I live in the Annapolis Valley, I don't have a car and I wanna buy a cheap writing/drawing tablet. It'll be my first time using one so it doesn't have to be super high tech; I want one to use for assignments and to see if digital art is for me. I was wondering if there are any good second-hand shops in the area that might have something like this. I know about value village and facebook market place but other than them is there any other place that would be selling them for cheap?

I’m not living in Ns anymore but my folks are. They are getting their shingles vaccine Dec 14 and paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket. I see Houston had making it free as part of his election promises. Anyone have any intel on when that could happen!!?

Shot from: Nine Mile River

Camera: Sony Alpha 1

Lens: 200-600mm @ 600mm

Shutter: 1600

Aperture: 9

ISO: 100

I am preparing to open an account at Tangerine Bank ahead of migrating to Canada. I see a question on the application inviting a referral code or "orange key," whatever that is.

If this can benefit someone, I'd be happy to enter their promotion code if you send it to me.

...on a drive through the Annapolis Valley!

I've been pouring over all the different municipalities bylaws, and some say yes, other say maybe, and some sources say nay, it's so confusing,

the bylaws from Halifax talks mostly about the City and Suburbs, some other municipalities don't even have detailed info, and some other municipalities are very vague about it... but I can't seem to find a clear answer if I can have a Full brown chicken farm to produce both meat and eggs.

page 54 https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/about-the-city/regional-community-planning/PlanningDistricts8and9_LUB_Eff_February252017.pdf

RE USES PERMITTED

A development permit shall be issued for all uses in an RE (Rural Enterprise) Zone except

for the following:

Fish waste processing plants;

Salvage Yards;

Adult entertainment uses;

Beverage rooms and lounges over one thousand and five hundred (1,500) sq. ft. (139.4

m2); Mobile home parks; and

Any industrial or commercial use which is obnoxious:

- Composting operations (refer to Section 4.26) (MC-Feb 26/96;Minister-Mar 28/96)

- C&D Materials Transfer Stations, C&D Materials Processing Facilities and C&D <--- ( this actually meant construction and demolition (C&D) waste)

- Materials Disposal Sites (RC-Sep 10/02;E-Nov 9/02)

This is also a little bit confusing, so they do expect you to use RE zones for commercial and industrial, but... you can't have Business sign up, if there is a neighbour nearby (this part is understandable, the part the comes after is the confusing portion), ... not allowed in your own yard... like seriously I can't have a Business sign in my own yard, how are people supposed to find my Farm?

OTHER REQUIREMENTS: COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL USES

(a) Where any portion of any lot in any RE Zone is to be used for commercial or

industrial uses, no parking and open storage or outdoor display or sign shall be

permitted within any side or rear yard where such yard abuts any lot containing a

dwelling or any residential zone, except where a fence or other visual and physical

barrier is provided within the abutting yard;

(b) Notwithstanding Section 14.6(a) above, where the abutting property is under the

same ownership, no fence or other visual and physical barrier shall be required

within the abutting yard.

I was also trying to look up if the old school Water Wheels were allowed, the answer was "Yes" with some caveats, but after clicking the link from Halifax bylaw stuff, it just went nowhere with no additional detail about what should or shouldn't be done if I were to setup a good'ol fashioned water wheel.

I did find the "Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia Regulations" , but there was still no detail about farming in RE zones. https://novascotia.ca/just/REGULATIONS/regs/npchickf.htm

Speaking of the Devil, just found some recent 2022 old news about Zoning Problems in NS, not being Farmers friendly. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-farmers-say-zoning-laws-protect-agricultural-lands-drive-them-out-of-business-1.6668756

--- EDIT ---

Did some more digging, seems like I'll need to look for properties around "East Hants" municipality to find RU zoned lands for full on industrial level farming / livestock operations.
That discovery came from this reference https://www.easthants.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Part-5-Rural-Zones.pdf

--- EDIT 2 ---

Yet more info keeps making things more confusing some other municipalities refers to Farming land as GD, and others needs to be A1 or A2, why can't they all just stick to the same zoning codes in NS.

Every Municipality seems to have a different Zoning ratings for what can be used as Farm land.

Hi all, I currently have my 5R driver license and thinking to move to ON. Did someone have an experience to change those to ON license? I assume they give me G2 which is a headache. I have like 6 months left to convert 5R to full 5 here in NS. If I have my full 5 do I still need 2 years of experience while holding full 5 to obtain full G or they will count all my years when I held 5R? Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’ve done a few posts on here recently about a ducted heat pump, however after carefully thinking about the cost and the efficiency of them, would it be better to get a wood stove and to keep my oil as a back up? or get electric baseboard and use two ductless heat pumps? I’m not sure what we should do to lessen the cost for ourselves. Thank you, any advice is much appreciated!

Is the wait list for priority housing long ?

Are physical copies of the driver handbooks still available? I'm specifically looking for the Commercial Driver's Handbook. I assume the only place I can find these are at Access Nova Scotia locations? Thanks!

It should not be this hard, I have a family doctor which I am extremely grateful / lucky to have as I know many do not, so I make an appointment but can't get in to see them for over a week.

I don't want to go to emerg and overwhelm them even more because I know they regularly sit at 10+ admissions and over 20 beds occupied with the longest stay usually being over 100 hours in the department.

So I go to the same day / next day clinic to be seen because the problem is getting worse and I know I likely won't make it to my doctor's appointment. I actually see them quite quickly and get a req for a chest xray and prescriptions for antibiotics.

However, even though I live 5 minutes from 1 hospital and 20 minutes from 2 other sites that can do chest x-rays, walk in x-ray service is suspended across all sites in the province and those sites close to me do not have any appointments until 1 to 2 weeks from now, so to get my chest x-ray I have to drive an hour away as they happen to have bookings the next day.

Also can't get my prescriptions until the next day as my pharmacy was already closed by the time they wrote them for me.

I just needed to rant, I can't even begin to imagine how hard it is for those out there that don't have family doctors or aren't able to drive an hour away like I can for an x-ray.

Who is great with black and grey flowers? Looking for lower arm sleeve for christmas present. I live in Dartmouth but willing to travel.

I rent an apartment and can only garden at a community garden that only allows annual plants. Does anyone know of any annual flowers that is native to Nova Scotia?

Edit: i am looking to buy a used vehicle, working with at most $8000

I'm going to be buying my first car very soon. I plan on buying it Outright from a dealership and not financing. Can anyone walk me through that process and what i can expect/ any tips.

My fiance & I are packing up our lives & moving to Nova Scotia. Currently we live in Ontario. We are leaving everything behind (in a split decision) & moving out east. If anyone has any advice for us out there that would be greatly appreciated. Any help would be awesome. We have talked about this for a long time but neither of us were ready to do it however things have changed & we need to go asap.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I'm interested in the Woodlot Management Home Study Program that the government of nova scotia provides (provided?) however I can't seem to access any of the links or web pages that might lead to it. I've emailed the provided address but figured i'd ask here as well in case anyone knows anything about it.

https://novascotia.ca/natr/plso/woodlot-management-home-study-program.asp

Thanks in advance!

Does anyone know if there’s any liquor store that sells this? And if not is there a certain website where I can order it? I want to get it as a Christmas gift for my Caribbean bf

I thought it would be interesting to look a bit deeper into where the NDP made gains in 2024, and where they fell behind compared to the 2021 election. Also decided to add in a comparison to the 2009 election to get an idea of how much work they still need to do to get competitive once again.

There have been a number of boundary changes since 2009, so keep in mind that for certain ridings it's not exactly a 1:1 comparison.

Also keep in mind that despite marginally increasing their vote share, the NDP received 9398 fewer votes than in 2021. If this decline was evenly distributed per riding, it would be an average loss of 171 votes per riding compared to 2021. Each riding where the number of votes lost fell below this number will be denoted with an asterisk*

NDP's Top 5 Ridings by Margin

+3787 Halifax Needham

+2966 Dartmouth South

+2347 Dartmouth North

+2105 Halifax Chebucto

+1995 Halifax Citadel-Sable Island

Interestingly, the NDP received 20,759 votes in these 5 ridings combined, representing 26.3% of their provincial total. 1 in 4 NDP voters in the province live in these 5 ridings.

The 5 Ridings with the fewest NDP Voters are Argyle (67), Clare (103), Yarmouth (211), Richmond (218), and Guysborough-Tracadie (320), for a total of 919 Voters, or 1.2% of their provincial total.

NDP's Bottom 5 Ridings by Margin

-4512 Kings West

-4299 Northside-Westmount

-4095 Antigonish

-3907 Timberlea-Prospect

-3730 Pictou East

In 2009 Antigonish, Timberlea-Prospect, and Pictou East all elected NDP MLAs - which really demonstrates how volatile the electorate can be given the right circumstances.

There was one riding where the NDP outperformed their 2009 vote total, Halifax Citadel-Sable Island (+118), which is a pretty impressive feat compared to most other ridings.

The NDP has 22 Ridings where they improved their vote total compared to 2021 Best performers were:

+1056 Halifax Needham

+994 Sackville-Uniacke

+506 Halifax Citadel-Sable Island

+481 Kings South

+317 Cole Harbour

The NDP has 33 Ridings where their vote total declined compared to 2021 The steepest declines were:

-2144 Glace Bay-Dominion

-1222 Eastern Passage *Candidate Dropped by NDP Mid-Campaign

-864 Sydney-Membertou

-863 Lunenburg West

-751 Northside-Westmount

There were 20 ridings where the NDP declined by more than 300 votes.

Conclusions

In general, it seems as though the NDP exacerbated the Urban-Rural divide that haunts their party. In rural areas their vote tended to decline, with an increase in urban areas. In other words, making gains where they are already ahead, and falling further behind where they are already trailing.

Their increase in seat total seems less to do with gaining votes, and more to do with the catastrophic collapse of the Liberal vote. For example, in two of their three flips (Halifax-Armdale & Fairview-Clayton Park), they received fewer votes in 2024 than in 2021.

Looking at the vote margins, the NDP would have a steep road to increase their seat total in the next election. Adding 500 NDP votes to each riding would only flip three more seats. 1000 votes would only flip 1 more. There are 37 Ridings where the NDP lost by more than 2000 votes.

The NDP continue to be harmed by parachuting in candidates from Halifax into rural ridings and running low effort paper candidates in ridings which elected NDP MLAs in 2009.

Ways Forward for the NDP

The election may have just ended, but the time is now to seek candidates for the next election. An early election call is always on the cards, there's never an excuse to be caught unprepared by a "surprise" election, especially since they are usually telegraphed well ahead of time.

This shouldn't have to be said, but don't have Halifax candidates run in rural ridings. The perception in rural areas is often that the NDP live in a Halifax bubble, and this just reinforces the belief that the NDP are out of touch with rural issues.

Speaking of rural issues the NDP leadership (including the leader!) should spend time getting to know people outside of Halifax, and what their concerns are. If you have a leadership meeting - are rural perspectives being included? If everyone at the table is from Halifax, you're not going to have the diversity of viewpoints and perspectives required to expand the party outside of the bubble.

Hey folks!

I'm from France and living in Montreal for 10 years now.
I miss the ocean where I grew up in France, and I'm quite tired of the strict rules about dogs in Quebec, and my noisy appartment. I have this "not so crazy" dream to buy a house near the ocean., and my first instinct is to target NS! Not too far from Europe (compared to BC), and too up north/cold (like PEI and NL).

I plan to come here next summer, with a roadtrip from MTL, and making stops in NB and PEI along the way. But I would love some inputs and advices from anyone :)

I'm not in a hurry, but I need to start making decent decisions too!

My ideal/dream is to buy a house near the ocean to walk my dog everyday (and every season) along the ocean. So the things I don't know about are mostly:

• Is NS friendly with dogs?
• What areas you would advice to set up my new life?
  • I would like to be on the east coast ideally.
  • I can imagine that the closest I am from Halifax, the more expensive it will be. But should it be north or south of the city?
• Optional question, what places I should visit whan I come next summer with my dog? :)

I'm sorry if there were similar topics already, don't hesitate to give me any links that could help me.
Thanks in advance!

<3 from MTL