DEN Enews

Last week the street was overflowing with concerned citizens on two consecutive days In Halifax and other centres and the government is still not listening. The news is carrying the dissatisfaction with the new budget and social media is all over it. It cannot possibly be going unnoticed that the populace is angry with this government. This is not what they voted for.

Join another Shoulder to Shoulder Rally TODAY to let your feelings be known. The following are statements from what the government deems “special interest” groups. There is still time to share your views with your MLA.

The Ecology Action Centre is deeply concerned about the ecological and democratic implications of restructuring the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in order to “drive economic development.”

As part of these changes to DNR, the Houston government abruptly fired seven people and completely eliminated the Wildlife Division at DNR. Managers of biodiversity, managers of ecosystems and habitats and the head of the Wildlife Division all lost their jobs, and Nova Scotia’s wildlife lost its dedicated voice within government.

Full statement: 

ecologyaction.ca/resources-media/position-statements/eacs-statement-elimination-wildlife-division-and-restructuring

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Bill 198 THREATENS TO TAKE AWAY THE RIGHTS OF LANDOWNERS AND STEWARDS
 
Your right to manage, care for and earn from your own land is under threat.

Bill 198 – the Financial Measures Act – weaponizes taxes to force harvesting on woodlot owners.
There are many ways to manage forested land as a resource.
This government only recognizes extraction.
 
Bill 198:

·      changes  the Forests Act to ensure that you will pay 20 to 80 times more tax per acre than you do now, if the way you manage your forested land does not match the government’s idea of how you should manage your land

·      undermines your ability to earn from your forest based on its value from all non-timber forest products including:

• carbon storage credits

• maple syrup production

• agroforestry

• hunting

• guiding

• recreation-based businesses

·      weakens the protection you can establish for your land through community and conservation easements
 
Nova Scotia is unique in Canada for the proportion of our land that is in the hands of small woodlot owners. We have done a better job managing forest on our third of the province than industrial forestry companies on their third. As for the government’s management of the remaining third – Crown Land – that’s not an example to follow either.
 
Call your MLA, write to the Premier. Tell them to drop amendments 52 to 60 in Bill 198 as well as the provision to change how forested land is taxed. Hands off our land.

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Save Our Old Forests - SOF - sends this letter template for you to use:

Letter Template

TO: Your MLA (MLA Finder)

CC:  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

bcc: [email protected]

Subject: Stop Bill 198. Hands off our land.

Dear XX,

I am astonished that a Conservative government whose voter base is rural Nova Scotia is interfering with landowners’ rights to manage and benefit from their land. My family owns XX acres of mostly forested land in XX County.

Bill 198 – the Financial Measures Act – weaponizes taxes to force harvesting on woodlot owners.

There are many ways to manage forested land as a resource. This government only recognizes extraction. Landowners should not be deprived of the benefits of earning alternate revenue streams from their forest land by this ridiculously outdated view.   Bill 198

• changes how forest land is taxed to ensure that we will pay at least 20 times – that is, 2000% -- more tax per acre than we do now, if the way we manage our forested land does not match the government’s idea of how we should manage our land

• undermines our ability to earn money from our forest based on its value as a carbon store

• weakens the protection we can establish for our land through community and conservation easements

  Nova Scotia is unique in Canada for the proportion of our land that is in the hands of small woodlot owners. We have done a better job managing forest on our third of the province than industrial forestry companies on their third. As for the government’s management of the remaining third – Crown Land – that’s not an example to follow either.

My message to this PC government is Hands off our land. Drop amendments 52 to 60 in Bill 198 as well as changes to eligibility for  the preferential forest resource tax rate.

I look forward to your response,

Your Name,

Your Community

EDITOR’S NOTE - You may not be a landowner but we urge you to help stand up against this egregious invasion of a person’s right to manage their own property. Simply adjust the wording to reflect your position.

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Think the government isn’t serious about fracking/ read this article:

The environment is not the only area being hit hard, Arts, culture and support for those with disabilities and their caregivers are also on the chopping block. Stand with all those hurting.

Courageous Indigenous resistance in Brazil’s Amazon has led to the government revoking a policy threatening to turn vital rivers into private industrial waterways. For 33 days, families, elders, women, and children held the line in a determined blockade under intense heat and rain. Protesters peacefully blocked the airport road, intercepted a grain barge, and occupied U.S. multinational Cargill’s terminal. Their action, amplified by national and international solidarity, forced the government to listen. A leader of the movement described it as a collective victory, and said “This proves that life – the river – has no price. It cannot be sold, it is not negotiable. That’s why we will never back down.”

Some exciting news is being reported! The company Drax will begin to reduce the amount of Canadian wood pellets it burns for electricity, and will stop burning trees from British Columbia entirely within the next year. It was people, organizations, and a wide community who rallied, organized, spoke out against burning forests as a climate solution, and helped make trees in B.C. “too controversial” to burn. Several petitions against Drax have been shared in DEN’s e-news and we are thrilled to see this result of public pressure put towards the protection of nature. While a major win for Canada and our precious old-growth trees, Drax will choose another country and they aren’t the only company operating in Canada that turns trees into pellets for foreign markets. Let’s celebrate Drax’s departure and keep standing up for forests.

Most Canadians want our federal government to do more about climate disinformation. Despite public call for climate truth and while we see a fast-tracking list of what are being called “Nation Building Projects”, Prime Minister Carney is scrapping Canada's laws against greenwashing.  How can Canadians tell if projects are truly in the national interest if corporations are not required to verify the claims they make about their environmental impacts? Send a message to our leaders saying to keep the hard-won robust greenwashing protections in place, particularly a robust private action against business' environmental claims.

Canada faces a choice: Build new fossil fuel pipelines that deepen the climate crisis, damage ecosystems, endanger communities and enrich oil and gas billionaires, or build a truly resilient, people- and nature-centred future powered by renewables. In November 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney made a damaging deal with Alberta to fast-track a new diluted bitumen oil pipeline to B.C.’s coast while rolling back key environmental protections. This pipeline would lock Canada into deeper dependence on a declining, high-polluting industry and put North Pacific ecosystems and coastal First Nations at risk from increased tanker traffic and catastrophic oil spills. There’s still time to stop this pipeline ploy and choose a fossil-fuel free future. Alberta intends to submit its pipeline proposal to the federal government’s Major Projects Office by July 1, 2026.

Storm Days

All of us hear that a storm is coming and prepare the best we can. What I do to get ready may not be what you do, and that’s the whole point. Walk with me through storm prep and a storm day, and then tell me what you do differently. Drop Grandma a line at [email protected]. I’d truly love to hear.

The night before a storm always feels a bit rushed. This one isn’t due until mid-morning, so most of the cooking can wait until tomorrow.

Kettles are filled. Everything that can be charged is charged. The battery supply is checked, something Grandma keeps an eye on at all times.

The generator has been tested and is ready to go. Gasoline is in the closest shed. Indoor power units are fully topped up. There’s some wood in the basement, but if the wind is high, Grandma skips the wood fire. Cozy should not mean risky.

Morning starts with eggs. Six or eight go into a pot, boiled, cooled, peeled, and tucked into a glass jar in the fridge. That’s breakfast for days. Egg sandwiches make easy meals, or you can chop them into a corn salad to bump up the nutrition without much effort.

Next comes chicken noodle soup, the dry kind you add water to and boil. It fills a thermos that stays hot for up to 24 hours, which feels like a small miracle on a storm day.

Then potatoes are peeled and boiled. With a secondary cooking unit, they turn into pan-fried potatoes or a potato hash with wieners, bologna, or whatever meat is lurking in the fridge. Boil a carrot or two and suddenly meals stretch further.

I check the bread situation: wraps, ciabatta buns, older loaves. Anything truly stale becomes bread pudding. A few slices may head outside to help the birds through the storm, sharing is still sharing.

Sandwiches are next. Some are grilled in a pan or sandwich maker; others stay cold. Storms lower our energy and having food ready helps keep anxiety down and bellies full. Mayonnaise behaves just fine at room temperature for about eight hours. I keep sandwiches in the fridge until the power goes out, then move them to the counter.

Yes, I sometimes make pizzas, quiche, or stew. This storm, though, I wanted something new, something that would warm the house a bit before the weather rolled in. Anything cooked in a slow cooker stays hot, or at least warm, for hours. Toss something together early, and supper quietly takes care of itself.

A pot of rice goes on next. Rice is handy for meals, but Grandma is really thinking rice pudding. It can bake in the oven alongside a pan of cookies or a cake. Storm days require sweets.

Plain biscuits are also a must. Add a spoonful of jam and a cup of something hot, and life feels pretty good, even when the wind is howling.

Picture this: a container of sandwiches—buns and wraps—alongside a thermos of chicken noodle soup, boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, corn salad, and front left, the stars of the show: rice pudding, tea biscuits, and cranberry and mint-chip cookies. That lineup will keep us going for quite a while.

Dressing warmly matters. Storm days start with thermal leggings and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Fleece-lined jeans or shirts keep the chill at bay, and you can always peel off a layer if you get too warm. Grandma plans for comfort, not fashion.

Once all the prep is done, it’s time to enjoy the day. If the power stays on, a good movie is just right. If not, the games come out. Nana and I love Jenga, Snakes and Ladders, or a quick round of air hockey. There’s also a jigsaw puzzle we’ve been meaning to start since Christmas, and then the card games: crib, rummy, auction, and 45s, each with its own dramatic pause before the win.

If you have portable lights, a heat source, and food, the hardest part of a storm is slowing down. We’re all used to moving too fast.

In Grandma’s family, storms were permission to pause and play. Extra naps. A colouring page. Word searches. Maybe even pulling out the “Whatever” file, the things that once caught your interest and were set aside for someday.

Storms aren’t pleasant, but Grandma thinks of them as an unexpected day off in a rushed world.

So—what do you do on a storm day?

BOOKS

Just wanted to pass along two titles that would make great winter reading.

Victory Gardens for Bees by Lori Weidenhammer

This book describes the plants, how to arrange them in a garden, how to care for them. I need to put it on hold again. Time is a hard thing to find

Waterwise Gardening by Richard Restuccia

This shows so many methods to water but also teaches you to know when you are over watering or under watering.

Both books are in the provincial library system with South Shore having a copy of each. I am returning them on the 27th.

Spring Cleaning

Yes, I know, it’s a snowstorm as I write today. But my brain is firmly in spring, especially with seed packing coming up this Saturday.

We all know how to clean. I’m not here to nag you about that. Instead, let’s talk about small, satisfying projects, the odd little places that get ignored for months. (Yes, Grandma keeps a running to-do list. Things get added, crossed off, and occasionally judged.)

The Broom Closet

(Which, as we all know, holds far more than brooms.)

My aprons live in there, all seven of them, when I really only use two. Into the laundry they went. The stick vacuum had wedged itself between a tall telescopic duster and a broom-and-dustpan unit. Once pried free, I suddenly had access to all sorts of tiny, neglected corners.

The flat ironing board, the kind you set between two chairs, finally got its new cover. I also made a note that the child-sized ironing board (the one I learned to iron on) needs a new cover too.

Vacuum nozzles that fit machines long since retired went straight into the plastics recycling. Brushes were gathered into a respectable pile and tucked into a ziplock bag to keep them from staging a takeover.

Project two: fans.
Some of these have been quietly collecting dust since summer. Fair warning—even with a long microfiber brush, you may end up wearing more dust than you remove. A better trick? Grab an old pillowcase and a stepladder. Slip the pillowcase over the fan wand and pull back. The dust lands neatly inside the case instead of on your head. Grandma-approved.

So, what spring cleaning job have you been putting off for months?
Let Grandma know at [email protected].

Something to Eat

This week we are making my rice pudding, also known as the best way to use up milk products. When the power goes out during a storm, the fridge and freezer start to surrender pretty quickly, and milk is usually the first to go rogue. Rice pudding rescues it.

Start by boiling one or two cups of rice, depending on how many mouths you’re feeding (or how generous you’re feeling). Drain it and let it cool right in the pan you plan to bake it in, because Grandma doesn’t wash extra dishes unless absolutely necessary.

Grab a mug or a measuring cup, whatever’s closest, and beat in two eggs with a splash of milk and a trickle of vanilla. This is not baking class; close enough is good enough.

Stir sugar into the rice (or honey, brown sugar, or maple syrup, use what you’ve got). Add the egg mixture. Then pour in whatever milk products are lurking in the fridge: milk, cream, half-and-half, coffee creamer. Keep going until the whole thing looks nicely soupy.

Slide it into a 300° oven and bake until the edges are golden and the middle is set, not jiggly, not liquid, it takes about an hour.

Warm, comforting, and nothing wasted. Grandma approves

For those that like a standard recipe.

Rice Pudding

3 cups milk

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Salt

½ tsp cinnamon and nutmeg

1 ½ cups cooked rice

½ cup raisins (optional)

Oven heating to 300F (for almost any pudding)

Mix ingredients together and pour into a baking dish. Cook about 1 hour stirring sometime in the middle. Remove when the edges are brown

It’s getting exciting here with the first packing on Saturday. I promise to give a full report of how well the packing goes. Grandma has to run and print off another couple thousand labels because you prepare for the most you might need but be happy with however many turn up.

Till next week

Grandma is sending hugs.

 Prayer for Justice

Grant us, Lord God, a vision of your world as your love would have it:
a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor;
a world where the riches of creation are shared, and everyone can enjoy them;
a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect;
a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love.
Give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

- Author Unknown