Losing their foothold
"Two months of torment was all Wayne Hickey could bear before making his mind up to leave Halifax," writes the Chronicle Herald's Andrew Rankin about the 69-year-old pensioner's struggle to find a foothold in the Nove Scotia city.
Hickey and his fellow tenants at Ardmore Hall got an eviction notice Aug. 1, and have until the end of November to get out. Their building is being torn down and replaced by a proposed seven-storey, 130-unit building.
"I’m being forced out of here because of greed and what’s worse is that the government is refusing to step in and help," Hickey says.
The lack of affordable housing is a problem that's not unique to Halifax — in fact it's at a crisis point in several other East Coast communities.
A price on life?
Lucy Morkunas knows exactly how much money needs to be spent so she can keep living.
The 59-year-old P.E.I. woman has a rare form of cancer called collecting duct carcinoma that presents at an advanced stage and has a poor prognosis.
Chemotherapy was not working, but she was well enough to try another treatment — immunotherapy in the form of a drug called nivolumab. Morkunas has taken the drug intravenously four times and it appears to be working well.
There are two problems.
The drug is pricey (Morkunas has paid $17,500 out-of-pocket for her treatments so far). She also can't get health insurance coverage, even though nivolumab is part of P.E.I.'s drug formulary.
The Guardian's Jim Day has been looking into why Morkunas doesn't qualify for coverage, but has received no response from Health P.E.I. officials as of this writing.
Read on for more of Morkunas' story.
Ambitious revitalization
Along LeMarchant Road in centre of St. John's, N.L., there's a 200-metre stretch of commercial properties that once collectively employed close to 200 people. But for the last few years, they've all been empty.
This, reports the Telegram's Andrew Robinson, is where Greg Hanley enters the picture.
Hanley's company Nidus Development, purchased all of the properties with the aim of welcoming new businesses and residents alike.
The plans include a grocery store and an 80-unit apartment building. Meanwhile, interest in redeveloping the area has extended beyond Hanley's business.
Click to see the plans and learn about developments that are, unfortunately, few and far between - but much needed - in many Atlantic Canadian locations.
