Signing Off

Well it has become clear that I just can't put the time in to this site any more. I had hoped a break last month would give me the motivation to continue on but alas it has not.

I am going to stop posting on Blogging Nova Scotia but will keep the site open so that past content can be found. Thank you to everyone who made this journey great.

Bryan

No Water Bombers Needed

Over the weekend 5000 people were forced from their homes due to a fire which raged out of control. It is still burning now even though all people have been allowed to return.

During the weekend we called for help from Newfoundland, Ontario and New Brunswick. Each province sent water bombers to help get the fire under control.

A call was made for Nova Scotia to purchase its own water bomber for future fires. That call was denied yesterday citing how much cheaper it is to call for help rather than pay the $30 million to have our own plane. The Premier claims that we can save money by renting the planes for the rare fire.

He is right on his claim, but that does not mean it is the right decision. Sure we save a few dollars but we are loosing the quick response time, we are depending on the planes being available and not fighting another major fire somewhere else and this all assumes that we do not have a large amount of fires. If we have a bad year it could be cheaper to have our own available.

Saving money is important in a province that has little, but we should never be cheap when peoples lives are at stake. Having a water bomber would allow us to have a plane available right away no matter if the fire was small or large. We could also rent it out to others in need which will help in paying off the total cost.

Premier In Middle East

Rodney MacDonald has boarded a plane to the country of Qatar. The Premier is also keeping very quiet as to his reason for the visit.

All we know so far is that he will be speaking to a business in the area and will be traveling with the Economic Minister of Canada (Angus MacDonald) and someone from the Department Of Energy. He did say that this trip could create a great opportunity for the Province.

More will be released in the coming days.

Canada's Copyright Changes

I am going to go slightly off topic and talk about a federal matter that affects most Canadians.

Canada got it's first look at the new copyright laws. Like most major changes there are some good points and a fair amount of bad points as well. I will do my best to break down both categories for you.

The Good

The new laws do one thing which was desperately needed. They do a much better job of defining what is permitted and what is not under Canadian law. Many gray areas have been cleared up which in itself is a big benefit.

Downloaders are essentially still immune. There is a maximum payout of $500 no matter how many files you have downloaded illegally. This should keep us from falling in to the same trap that the USA is in with lawsuits against everyone and their dog (yes it has happened).

ISP's will not be required to monitor their customers for illegal files usage. The big concern here was that monitoring traffic is a violation of privacy and it should not be the responsibility of the internet providers anyway.

Recording TV and movies for the purpose of time shifting is legal. Essentially you are permitted to download shows and keep them for a short period of time if they are available to you on TV under your subscription. You can not collect and keep these files forever but at least there will be no risk of downloading a show you missed last night.

The Bad

It is illegal to break any protection that is placed on a file you purchase. This means those songs you download can not be stripped of their DRM which makes it difficult or impossible to play files on multiple devices you own.

Cellular phones will remain locked to a carrier and can not be unlocked. While it is not a huge issue in Canada yet since we have one major 3G carrier and a couple CDMA/TDMA carriers, it could be in the future. Cell phone locking is a practice that forces you to purchase a new phone if you decide to switch carriers. This essentially locks lower income people to one carrier for longer periods of time. Even the United States has moved away from this. Imagine the outrage if your cable provider told you to change to another company you would need to purchase a new T.V.

Uploaders will face charges of $20,000 per file. Originally meant to give copyright owners the ability to retrieve funds from people stealing their works could have an impact on others. People uploading a video of them dancing to a popular song on You Tube could end up breaking this law and pay huge fines.

Many experts believe that the new changes could force consumer prices up for electrical equipment. Their rational is that they will need to recover the costs of consumers being allowed to make additional copies of their files for other devices.

NS Guards Will Be Packing Heat

The Nova Scotia Justice Department will be forced to arm guards inside of our jails with pepper spray, batons or tasers during prisoner hospital visits. The guards will provided such weapons no later than June 24th.

On April 3rd, Jermaine Carvery escaped during a hospital visit and was only caught last week. While the weapons would have had no effect in this incident, guards started to refuse to transfer prisoners unless they were armed. The police have been doing most of the work since, but the NSGEU union will push to have the duty sent back to the guards now that they can feel more safe.

What is most shocking is the fact that all these weapons are considered non lethal (but the taser is pretty close). Maybe its because I just finished watching a Steven Segal, movie but what are the guards supposed to do if a friend tries to break them out during the visit? Now I don't believe we should be equipping all guards with guns, but maybe having a police officer present for hospital visits would be in everyones best interest. The guards do the work but the officer is nearby in case the worst should happen.

Guards should be able to sleep a little better now that they have basic means of defending themselves or keeping dangerous people off the streets. The ruling still leaves them unprotected in the overcrowding jails however.

UPDATE - Tasers have been put on hold pending a review. They have not been taken off the list all together but for now guards will have to rely on pepper spray and batons.

Nova Scotia Gas Price Predictions For June 14th 2008

Tomorrow the prices will be set for the upcoming week. As always I am making my predictions on what to expect.

I predict the price of gasoline for June 13th 2008 to go up by 5.5 cents per liter on average. Below is the updated information and how I came to this conclusion

Price Per Barrel Of Oil In U.S. Dollars for June 05th 2008 - 121.5
Price Per Barrel Of Oil In U.S. Dollars for June 13th 2008 - 136.72

New Brunswick Maximum Prices for June 05th 2008 - 135.1
New Brunswick Maximum Prices for June 13th 2008 - 138.7

This Weeks Predicted Maximum Gas Prices For Nova Scotia
Zone 1 142.7
Zone 2 143.2
Zone 3 143.8
Zone 4 143.8
Zone 5 143.8
Zone 6 144.8


The above prediction is for informational purposes only. The decision to purchase or not to purchase gasoline is yours and yours only.All prices listed above are the Maximum prices for the week and depending on the global status of oil could change before next Friday. To find out which zone you are in please visit The Zone Map. The most recent prices for Nova Scotia can be found on Here.

Government Condems Wilsons Fuel Decision

Wilsons Fuel has decided to stop servicing 12 rural gas stations. The most likely reason for the stoppage is the cost to deliver the fuel to regions outside of Metro.

Service NS Minister Angus MacIsaac has expressed his disappointment over the decision. "It is unfortunate that Wilsons has chosen to take this approach, at the peril of small businesses across the province,"

Wilsons is the only major retailer to make such a move but with gas prices skyrocketing who knows if anyone else will follow suit.

Kind of ironic how gas prices are getting so bad that it is costs to much to transport gas for sale. Many companies are at the breaking point and the experts claim the worst is yet to come.

UPDATE - Wisons has decided to continue service to the stations in rural areas. They are citing the small decline in world prices for allowing them to continue. There has been no word on what the company will do when the prices go back up again.