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CARIBOU, N.S. – The ferry company that provides service between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island says it expects to get one of its boats back in the water before the end of the sailing season.

Northumberland Ferries says repairs to the MV Confederation — which was removed from service on Sept. 15 after it collided with a wharf — should be finished by Dec. 3.

The company says the vessel could then resume serving its route between Caribou, N.S., and Wood Islands, P.E.I., on Dec. 6.

Northumberland Ferries says it has concluded mechanical failure was not a factor in the collision and its investigation is continuing.

Once the ferry is back in the water, the company plans to offer four daily four round trips until the season ends on Dec. 20.

Northumberland Ferries has said the MV Saaremaa 1, which was also pulled from service in September, will not return this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia NDP has released its election platform, which emphasizes affordability and housing and commits to spending an additional $2 billion over two years.

Its pledges include building 30,000 new affordable rental homes and temporarily removing the provincial tax on gasoline while inflation is high.

Party leader Claudia Chender says the measure would save drivers 15.5 cents per litre at the pump, but she did not say at what point the tax would be reintroduced.

Chender says, if elected, the NDP would address affordability by increasing income assistance rates and removing the provincial tax on phone bills, internet and groceries that are not already tax-free.

To tackle health-care access, the NDP says it would open 15 new collaborative family doctor clinics in its first year in power, with 15 additional clinics added in each of the next two years.

When asked if Nova Scotia can afford to spend $2 billion on the NDP platform’s planned spending from 2025-2027, Chender says inaction would carry too great a cost.

“Nova Scotia can’t afford not to fix the housing crisis, can’t afford not to fix our access to primary care, can’t afford not to make sure that everyone can pay the bills each month,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

SURREY, B.C. – Mounties in B.C. say they’ve arrested three men in Surrey believed to be tied to a transnational organized crime group connected to Mexican drug cartels, while four others suspected of trafficking large quantities of drugs, including diverted prescription pills, were arrested in Burnaby.

RCMP federal investigators say that on Sept. 23, police searched a Surrey home, which was surrounded by compound fencing, steel gates, and razor wire, and arrested men allegedly involved in importing cocaine to Canada.

They say officers also seized 23 firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition and “multi-kilos of illicit drugs” from the house.

Police say the arrests in Burnaby, B.C., stem from a four-month investigation into interprovincial drug trafficking that included executing search warrants in nearby Coquitlam and Surrey.

They say officers seized more than 9,500 Hydromorphone pills believed to be diverted prescription pills, as well as other substances including more than a kilogram of suspected cocaine.

They say the group was allegedly shipping the drugs as far as Manitoba and the Yukon, as well as locally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.