Roundup: Towns grapple with climbing RCMP costs, South Shore border services for boaters resume, 3 teens charged after Pictou auto thefts, COVID keeps spreading
Nova Scotian towns are seeing their RCMP costs steadily climb. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Plus: History repeating — Victorian Halifax boasted many efforts to help the poor, but thousands slipped through the cracks and few benefitted
Policing costs continue to climb for Nova Scotia’s small towns, even as their tax bases remain stagnant. For example, RCMP services cost Mulgrave $191,000 per year, or almost 10 per cent of its $2-million operating budget.
And that cost is going up another 11 per cent this year.
“Everybody seems to feeling the crunch as well with the amount of money they’re paying for it,” Councillor Krista Luddington said. “That’s not to devalue the service we’re getting, but it’s a lot to put on a town of 627 people.”
Drake Lowthers has more for the Reporter.
Border services for boaters resume
Border clearance services at marine port-of-entry sites in Queens and Lunenburg counties recently resumed after pausing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Shore MP Rick Perkins recently asked public safety minister Marco Mendicino about the issue during question period.
“I am very pleased that the minister listened to my representations, and I thank him for taking action on behalf of the residents of the South Shore,” Perkins says.
Keith Corcoran reports for LighthouseNow.
Three Pictou teens charged after brief crime wave
Three Pictou County teenagers are due in court today to face charges after a rash of automobile thefts and property damage in New Glasgow.
The boys (age 14, 15, and 18), each face multiple counts of theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, trespassing, and mischief. The 15-year-old is also charged with breach of probation and dangerous driving.
Police say they recovered the vehicles, which were stolen from June 6 to 8.
History repeating
As is the case in the city today, Victorian Halifax had a wealth gap, with a privileged few living lives of luxury, while countless others struggled to survive, scrambling from one menial job to the next, often just a mischance away from total destitution.
And, again like Halifax today, the city boasted of its many efforts to help those in needs. But the efforts were misguided and misapplied, often cruel and paternal, aiming to shame rather than uplift.
COVID keeps spreading
Premier Tim Houston’s government continues withholding daily data, making it difficult to get an accurate picture of COVID-19’s spread in the province, but World Health Organization officials caution it’s still rampant, tallying 574,365 new cases globally in the last 24 hours.
So far, COVID is known to have has killed 6,305,358 people, including 41,284 in Canada and 400 Nova Scotians.
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