Cheers &Jeers
CHEERS to Brianna Burris and members of the West Colchester Minor Hockey Association for making something good out of something so tragic.
Two years ago, the gunman who we shall not name rampaged across central Nova Scotia killing 22 people and an unborn baby, and injuring three more before his life was taken by an RCMP officer in Enfield, near Halifax.
Communities across the central and northern parts of the province, from Portapique and Wentworth, to Debert, Shubenacade and Enfield were touched by this tragedy. Among those impacted was the tiny minor hockey association in West Colchester.
Jamie and Greg Blair, Lisa Mccully, Heather O’brien and Kristen and Baby Beaton were members of the community. Jamie Blair was the treasurer of the West Colchester Minor Hockey Association and her husband, Greg, was a constant presence at the arena while Lias Mccully’s son played hockey and Heather O’brien had grandchildren in the association.
West Colchester’s minor hockey association felt the loss probably more than any other minor hockey body in Nova Scotia, but it has persevered and it is remembering them through the creation of the Cobra Strong Award to be given to its top volunteer.
Brianna Burris is so deserving of this award. In her first year as a volunteer, she handled the management and safety duties for two teams during what was another trying year caused by the ongoing COVID pandemic.
She is an example of what should be celebrated in minor hockey and the West Colchester association is to celebrated for taking the time to honour its volunteers in such a fitting way.
JEERS to provincial Finance Minister Allan Macmaster for attempting to cool Nova Scotia’s ultra-hot housing market by making it more difficult for those from outside the province to own land here.
While it’s admirable for the provincial government to try to prevent outside land speculators from buying up as much property as possible – preventing people from living here through ever having hope of owning affordable property – it appears as though one good deed has caught another group in the middle.
All along Nova Scotia’s shores there are thousands of cottages and summer homes owned by people who flock to the shore each and every summer to enjoy things many of us take for granted – sun and sea air.
Not all these people come from Nova Scotia, or they may have grown up here and moved away to participate in their careers – returning each summer with their families. That’s going to get a little harder after the provincial budget recently included a measure adding a property tax of $2 per $100 of assessed value on any building with three or fewer units owned by non-nova Scotia residents.
What Tim Houston’s government is doing has merit at first glance – opening up more housing opportunities to Nova Scotians, but it runs the risk of unintended consequences, something the P.E.I. government learned several decades ago when it attempted to double-tax on non-island residents.