It shouldn't come as any real surprise Acadian Coach Lines in New Brunswick and PEI and Acadian Intercity Coaches here in Nova Scotia will shut down bus service later this fall. The company's been saying for sometime now it has been losing money, about $12 million in the last five years, and its effort to cut back on some of its more rural services have been rejected by government regulatory agencies. Whether the shutdown threat is merely a ploy to force government hands remains to be seen, but while the Dexter government offers up talk about subsidies, its answer seemingly to all business problems is to throw more money at them, the governments of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island say opening up bus service to more competition is the solution. Subsidizing the inter-provincial bus service is not the answer to this problem. Less red tape is. Open up the market place. Allow Acadian to make its route adjustments and let the growing number of smaller shuttle services pick up the slack there. Government should regulate safety standards, nothing more.
Don't you hate the yahoos who break into cars. Someone got into mine the other day. Fortunately there was nothing of any real value inside. Too bad for musician Carmen Townsend who experienced a big loss this week. Four guitars were stolen out of her car early yesterday morning. Townsend says she never leaves her instruments in her car, expect the other night. One of the stolen guitars quickly popped up on Kijiji but was just as quickly taken down. Police are now involved along with an online campaign through Facebook and Twitter. Hope she gets them back.
Brace for a big hike tonight at the gas pumps. George Murphy with the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices is predicting a 4.7 cent a litre increase. News 95.7's gas psychic suggests a nickle hike while the CBC's predicting an increase of 6.5 cents a litre. It seems for every little drop in prices we get, it's quickly recouped with a hike like that expected tonight.
I went for a ride on the Halifax ferry yesterday, a beautiful morning for the sail across the harbour. Too bad about council's short-sighted decision to cut back late night ferry service. Perhaps when a majority of new faces sits around the council table after October 20th the issue will be re-visited. Metro Transit says it does intent to bump up ferry service again in three years to cope with renovations to the Macdonald Bridge, but no details were provided.
One Toronto cop calls it "one of the worst acts of degradation" that he has ever seen. A video posted online appears to show a man urinating on a homeless man sleeping outside Toronto's Eaton Centre. Almost as bad as that,cheers can be heard from people off camera witnessing the supposed incident. There are some sick, sick people out there.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
