Putting innovation to the test at Granville Biomed
Crystal Northcott and Christine Goudie started by 3D printing models of vaginas to train health care workers. Now the all-female start-up has gotten federal approval for its improved design for COVID-testing nasal swabs just as buyers are lining up for them.
COVID's tale of two cities
St. John's is on lockdown. You can't have a beer with a neighbour, get a haircut or daub a bingo card. But in Halifax, Chamber of Commerce boss Patrick Sullivan got to tell members some COVID restrictions are lifted. Premier Iain Rankin, got to tell Nova Scotians they'd have their vaccine shots by the end of June. And we all got to remark our calendars for the World Women’s Hockey Championships in May instead of crossing them out. Win-win-win.
Kaur, Singh help you eat like a king
Mandhir Singh and partner Poleen Kaur are trying to build the Uber of chef-cooked meals. Contact Easy Plate, place the order and a chef shows up to cook for you, or brings the meals ready-made, for less than $8 a plate plus groceries.
Bouncing back in Bonavista
After a year pretty much lost to COVID, folks like Bonavista Social Club’s Katie Hayes are looking with hope at the 2021 tourism season. The beautiful coastal community, which was given a UNESCO designation in 2020, is preparing for a tide of tourists, even if it’s just staycationers from St. John’s.
Springhouse’s saving grace
When their newly-opened restaurant was shut down by COVID last year, Seth Graham and Jessie Doyle had to think and act fast. That meant selling take-home meals and opening a boutique grocery with hard-to-find organic, vegan and specialty foods.
Cape Breton Railroad Trilogy
Chapter One of the modern decline of the Cape Breton Railway might have been written when Devco stopped moving coal in railcars and switched to trucks. Chapter Two followed, with new owners and, eventually, idled tracks. This week the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce climbed aboard the campaign to revive the line, table stakes for any bid to build an international container pier in Sydney.
Fixing the last gold rush to prepare for the next
The mines are long gone but their toxic legacy is still found in dead wetlands and ponds poisoned by chemicals used to extract the gold. Dalhousie University professor Linda Campbell has a five-year job ahead of her—to find ways to clean up those sites—funded in part by Atlantic Gold’s owner, Australian mining giant St. Barbara Ltd. Success likely means an easier path to convincing regulators to approve future developments.
Prairie MP’s tax pitch would help fishing and farming families here
Families hoping to pass their businesses on to their kids without losing nearly half of it to the taxman may catch a break. Manitoba MP Larry Maguire has a bill before Parliament—backed by the Tories, NDP, Greens and two Liberals—that would cut the tax rate on family-to-family business sales by two-thirds. Now we just have to see whether the Liberal government kills it.
PERSPECTIVES
CHARLEBOIS: The lessons of Buttergate
Canada’s dairy farmers, or at least the one in three who were using palm oil in their cattle feed, stopped doing it this week. Dalhousie food professor Sylvain Charlebois says that’s a good start and hopes its the beginning of a new openness about what goes into the food we eat.
ZIOBROWSKI: Wild about Harry
The navy’s new arctic and offshore patrol vessel HMCS Harry DeWolf was at times dismissed as a rust-plagued slush-breaker, incapable of cracking the winter ice in Canada’s north. As Peter Ziobrowski writes, the Harry DeWolf has proven critics wrong, bashing through sheet ice in arctic waters. The other Harry’s having a tougher time with a big berg called Buckingham Palace.
That’s The Wrap!
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Back next Friday. Until then, get a COVID shot if you can and if it hurts take Cathy (Codco) Jones’ advice and put a little Lucky margarine on it.
