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Content

Page

Temporary Bridge on Bellefontaine Road still there after 15 years.

Bathrooms at the rink are still gross

Lack of cold temperature will mean more mosquitoes this summer

News...........................................3, 4, 5 & 7
Editorial......................................................6
Local Sports.....................................................8 & 9
Community........,...10
Health & Wellness...11

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Councillors March Communiqu.................,,.........12

Opinions....13
Around The Town .........14
March Events PIN IT Up .........................................15
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News

Lake Echo Fire Station Goes All-Volunteer

By Richard Bell
In 2013-2014, Halifax fire
companies were slightly
under this goal in urban areas (83%), and slightly over
(91%) in rural areas.

Lake Echo Fire Department

Photo Halifax.ca

After several years of delay, the Halifax

Fire Department is finally acting on its
2014 recommendations to remove career
firefighters from the Lake Echo fire station and convert it into an all-volunteer
station. Meanwhile, Regional Council just
voted to reject the departments recommendations to reduce career firefighters
staffing at three urban fire stations.
Fire Chief Doug Trussler has wrestled
with Regional Council for years over how
much spending was needed to provide
adequate levels of protection to the
changing populations of urban and rural
Halifax. In developing his recommendations to Council, Trussler has to comply
with several important rules. First, the
National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) safety standard 1710 requires a
minimum of four firefighters be on scene
before a firefighter can enter a burning
building.
There are also rules for how fast the first
engine company is supposed to arrive on
the scene: in urban areas, 5 minutes or
less, 90% of the time, and in rural areas,
10 minutes or less, 90% of the time. Insurance companies use these response
times to calculate home and business fire
insurance rates.

Trussler manages three

types of fire stations: Career, staffed 24/7 with career firefighters; Composite,
with career firefighters during the day Monday-Friday,
and volunteers the rest of
the time; and Volunteer, staffed by volunteers. Volunteers are required to pass
the same training course as career firefighters. One of the departments most
serious staffing problems has been the
decline in the number of rural volunteers
as rural populations have
dropped.
In the case of Lake Echo and
Chezzetcook, there have been
only 2 career firefighters at
each station on duty weekdays.
In the event of a fire, the firefighters from Lake Echo, for
example, would have had to
wait at the scene of a fire for
two other firefighters to show
up, career or volunteer, before
entering a building.
The department is turning Lake
Echo into an all-volunteer station, moving the two career
firefighters there over to Chezzetcook, which will then have 4
career firefighters during the
day, Monday-Friday. According
to a report filed with Regional
Council in December 2014, response times for the Lake Echo
area will still meet the 10minute/90% of the time

Easternshorecooperator.ca

standard, with coverage coming from

Chezzetcook, Cole Harbour, and Westphal, all of which will have 4 career firefighters during weekdays.
Regional Council has signed off on several
rounds of fire station staffing reductions
in rural Halifax since 2012, but the Council has resisted such reductions for urban
fire stations. Most recently, Regional
Council voted 11-5 on January 12 2016 to
block a Fire Department recommendation to reduce staffing at three urban stations by changing from all career staffing
to career staffing only during the day
from Monday through Friday and volunteers the rest of the time.
The stations were Lady Hammond Road

in Halifax, Patton Road in Sackville, and

King Street in Dartmouth. Councillor
David Hendsbee voted with the minority
to accept the departments recommendation. The Councils vote will cost taxpayers an estimated $5 million.

News

www.easternshorecooperator.ca

Biomass Burning Ban Petition Goes Viral

By Richard Bell
An online petition to ban burning biomass in Nova Scotia to generate electricity has gone viral, pulling in more than
23,000 signatures in barely a week.
The petition comes from Dr. Helga Guderley, a retired Laval University zoology
professor and a past president of the Canadian Society of Zoologists and CoEditor for the Canadian Journal of Zoology. She has published more than 170
peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.
In an interview, Guderley said she started
paying closer attention to forestry issues
after she learned last year about a proposed clearcut near her home in a proposed clearcut near her home in Ingramport. They were going to cut right down
to the local Rails-to-Trail, at the same
time theyre promoting Rails-to-Trails to
tourists, Guderley said. They were even
going to use the Rails-to-Trails for getting
the wood out.

She put up her first online petition, which

garnered little notice, but showed her
how this organizing tool worked.
What brought Guderley back into the
forest fight this year was hearing the
newly installed Minister of Environment,
Margaret Miller, bragging about how
Nova Scotia was leading the rest of the
country on renewable energy. What got
my attention was when Miller said that
Nova Scotia Power was going to increase
its percentage of biomass-generated
electricity from 2.7 percent to 7 percent
in the next four years, Gunderley said.
The title of Gunderleys latest petition
makes it clear what she wants people to
tell their elected representatives: Stop
destroying Nova Scotias forests for biomass power generation. Guderley says
that the inefficient boiler at Point Tupper
is burning 50-60 truckloads of wood
every day, some of which is still green.

I wasnt planning to deliver this

position, Gunderley said. Its
really a means of showing the
public a problem, and prodding
the public to respond, to get in
touch with the premier, and the
ministers, and their MLAs, and
ask them to change this biomass burning for electricity policy.

Point Tupper Generating Station

Photo from ec.gc.ca

She suggested that the current Liberal

government was not responsible for putting the biomass policy in place, and
should simply walk away from the mistakes of previous generations. She knows
that neither the provincial government
nor HRM accept online petitions.

No government officials have

contacted me since the petition
went up, Gunderley said. But
she has been in touch with many people
around the province who share her concerns about forest policy, and is working
on pulling together a network to work on
policies to improve the health of Nova
Scotias forests.
The petition is on the website
change.org. In the search box, just type in
the word biomass.

Helping Families with Preschoolers

By Richard Bell
The Eastern Shore Family Resource Association (ESFRA) has been providing families with great programs and services for
21 years. This spring, ESFRA will be
strengthening its programs for children,
with expanded free screenings for school
readiness for preschool kids.
According to Parenting Journey Family
Support Home Visitor Tracy Cowan, ESFRA has enjoyed a fantastic partnership
with Dalhousie University School of Human Communication Disorders and Audiology for the last 10 years. The screenings
were available to children (ages 3-5) in
ESFRAs Bookworms, Kinder Bears & Wee
Bears programs at the Eastern Shore
Family Resource Centre.
Were opening up the screening program this year to all children, whether
theyre enrolled in ESFRA programs or
not, Cowan explained. And were adding vision screening as well. We can
screen 60 children this year, so parents
need to call and make an appointment.

Dalhousie students perform the screenings under the supervision of Dalhousie

faculty. This program is a win-win for the
kids and the students, Cowan said.
Some of the students have never even
babysat before, so they get hands-on experience working with preschoolers.
Based on the results, ESFRA centre staff
work with families to get referrals for further testing if needed.
This years screenings will take place on
Thursday April 21 and Friday April 22
from 9:15 am to 2:15 pm at the Good
Shepherd Church in Lawrencetown. For
more information or to make an appointment, contact Tracy Cowan by phone at
902-827-1462 or email her at tcowanesfra@ns.aliantzinc.ca.
The ESFRA website is: http://esfamily.org.

News

Proposed Gold Mine Threatens Tourism and Environment

By Richard Bell
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commissions live coverage held the country
spellbound for 11 days before rescuers
reached the trapped men.
The companys plans have raised concerns along the shore about the negative
impact such a mine might have on the
environment. Stories about pollution
from mining would damage recent efforts
to increase tourism along the shore, especially to the nearby 100 Wild Islands.
The southern tip of the Moose River
mine site, the edge of the polishing pond,
is only 200 meters from Scraggy Lake,
warns Barbara Markovits, who has been
engaged with mining issues on the shore
for many years as co-chair of the Eastern
Shore Forest Watch Association (ESFWA).

Moose River Gold Mine in years past

Photo from novascotiaparks.ca

The announcement of $115 million in

funding to develop two open-pit gold
mines (in Moose River and Beaver Dam)
has created a new sense of urgency
among people concerned about the
threats this project poses to the environment of one of the provinces newest
wilderness areas, Ship Harbour Long
Lake, and to efforts to increase tourism
on the Eastern Shore. (Note: the company uses the name Touquoy for the
proposed mine in Moose River.)
Atlantic Gold, a mining company with
Australian roots, currently has mining
interests in four places in Nova Scotia
(Moose River, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill,
and Fifteen Mile Stream).
Atlantic Gold is the most recent company
attempting to start up mining again in
Moose River. The original gold rush there
took place in the 1870s, followed by a
crash. Miners came back in the 1930s,
only to fade away again after a famous
mining disaster in 1936, when the

Scraggy Lake is part of the Fish River system, which passes through the Ship Harbour Long Lake wilderness area into Lake
Charlotte. Water from Lake Charlotte, a
heavily used recreational lake, in turn
empties into Ship Harbour, near AquaPrime Mussel Ranchs large beds of
cultivated mussels.
Mining gold produces enormous quantities of waste material called tailings, a
mix of the processed, finely ground ore
and the water used during processing.
Atlantic Gold has estimated that for every
1.5 grams of gold it produces at Moose
River, there will be a metric ton
(1,000,000 grams) of tailings.
Finding a way to keep these toxic tailings
from contaminating surface waters and
ground water is one of the mining industrys most difficult problems. And because tailings have almost no economic
value, the economic incentive for mining
companies to spend money on containing
them is low.

Tailings dam failures routinely produce

large-scale environmental disasters
around the world. In a recent notorious
case in Canada, a tailings dam failure in
British Columbia on August 4 2015 at the
Mount Polley Mine released an estimated 17 million cubic meters of water
and 8 million cubic meters of tailings and
materials.
In an effort to increase the profitability of
its mining venture, Atlantic Gold raised
new environmental concerns by significantly altering its initial application for a
single open-pit mine at Moose River. Under what it now calls the Moose River
Consolidated Project, the company plans
to spend roughly 4 to 5 years mining out
all the gold at Moose River.
But when the Moose River deposit is exhausted, Atlantic Gold wants to keep the
processing facilities at Moose River going
for another 3 to 4 years by trucking in ore
from another gold deposit in Beaver
River, some 37km away. The company
would save money by not building a second set of processing facilities. And the
company proposes dumping the tailings
left over from processing the Beaver Dam
ore into the hole in the ground created
by the original Moose River open-pit
mine.

Atlantic Gold lost its request to be exempt from filing a federal environmental
assessment for adding in the Beaver Dam
project.
The ball is now in Atlantic Golds court,
although there is no deadline for filing
the required environmental assessment.
But the filing will start a procedural 30day clock for public comment on what
will likely be a several hundred-page
document.

Eastern Shore Cooperator is a

community paper and we need
you to help us tell your stories.
We are always looking for articles, stories, poems, pictures,
photos, events, opinions, writers, etc. from anyone of any
age.
Please send us your submissions, via email, web site,
phone or snail mail.
Our contact info is on page 2.

Operations might go on even longer at

the Moose River site. The mining industry
newsletter The Northern Miner
reported that Atlantic Gold
Chairman and CEO Steven Dean
told a July 2015 investors conferEASTERN SHORE LAW CENTRE
ence that the company could
1653 Ostrea Lake Road, Musquodoboit Harbour, NS
extend operations by trucking in
ore from its Cochrane Hill and
Fifteen Mile Stream deposits,
roughly 57 km away.
In its various filings since 2009,
Atlantic Gold has maintained
that it can manage the environmental hazards caused by two
open-pit mines at Beaver Dam
and Moose River. Last fall,

Easternshorecooperator.ca

Editoral

What does it take to be a welcoming community?

By Laurie Cook
Ive been reading stories in the Cooperator for several months about plans to
bring a refugee family from Syria to
Musquodoboit Harbour. Dozens of people have come together to get things
ready for their arrival. We should all be
proud of the work and fundraising that
the Musquodoboit Harbour St. Philip Neri
Catholic Church & United Church of Canada Refugee Sponsorship Committee has
already done through its seven working
committees.
Recently I attended my first meeting of
the Education Committee. There was a
lot of discussion about plans for helping
the family meets its educational needs-language lessons and so on. But as I listened, I realized that in addition to thinking about how to help meet the many
needs of any new family in Canada, it was
also a good time to think about what it
meant to be a welcoming community.

How much attention and interest from

the community might they really want? Is
it enough to have a map in Arabic of the
village to help them? Should we all try to
learn a few words in Arabic? Should we
have some sort of event where we celebrate music and art (the universal languages) to help newcomers - especially
from very different cultures - feel welcome here?
Other rural communities in Nova Scotia
are also starting to consider how to be
welcoming. In the Annapolis Valley, people in Acadia and Cornwallis are holding
meetings to consider just this question.
The fact is, as we heard from One Nova
Scotias Now or Never report, we need
new people in our rural communities and from a variety of backgrounds would
be great.

The arrival of new people does present

challenges though. I dont pretend to
have all the answers, but I do think it is a
great question to ponder. How
welcoming are we when newcomers
come to our villages and towns? How can
we make welcoming a part of our being,
our constant thought? And how can we
make a commitment to welcoming into a
practice as we work on growing our communities?
[Editors note: You can share your ideas
about welcoming by sending us a letterto-the-editor, or commenting on our
Facebook page.]
Laurie Cook is an experienced community
organizer, and one of the founders of this
newspaper. She led the HRM visioning
process in Musquodoboit Harbour.

News

C & D Open House - Application 19800

By Gina Dunn
Hundreds of residents showed up for HRMs first of two
public Open Houses on application 19800, by Kiann
Management Ltd to rezone PID 40740276 property from
the current RE (Rural Enterprise) zone to permit a Construction and Demolition Processing Waste Facility designation (C D- 2). Local resident and businessman Lawrence Bellefontaine owns Kiann Management Ltd. The
only other CD-2 facility in HRM is located in Goodwood.
These C&D facilities are privately owned and operated.
The majority of residents attending were adamantly opposed to such a facility in the area. Great Idea, Wrong
Location. People expressed many concerns, including:
possible contamination of the water table (all residents
in the area are on wells); decreased property values;
traffic (250/300 vehicles a day coming and going) and
high noise levels as the facility would be located uphill
from Lake ECHO (crushers, grinders, excavators would
all be used onsite with no indoor facility to load and
unload debris as stated by the applicant).
Residents booked times to attend the Open House.
They were led through a 4-step meeting process starting with the HRM Planning & Development Department.
Next HRM Solid Waste team spoke, followed by a presentation from the applicant (Bellefontaine) and his team
(a professional planner and 2 Engineers). The final step
was an opportunity for residents to give their feedback
on the meeting & project. (If you missed the meeting,
you can find background documents and a comment
form on the HRM Planning site at http://www.halifax.ca/
planning/applications/Case19800Details.php).
The common theme presented by HRM throughout each
station was that no decision has been made yet, that
there are 10 steps to the rezoning process and that the
Open House is step #3. The rezoning application only
applies to the land. Bellefontaine will still have to apply
for a CD 2 license which is another process. Residents asked if the land is rezoned to CD-2 would it remain that way forever HRM stated yes it would if it
was rezoned, unless after an additional application to
rezone to another designation was submitted by the
owner. HRM also stated that they must follow the steps
involved when HRM receives an application such as case
19800. HRM cannot simply reject the application outright without following the protocol.
HRM staff assured residents that all applications for all
Construction & Demolition rezoning follow the same
process that was put in place in 2002 by the municipality. They also stated that this is the first time the new
2002 rules are being tested.

HRM planners reminded residents that all decisions

must be policy based decisions as failure for Council to
do so can lead to an overturned council decision on either side by Utility and Review Board (URB). Either
(applicant or resident) can appeal to the URB after the
Harbour East Community Council Decision on the rezoning application.
Policies used to determine rezoning include HRM By-law
L-200 ((HRM Respecting Licensing Of Construction And
Demolition Materials Recycling And Disposal Operations), The Lake Echo / Porters Lake Municipal Planning
Strategy (MPS) and Land Use By-law (LUB). The MPS and
LUB are both legal documents which have the status of
the law in Lake Echo / Porters Lake area states the HRM
document handed out at the door. Residents should
refer to these when communicating with HRM. (Links to
these documents can be found on nodumponhwy7.org
and halifax.ca.
The second Public Open House was
postponed due to stormy weather and
has been rescheduled to
Saturday May 7 between 10am and
5pm.
The members of the Harbour East
Marine Drive Community Council are
David Hendsbee, Gloria McCluskey, Lorelei Nicholl, Bill Karsten and Tony
Mancini. The next Municipal election
will be held Saturday October 15 of this
year.

What are your thoughts on this rezoning process?

Send us an email
(escsubmissions@eastlink.ca), mail or
contact us on Facebook.

Submissions
Deadline is
March 24
escsubmissions@eastlink.ca

Time to book your Annual Servicing now that

the cold weather is here again!
$116.99 includes nozzle and oil filter.

Local Sports

www.easternshorecooperator.ca

Eastern Shore High School Sports Scene

Visit the ESDH website under athletics calendar for a weekly schedule
Boys Hockey - The team is wrapping up
their season with a trip to the Cabernet
Cup in Toronto. When they return they
will be getting prepared for Provincials at
the end of March. Good Luck!

Boys Basketball - The Boys Basketball

team finished up the season being close
to .500 with a young but inexperienced
team. Special thanks to Head Coach
Bruce Spicer for all his hardwork and passion he showed for the team

Boys Rugby - Defending provincial

champs are back to try and defend their
title!! Coach Iain Smart and Zeb Banks are
looking forward to a great season. All the
games are played on the City turf. The
boys are currently practicing in the gym.

Girls Basketball - Were small in numbers

but big in heart. They have recently finished their season and would like to
thank coaches Ryan Smith and Troy Hartlin for coaching this years team.

Girls Rugby - Coach Chris McLeod is excited to have back a solid core in the
quest to defend last years regional championship. The girls are practicing in the
gym and look forward to getting their
season underway in April. Like the boys
all games are played on the city turf.

Wrestling - Coach Fred Darymple has had

his wrestlers at a few competitions and
has won many medals along the way,
including Metro, Regionals, and Provincials.

Evan Hopkins 1st Place in NSSAF

Wrestling Provincials for his weight
class.

Representing ESDH Schooners at the

NSSAF Wrestling Provincials
Evan Hopkins 1st Place
Elyla McKay 3rd place
Congratulations!!

Send us your sports pictures and scores

escsubmissions@eastlink.ca or on FB

Sports
Stand Up Against Sitting Disease
By Steve Manley
With recent advances in technology,
most people are living a more sedentary
lifestyle than before. Whether its driving,
working at a computer station, watching
television, or shopping online, we simply
arent as active as we used to be. On average, 50% to 70% of people spend six or
more hours sitting a day between work,
commute and leisure time.
Sitting Disease is a term used to describe the negative health consequences
associated with prolonged periods of sitting and sedentary lifestyle practices. Research has linked sitting for long periods
of time to fatigue, low back pain, depression, high blood pressure, elevated blood
sugar, excess body fat, and elevated cholesterol levels. It has also been liked to
increase mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
It doesnt matter how much you exercise
after work, it will never counteract the
detrimental effects of too much consecutive sitting- the statistics dont change.
We need to spend less time sitting and
be more physically active!

Many workplaces have made the change

to standing workstations to promote a
dynamic work environment and encourage movement throughout the day.
Here are a few tips for increasing your
physical activity during the day:
AT WORK: Use the stairs rather than elevator; park further away from workplace;
set a timer at your workstation for every
15-30 minutes to stand up and have a
quick stretch; use a printer/fax machine
further away from your desk; take advantage of your lunch breaks, get moving!
AT HOME: Dont use the remote while
watching TV, get up to change the channels; get up during commercials and
move around; take your pet out for a
walk everyday; dont put a television in
your bedroom; limit your time spent on
the computer; mow your lawn/ shovel
your driveway rather than hire someone
(if able).
Editors Note: Steve Manley is a kinesiologist with PhysioLink Porters Lake

1st Place in Mixed Open Tournament at Unbowlievable Lanes

and reigning champs:
Sunken Dorey Pizza
U10 ES Ringette Team
Peewee A Mariners
attended the Quebec
International Peewee
tournament in February and came home
with the Gold Medal.
They played teams
from all over the
world. What an experience!

Community

10

www.easternshorecooperator.ca

Finding the Way Home to Nova Scotia

By Maelissa Watson

Lord Kelvin cable layer cir. 1960

Photo from Gerald Webb

The year was 1947. The place, Pleasant

Harbour, Nova Scotia. The boy child, 14year-old Gerald Webb, eldest of a family
of ten children. He had spent all winter
logging in the woods, and come spring he
had a net of $2 in wages. There was a $2
Oats Lien against that for feeding a horse.
He did not own a horse.
Maturity came quickly in those days.
Even at age fourteen, Gerald was logical.
He had the intelligence and foresight to
realize that he had to seek greener pastures. At that early age he has an innate
concept of what constituted, good faith
and fair dealing. Leaving home for the
first time, is traumatic for an adult, let

alone a child. The outside world was a

mystery to youths growing up on the
Eastern Shore. Their sheltered lives centered on School, Church, and an occasional dance or card game.

bravely and honestly replied, I do not

know what that means. He was soon
told, This is a dangerous business, and if
you are killed or injured, who do we notify?

To appreciate this remarkable story of

determination, courage and achievement, you have to anchor yourself in rural Nova Scotia, at that time and place.
There was one man whom Gerald trusted
and respected. This man was Doane Cooper. Doane was one of the few people
locally who had surplus dollars. Gerald
visited with him and talked frankly to him
of his determination to seek employment
in the Great Lakes region. Gerald told him
that he needed a $100 Loan for transportation, lodging, and living expenses before he earned his way. Gerald promised
to repay as soon as he could. Doan said I
will lend it to you. A $100 was a lot of
money in those days.

My parents of course, Gerald responded. With that trepidation, he was

directed to the ladder, and through the
fiddley doors down to the stoke hole
where the firemen were stoking coal for
the generation of steam. I had never
seen a boiler, but I was perplexed and
curious as to how it generated steam for
navigation.

Gerald reached the Great Lakes and applied for employment at the Welland
Ship Canal. The supervisor taking his application asked Gerald who were his next
of kin. I was baffled, Gerald said. Yet he

After three months, I was promoted to

oiler and worked in the engine room,
Gerald said. I was fascinated with the
operation and the mechanics of the engine room. I observed in great detail how
every function worked. Even though I
was an oiler, I felt like I was like being
apprenticed to mechanical engineers. At
first I borrowed books from engineers
and read during my time off. Gradually I
understood the diagrams and explanation of the operation. When I was more
comfortable, I purchased my own books

and signed up for test materials. I studied

and worked; it was hard, but by then I
knew life was not easy. I eventually secured a Second Engineers License.
Within the first two years I had paid Doane Cooper back the loan. I mailed it in
installment to my parents, and my father
took it to him. Doane was happy that I
faithfully kept my promise. I worked on
Welland Canal Operations from 1947 to
1960, and then it was time to go home. I
was now confident of my ability to get a
good position in Nova Scotia.
Gerald is modest about his and his teams
contribution to history The Welland Canal
connects the St. Laurence Seaway and
the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
Could this boy child have conceived the
amazing importance, and historic significance of his journeys end?

Unforgivable
By Wyn Jones
A couple of weeks ago an article in the
Chronicle caught my interest. It referred
to government funding to large corporations working in Nova Scotia and made a
passing mention to something I was not
previously aware of. As an ordinary taxpayer I have been kept sadly in the dark
about a wondrous thing called a
forgivable loan.
Our Provincial Government offers
forgivable loans on favoured projects
to help already wealthy outfits like big
ship builders, large aquaculture companies and the like to accept turn around
and apply for more forgivable loans
that make them wealthier still. It is our
Governments opinion that an offer such
as this can convince a company that the
financial deal under review can work well
for the company and for the province.
And what a surprise! The companies do
tend to agree.
Since I read about these wondrous loans,
my mind has been working overtime

about how I too, can obtain such a benefit. There are many ways a forgivable
loan could help me improve my lifestyle
to a very large degree. A quick trip to the
Caribbean, perhaps, or a new snow
blower, or even a nice, new, really big
thin TV for the den.
Wealthy companies have armies of accountants and lawyers at hand to advise
them of the availability of such loans. But
to my knowledge, no such loans have
until now been made available to the
general public.
But in these sad economic times, now
would be a good time to start. Perhaps
the Government could persuade the major banks to join the effort and offer
short-term forgivable loans to hard-up
seniors, or to students trying to pay off
exorbitant college and university debts.
But I have to assume that there are conditions to be met in applying for a
forgivable loan. One presumably has to

be an upstanding citizen and a paid up

taxpayer. And when I really think about
it, my need is much greater than that of
ship builders and aquaculture farmers
who have tons of money already.
Imagine a scenario where I apply to my
bank for such a loan. I would be met at
reception by a smart business lady with a
fixed bank smile. After settling in her office with a cup of coffee, I would inform
her of my request for a loan to improve
my lifestyle, including a very large, very
thin TV. Ten thousand dollars would
cover costs. She would smile her bank
smile, and quote me the going rate and
monthly payment amount. I would then
inform her that I would like my loan to be
of the forgivable type.
At that point I would most probably find
myself sitting on the cold pavement of
the parking lot having been placed there
by a rather large man who most certainly
did not have a bank smile. I can understand the Banks attitude. The Bank fully

expects me to repay their loans, and to

make a profit besides. It is their money
after all.
But when the Government lends money,
theyre lending our money, and we as
taxpayers never authorised them to offer
forgivable loans to anyone. To the contrary: we assumed when we voted for
them that they would handle our money
rather more carefully.
So on behalf of all taxpayers, I would like
to suggest that our Government find
more acceptable ways of convincing shipbuilders, aquaculture companies and the
rest to do business appropriately and
have them fully understand that
forgivable loans are, in essence, completely unforgivable.

www.easternshorecooperator.ca

Health & Wellness

11

Welcome to 2016the year of clear communication

By Bethana Sullivan
Bethana Sullivan is as teacher, a healer and psychotherapist who has worked with men, women, families, and
groups in many settings: private practice for 30 years,
clinical settings such as addiction centres and community
mental health clinics. She is a certified therapist, mediation and conflict facilitator, and workshop and therapeutic group facilitator. Group dynamics, mediation and conflict, interpersonal communication and earth based spiritual practices are the focus of her teaching. She currently
teaches part-time at MSVU.
How good is your emotional vocabulary? Clear communication is often muddied by indirect expression of feelings like anger. People use the word anger to cover a
range of emotional states. For example sometimes when
my partner says to me "Why are you so angry"? I am
surprised because what I am actually feeling is frustration.
We use many words for anger: outrage, livid, irate, rankled, or riled. It can be surprising how using different
words can lower the temperature of an exchange, or the
tension of the moment.
Anger is a basic human feeling, much suppressed and
maligned in our culture. The offshoots of this suppression are like what happens when you leave goutweed
unattended in the garden; the goutweed grows deeper
into the ground and eventually chokes off healthy plants
and diversity. The hidden roots of suppressed anger also
have many names: malice, passive aggressiveness, hostility, sabotage, hate, blame, guilt, controlling behaviour
and self-blame to name a few.
Feelings are like the ocean, they ebb and flow, rise up in
deep waves, roll in gently, and recede quietly. Feelings
are for expressing. Anger in particular needs to be heard,
but not sent into the environment to stir up or muddy
the waters. Boundaried anger, by which I mean anger
that is direct, succinct, and focused, flares then fades.
Boundaried anger illuminates the disconnect and then it
is done.
Unspoken anger is heard in other ways and is often misdirected. Instead of dealing with our anger with a boss, a
partner, a parent or a teacher, we send our anger underground and focus on targets who have less power over
us.

Send us your stories, photos

and opinions
escsubmissions@eastlink.ca
April Issue deadline is March 24

We sometimes think that anger is meant to change the

other person or experience, but the most we can do is
inform, share and release the energy that is blocking us
from letting go and moving on.
For anger to dissipate we must first feel it, acknowledge
it; anger tells us what has altered in the environment
around us. Then we must express it directly and talk
about the real situation. For example if you express anger for a friend missing a date, but don't say anything
about your feeling that her pets are more important,
then your anger will probably not dissipate. Or if I don't
tell my partner that I feel belittled and invisible when
she is late coming home without calling me, then I won't
accept her apology because it doesn't address the main
issue.
The primary reason to express anger is because it is felt
and it is the truth; the focus is not on changing the other
person. Over time, we may learn something about ourselves or about others that informs decisions about relationships or jobs or dreams, but that is future work.
Right now it is about the release of boundaried, respectful anger.
The boundaries for anger include being clear and direct,
using honest words about the real issue, and letting

anger flow from within you rather than towards the

other person.
Some examples of clear, focused, direct expressions of
anger are:
I am angry.
I am angry when you laughed at something I told you
that mattered to me.
I am angry that you said you would do this and then
didn't.
I am angry that you let a situation simmer between us
for 3 days instead of engaging with me so we could take
care of this. I am angry, angry, angry.
Going back to emotional vocabulary, you may reflect on
the degree of anger. Is it frustration over repetitive behaviour? Feeling rankled because of resentment about
something? Feeling sore and indignant? There is a learning curve in being able to express the just right feeling.
Over time we can become quite sensitive to the degree
of our emotions.
Understanding boundaried anger is the beginning of
clear communication. A useful resource book is Where
to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every
Day by Anne Katherine.

Opinions

13

My Take on Health
By Gwen Williams
I attended the Let's Talk About Health
forum held at the Musquodoboit Harbour
Library in February to engage our community to discuss How do we create a
healthier future for Nova Scotians? The
session was by invitation only and there
was a great turnout. I was pleased to
have the chance to go because I discuss
health everyday, with hundreds of individuals from our community, that I have
had the pleasure to serve and get to
know over the past few years.

What is and what creates health, includes

a wide range of factors like genetics, diet,
fitness, education, income, access to food
and suitable housing, social justice, social
status, support systems, access to medical services, our physical and natural environment and relationships with family,
friends, coworkers etc. Health is an accumulation of everything that impacts our
physical, mental and emotional well being. This has been well defined and supported by research.

The session opened with a slide presentation on the 2015 Nova Scotia Health Profile and the statement that, we are
spending more and more money on
health care, but we aren't getting any
healthier. Early on somebody asked,
How do you define health? This was key
because everyone has their own unique
beliefs and assumptions about health and
what it means to them. Health is so much
more than absence of disease.

A statement was made that even though

our rural area statistically had poorer
health, we believe we are healthier, than
the stats suggest. I am not surprised.
Here on the Eastern Shore we are surrounded by natural beauty, clean water
and clean air. We can access locally
grown produce or grow our own. We
have lovely recreational trails and
beaches. We have many wonderful community minded people who work hard to

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improve the services, culture and economic future and viability of our area. All
these things contribute to good health as
do the medical services that support us.
In my opinion, we are spending more
and more money on health care, but we
aren't getting any healthier because we
are spending money on the wrong things.
Medical services that entail surgeries,
drugs, doctors, nurses and hospital staffing for exploratory tests, interventions
and acute care is the most expensive part
of our medical system. Doctor training
and education is focused on this kind of
care. Projects like the Lets Talk About
Health project and policy development
are wasted money if a clear path to implementation of direct health benefits
does not exist.
We create a healthier future for Nova
Scotians by supporting and integrating
services like alternative and natural medicine and support that empower preventative health practices.

This includes improved education or reeducation for doctors and changes to the
existing model and framework of care to
include a wider range of modalities. If
people could stay well longer, avoid
acute care (sick care), and stay in their
communities into old age, this would represent a huge cost savings and a much
higher standard of health.
Just think, if we could save money on
healthcare in this way, we could use this
savings to address the many other determinants of health that negatively affect
us like poverty, affordable housing etc. In
my opinion this would be the ideal world.
It is not a delusional dream because
there are examples of this happening already. In BC, the provincial health system
now recognizes acupuncture and in the
US, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture is now integrated in some hospitals. Therefore there is hope and it is
this vision that I do my best to support
everyday.

Easter Crossword Puzzle

Bunny

Daffodils

Lambs

Ducklings

Easteregg

Iris

Bonnet

Hyacinth

Jellybeans

Hotcrossbuns

Basket

Spring

Rabbit

Chick

Eggs

Chocolate
Send completed puzzle to win a $10 Dobbit Bakehouse GC
Mail To:
Eastern Shore Cooperator
14 Earl Court
Porters Lake, NS
B3E 1H8

Deadline March 24

14

Around Town
BELOW: The lake is frozen again
Photo by Gigi Bauer
RIGHT: Bugsy stuck it out in the teeth of a gale in
Grand Desert
Photo by Lynda Mallett

Email your photos or send via facebook or

snail mail us your old photos - we will
mail back ASAP.

LEFT: C&D site protest

ABOVE: West Jeddore Pioneer Cemetery
Both photos by Julie MacDougall

Email events to escsubmissions@eastlink.ca for paper edition.

DEADLINE: March 24

7907 Highway 7, beside the bank

(902)889-3322