual of Practice for an Effective Anti-icing Program:
A Guide For Highway Winter Maintenance Personnel
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/mopeap/mop0296a.htm

Use of Road Salt for De-Icing, Vancouver City Council
...A study of accident rates in New York state documented a freeway accident rate of 4.6 accidents per million vehicle miles (MVM) on snow covered roads, compared to a corresponding figure of 2.3 accidents per MVM for wet roads, and 0.6 accidents per MVM for dry roads. A separate study by Marquette University covering five states measured an 88% reduction in accident rates immediately after the application of de-icing chemicals...
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/980407/a5.htm

Roadsalt and Winter Maintenance for British Columbia Municipalities
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wat/wq/brochures/roadsalt.html

New Methods for Reducing Ice and Snow an Highways
British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Highways
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/bchighways/nr_99/nr138_99.htm

Maintenance Supervisors' Comments on Deicing Mixtures
The city of Kelowna in British Columbia, uses 100% sand on its roads to get the abrasive traction it needs. Dale Beaudry, roads and equipment superintendent, says, "Kelowna has been pre-wetting for the [last] five years. We found this has reduced our sand usage by approximately 30%." Liquid magnesium chloride is what they're using, but they are considering trying liquid calcium chloride...
http://www.betterroads.com/articles/brapr00a.htm

Bridge Deck Anti-Icing System
http://matrix.vtrc.virginia.edu/DATA/NOVA766/

2001 February 1

Domain names up for grabs

Deadline has been extended twice

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) said on January 24th that more than 41,000 registered dot-ca domain names will be up for grabs on February 1st, a result of the failure of those who own the names to re-register them.

All owners of dot-ca domains were required to re-register them with CIRA accredited registrars as part of the process by which administration of the dot-ca domain was transferred from the University of British Columbia to the not-for-profit CIRA.

The UBC registry had more than 98,000 dot-ca domains registered when CIRA began the takeover process last year. Each registry record contains technical and administrative contacts for each domain. CIRA e-mailed those contacts several times last year, notifying the domain name holders they would be required to re-register their right to the domain.

Under the rules by which UBC operated the dot-ca domain, registration was free but there were specific rules about what kind of person or organization could register which names. There were also limits on the number of domain names an individual or organization could register.

With the transfer to CIRA, there are fewer restrictions on the ownership of dot-ca domain names and an annual fee will be charged for the rights to that domain.

CIRA has twice extended the deadline to have all 98,000 dot-ca domains re-registered. But the 41,000 domains that have not re-registered will go back into the pool of unregistered domains on February 1st where they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

[The National Post, 25 January 2001]

2001 April 1

Mulgrave Loses Road Cost-Sharing

The provincial Department of Transportation has given the Town of Mulgrave written notice of the termination, effective 31 March 2001, of its cost-sharing program for road maintenance and repair. In a letter to the town, transportation minister Ron Russell says the Aids-to-Towns road maintenance agreement between Mulgrave and the province was signed in 1996, and provided funding for snow and ice removal, summer maintenance, and capital improvements. The minister's letter, received by the town in August 2000, noted that ninety days' notice was needed prior to the October signing date to change the agreement. "Effective April 1, 2001, the Town will be responsible for all maintenance and construction activities on all streets within the town boundaries," the minister wrote. Mulgrave mayor Leonard MacDonald says the cut will cost the town about $10,000 a year. MacDonald said that figure is what the provincial department has contributed toward road repairs in past years.
[The Guysborough Journal, 16 August 2000]

2002 February 2

02/02/02

2003

250^th Anniversary
Town of Lunenburg

2003 March 3

03/03/03

2004 April 4

04/04/04

Go To: Index with links to the other chapters

Go To: History of Electric Power Companies in Nova Scotia
http://alts.net/ns1625/electric.html
Go To: History of Telegraph and Telephone Companies in Nova Scotia
http://alts.net/ns1625/telephon.html
Go To: History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia
http://alts.net/ns1625/railways.html
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

W3C HTML Validation Service
http://validator.w3.org/

W3C CSS Validation Service
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Latest revision: 2001 January 28

2001 January 1

01/01/01

First Day of the New Millennium

2001 January 1

Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company Goes Out of Business After 90 Years as Nova Scotia's Biggest Telephone Company

Aliant Bondholders Approve Amalgamation of Subsidiaries

Amalgamation Effective 1 January 2001

Aliant Board Approves Amalgamation

6 November 1999

2001 January 1

Postage Goes Up to 47¢

2001 January 1

Free Public Access to Electronic Journals

2001 January 3

Memories of 1970s Television

Bangor Offered Folksy Glimpse of U.S. Glamour for Nova Scotia TV Viewers

Goofy small-station personalities big hits in 1970s, '80s Atlantic Canada

Only Five TV Channels Available

Ultra low-budget variety show

Nova Scotian Exodus Spelled End for Stacey's Country Jamboree

Atlantic Canada cable companies switched to Detroit stations in 1990

Stacey's Country Jamboree

By Terry Hussey

$75 for two hours of air time

Sponsored by Frankenstein

All the way to Nova Scotia

On the Wings of a Snow White Dove

Ended in 1983

Dick Stacey pumped the gas himself

2001 January 8

Nova Scotia Learning Interchange Up and Running

Apple Computer is providing the engine, the storage and the technical support at no cost to Nova Scotia

The only site outside of the USA

http://ali.apple.com/nsli/

Nova Scotia's history and geography...

2001 January 17

CanWest Global Communications Corporation Wants to Shorten Name

CanWest Ink-on-Paper Publications in Nova Scotia

2001 January 17

Mint Tells Ottawa to Keep the Penny Put $5 Coin on Hold

2001 January 17

Redesigned $10 Bank Note Launched

2001 January 18

1960s Technological MistakeEvicts Hundreds in 2001

Hundreds in Shock, Scramble for Shelter in Mid-Winter

Almost 400 told free hotel stay over apartments closed for three months

55 times more likely to be a fire hazard

Many Thousands of Canadian Homes with Aluminum Wiring

Very High Probability Of Overheating

1965 to 1973 the most dangerous years

Aluminum Wiring References

2001 January 19

Thousands of Tonnes of Road Salt

Kings County

2001 January 21

Guysboro Railway Being Planned

Link to Truro-Sydney railway

Municipality Helps Fund Transportation Corridor Study

2001 January 23

CJCH Part of National All-Sports Radio Network

Allan Waters started in radio in 1954

Fans rally to rescue CJCH morning show

24 January 2001

2001 January 25

Software Glitch Costs Sobeys Millions

Tech Foul-Up Sinks Sobey's Stock

Lawsuits predicted in Sobeys computer kerfuffle

Sobeys Stock Sinks on News of Charge

Sobeys takes one-time $50,000,000 writedown

To phase out SAP software system that failed in December

Sobeys Moves Ahead Without SAP

For immediate release, January 24, 2001

Appointment of Bill McEwan as President and CEO

Effective November 25, 2000

2001 January 26

Canadians watching less TV: StatsCan

Shift to movies, Internet

2001 January 26

Shares Soar Amid Rumours of Takeover at Salter Street

Stock up 36%

First Day of the
New Millennium

Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company
Goes Out of Business
After 90 Years as Nova Scotia's Biggest Telephone Company

Bangor Offered Folksy Glimpse of U.S. Glamour
for Nova Scotia TV Viewers

Goofy small-station personalities big hits
in 1970s, '80s Atlantic Canada

Nova Scotian Exodus Spelled End
for Stacey's Country Jamboree

Atlantic Canada cable companies
switched to Detroit stations in 1990

Apple Computer is providing the engine, the storage
and the technical support at no cost to Nova Scotia

CanWest Global Communications Corporation
Wants to Shorten Name

Mint Tells Ottawa to Keep the Penny
Put $5 Coin on Hold

1960s Technological Mistake
Evicts Hundreds in 2001

Almost 400 told free hotel stay over
apartments closed for three months

250^th Anniversary
Town of Lunenburg