Archives for January 3, 2019

A Halifax-area digital studio is getting a payroll rebate of up to $1.5 million over five years.

Nova Scotia Business Inc., the provincial government’s business development agency, says REDspace Inc. will get the incentive to expand its operations in Bedford.

The company specializes in mobile, web, video and gaming for media brands and networks including Turner, NBC and Sony Pictures.

The government says REDspace could create up to 125 jobs under the five-year payroll rebate agreement.

The company will get a smaller rebate if fewer jobs are created.

The government says REDspace “provides new ways for its clients to deliver interactive experiences” to users.

REDspace was founded by Mike Johnston, a Truro native who returned to Nova Scotia from Boston after the 2000 tech crash.

By last January, his startup had grown to nearly 200 employees.

“We’re an export-driven company and we’re doing it all from Halifax,” Johnston, REDspace’s CEO, said in 2017.

“We mostly work on engaging front-end digital experiences … But we also do the back-end plumbing that’s perhaps less visible and less sexy but drives much of the delivery of streaming video.”

Assessed values of some single family homes in Metro Vancouver’s once red hot housing market dropped between five and 10 per cent in the latest assessments used to determine property taxes in British Columbia.

Meanwhile, BC Assessment says some property owners in the rest of the province have seen five to 15 per cent increases in their property values.

The agency forecasts condominium values will increase by up to 20 per cent across B.C. this year.

Commercial and industrial properties saw an increase of between 10 and 20 per cent across most of the province, with some markets around Metro Vancouver increasing up to 30 per cent.

BC Assessment collects, monitors and analyzes property data.

Its assessments are based on the estimate of a property’s market value on July 1 of each year and its physical condition on Oct. 31.

Deputy assessor Keith MacLean-Talbot says increases in property assessments do not automatically translate into a corresponding increase in property taxes.

Longshoremen at the Port of Montreal have voted nearly unanimously for a strike mandate to be used at any time during ongoing contract negotiations with their employers.

Union spokesman Michel Murray said today 99.49 per cent of voting members recently gave their union the power to call a strike at the second-largest port in the country.

Murray says he is not optimistic regarding the state of negotiations between his union and the Maritime Employers Association, a group that includes ship owners, operators, agents and longshoring companies.

He says the roughly 1,100 longshoremen at the port are looking to improve working conditions, including changing schedules that require members to work 19 days out of 21.

Murray adds that longshoremen work under strict rules, face habitual disciplinary measures and are suspended frequently.

A spokesman for the employers’ association says negotiations are going well and its members are surprised by the union’s statements.

Yves Comeau says the objective of the association is to conclude a good deal for both sides.

60 lawmakers sent a letter to regulator urging no pipeline across the state

A board of high-ranking Maryland officials on Wednesday rejected a proposed TransCanada pipeline across the western part of the state that would carry natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to West Virginia.

The Board of Public Works voted 3-0 against an easement for Calgary-based TransCanada’s pipeline. It would run under the Potomac River near Hanover, Maryland, and extend 4.8 kilometres from the Columbia Gas network in Pennsylvania to Mountaineer Gas distribution system in West Virginia.

Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democrat, cited testimony that the pipeline could bring Maryland environmental problems without economic benefits. The board also includes Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, a Democrat.

Maryland banned fracking

Environmentalists and residents have been vocal in opposing the pipeline.

“Marylanders and many of their leaders have consistently opposed the threats fracked gas pipelines pose to our health, water, climate, and communities,” said Josh Tulkin, Sierra Club Maryland chapter director.

The board’s vote came after more than 60 lawmakers sent a letter urging board members to reject the proposal. The lawmakers noted that Maryland approved a law, which Hogan signed in 2017, to ban the hydraulic fracturing drilling process known as fracking in Maryland. The process is used to extract natural gas. Maryland was the first state where a legislature voted to bar the practice that actually has natural gas reserves.

“Given that Maryland has banned fracking, it defies our state’s existing energy policy to bring the same public health risks to our residents by way of a pipeline,” the letter said. “Moreover, enabling fossil fuel production runs counter to our state’s goals of increasing renewable energy production.”

Concern over streams, wetlands

The letter, which was sent this week, also noted that the pipeline would affect at least 10 wetlands and 19 streams, in addition to the Potomac River.

While the board delayed a vote on the easement at its last meeting, Hogan said the unanimous vote would have happened without the letter from lawmakers.

“It had nothing to do with any letter from the legislature,” Hogan said at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Anne Havemann, an attorney for Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said she hopes the board’s vote marks an end to the proposal.

“We’ll see if [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] gets involved or the courts get involved, but for now it’s a welcome delay and we hope a permanent end to this pipeline,” Havemann said shortly after the vote.