Humbs up humbs down

TTHUMBS DOWN: COVID harassment

It's been a long couple of years. COVID fatigue is real. We're tired of being told we can't be with our loved ones, go places or do things we enjoy doing.

We're tired on the job – think healthcare, essential workers and others impacted by the pandemic, which is pretty much everyone. We're tired at home.

We're just tired.

But COVID and its variants don't care if we're tired or if we've had our fill of the pandemic. And so – while COVID is something we must learn to live with – it is still incumbent to ensure COVID doesn't overrun our health system, or our education system, or society in general.

There are varying opinions on how the pandemic is being handled. The situation has its supporters and those who disagree with decisions that have been made. Others fall somewhere in between.

But no matter how you feel, or where you fall, the abuse and harassment of others is unacceptable.

Don't agree with what someone else is saying? Fair enough. But don't make false assumptions about agendas or motives. Don't verbally abuse them on the job for something beyond their control. Don't attack them because their views differs from yours. Don't threaten them. Don't harrass them.

Last week a colleague at Y95-CJLS posted on Facebook that aside from seeing reporters being spit on for doing their jobs, someone sent an email to their newsroom with a photo of journalists being hung in the Second World War with a caption about those forgetting the past being condemned to relive it. “You can agree or disagree with our reporting, but there's a time when it's too much and that was today,” he wrote.

He is right. That email is shameful.

There are so many lines that shouldn't be crossed. That's one example. There are many more.

It's tiring.

THUMBS DOWN: Solar power discouragement

Solar NS is warning a Nova Scotia Power application could effectively kill or drastically reduce new household solar development.

Nova Scotia Power has made an application to the Utility and Review Board that includes a proposal to charge a fee to homeowners who install net metered solar systems. The ask is a monthly fee – for access to the power grid – of $8 per kilowatt hour of installed capacity, which could amount to around $900 or more annually.

Those who install solar systems say that would decrease the amount of money people save for switching to solar and would lengthy the time to earn back the cost of installing their system.

If Nova Scotia Power is going to gobble up most of the savings of moving to solar power, what's the point of doing so, industry worries.

Nova Scotia Power says it's a fair fee, and eliminates other customers subsidizing solar power. Industry says it is concerning and discouraging.

After all, the push has been for more renewable energy, not less.