Renovations to the Mariners Centre are one step closer to being finished.
The centre announced in a Facebook post that concrete has been successfully poured at Graves Arena. They said the next step in the process is waiting for the concrete to cure so it can provide a strong foundation for the rink.
The renovations include adding new pools, a fitness centre, a walking track, multi purpose spaces and more.
Another part of the renovations is a $1.6 million plan to refurbish and re-ice Graves Arena.
Those renovations began in March, and are scheduled to keep the ice closed until they’re completed later in the summer.
Last month, the provincial government provided $60,000 of funding to help resurface the ice at Graves Arena. That money was part of a $3.1 million effort to improve 85 recreation spaces and community projects across the province.
In an interview with Acadia News this spring, officials from the project said it remains on schedule, and construction should be completed later this fall.
Drivers in Dartmouth should prepare for traffic disruptions as the municipality moves forward with infrastructure work tied to a new development project.
Beginning Monday, July 20, the westbound lane of Windmill Road, between Wyse Road and Lyle Street, will be closed while crews install underground utility connections.
Work is expected to continue through September 20.
Municipal officials say the eastbound lane will remain open during construction, with detours and signage in place to help direct traffic around the work zone.
The project is also expected to impact pedestrian movement and bus routes in the area. Residents and commuters are being encouraged to allow extra travel time and expect delays while the work is underway.
Public Works Minister Fred Tilley said that he’s open to working with the Highway 101 Taskforce.
The group was recently reformed with their main focus being getting the province to include the Marshalltown to Weymouth bypass on their Five-Year Highway Improvement Plan.
Four kilometres of the road was improved in 2019, but the rest has still not been brought up to 100-series standards. Many community members have cited safety concerns, even going so far as to contribute to a list of “Highway 101 Horror Stories” online.
In an interview with Acadia News, task force member and Acadia-Annapolis MP Chris d’Entremont said the provincial government needs to make the bypass a priority.
Tilley said the province redid the safety survey for the area, and that staff are currently reviewing the document. He added they received the document in December of 2025, but did not provide a timeline for how long the process could take.
“We’re always looking at what is going to be in our next plan,” said Tilley. “The team has some data they’re going through, and then as we put the five year plan together we’ll know more.”
Although he did not commit to the bypass being included in the plan, Tilley said he’s glad the task force is back together, and that he has met with the group in the past, and that he would be open to meeting with them again.
A bridge in Shelburne is getting a $3-million upgrade.
According to the Municipality of Shelburne, the Jordan River Trail Bridge will be under construction during the summer and fall months as it is being updated to accommodate cyclists, pedestrians, and off road vehicles.
Timber Restoration Services won the design-build tender and will be replacing the old steel bridge with a new timber bridge. The company will also be updating and reusing the piers and abutments.
The municipality says the new bridge will provide a key connection in the local and regional trail system, and should benefit Shelburne and surrounding areas.
The project is being supported by the Municipality of Shelburne, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Province of Nova Scotia and the Off Highway Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (OHVIF).
Construction is scheduled to be completed by December 2026.
Acadia-Annapolis MP Chris d’Entremont says the provincial government needs to prioritize finishing work on Highway 101.
D’Entremont recently joined local MLA’s Jill Balser, Ryan Robicheau and a number of other municipal officials for the first meeting of the re-established Highway 101 Task Force.
According to a press release from the task force, their main focus is to advocate for the province to include the Marshalltown to Weymouth bypass in its Five-Year Highway Improvement Plan.
“Theres over 5,000 cars a day, I believe, that travel along that corridor,” said d’Entremont in an interview with Acadia News. “I think people have had enough, but I think we’ve lined up the right group of people to be able to convince the provincial government that this is something that needs to be done.”
Improvements along the Highway 101 corridor have been decades in the making. In 2019, four kilometres of the 25k-km stretch was opened to 100-series highway standards, but the rest remains unfinished.
Calls from residents to finish the project have been a constant according to d’Entremont, and the West Nova Chamber of Commerce has gone so far as to publish “Highway 101 Horror Stories”, a harrowing collection of incidents from residents along the stretch of road.
According to d’Entremont, funding hasn’t been the issue, but rather a result of the provincial government prioritizing communities outside of the Halifax area.
“We need to be able to look out further and take in the other 100 series highways that we have,” said d’Entremont. “So there has to be a priority change from the provincial government to be able to get this on the list.”
Despite the area not being as populated as urban centers like Halifax, d’Entremont said the highway is still a vital corridor for many communities, and would help improve industries like aquaculture, fisheries and tourism.
“I think the Digby community and the community that has the highway running through it deserves a safer passage for its residents,” said d’Entremont. “So we need to get together and try to plan and get ready for an eventual bypass.”
The federal government is making it easier for developers to build houses in Yarmouth.
Mayor Pam Mood was joined by MP for Acadie-Annapolis Chris d’Entremont at Yarmouth Town Hall to announce Yarmouth as the newest local partner in the Housing Design Catalogue.
The catalogue is a federal initiative that provides more than 50 pre-approved housing plans designed to help save developers time and money.
In an interview with Acadia News, d’Entremont said that every province and municipality has different requirements.
“The size of a bathroom, the size of a hallway, it just goes on and on all these challenges.” said d’Entremont. “When you do your development package and you submit it to a municipal organization there’s a lot of back, and forth and it ends up costing money in architectural and design and engineering.”
D’Entremont said the catalogue is designed to be quick and easy for developers to use, and is available for use right away.
“Today, as partners, we’re building a stronger Canada,” said d’Entremont. “Looking around me, I know that while each of us has different solutions to share, we share the same goal: to increase residential construction and ensure that everyone in Canada has a place to live.”
Of the 16 partners announced, Shelburne and Yarmouth are the only Nova Scotia communities to endorse the catalogue.
In a joint press release, the municipality said it has pre-reviewed several designs and has a permit process in place to prioritize catalogue applications, with a target approval rate of just two weeks.
“On behalf of council, we are pleased to partner with the federal government and actively promote this housing design catalog to prospective builders and developers,” said Mood. “Our town has benefited from Housing Accelerator funding, as it allowed us to develop several key initiatives to remove barriers to housing development. This catalogue of free designs offers another way for us to ‘set the table’ and allow more homes to be built, more quickly.”
Local governments are working together to improve Highway 101.
Representatives from Digby, Clare and Yarmouth are reforming the Highway 101 Task Force, a collaborative effort to include the Marshalltown-to-Weymouth bypass project in the province’s Five-Year Highway Improvement Plan.
Four kilometres of the 25-kilometre stretch of road was improved in 2019, but the rest has yet to be brought up to 100-series highway standards.
In a press release the Task Force said they recently held their first meeting, where municipal representatives were joined by Digby-Annapolis MLA Jill Balser, Clare MLA Ryan Robicheau and MP Chris d’Entremont.
“By working together and speaking with a unified voice, our municipalities can more effectively demonstrate the importance of the Mashalltown-to-Weymouth bypass project to residents, businesses, and visitors throughout the region,” said Warden Linda Gregory, Chair of the Task Force. “This project is essential to improving transportation infrastructure and ensuring the long term safety and prosperity of our communities.”
According to the press release, the members have agreed to continue with regular meetings to develop a coordinated advocacy strategy to make the project a regional priority.
A representative from Elemental Energy, the company developing the Wedgeport Wind Farm, says they are not planning for any road closures along the delivery route.
The Wedgeport Wind Farm is located on Black Pond Road, and will be home to 12 turbines measuring 30 metres tall, with the ability to power 30,000 homes.
“At this time, we are unable to provide a schedule of when turbine components will arrive on site, as there are many factors that can impact turbine transport activities along the route,” said Jonathan Turner, a spokesperson for Elemental Energy.
The delivery route follows Highway 334, 3 and 104, but extends further northeast through the province.
Turner went on to say that he expects most of the deliveries to be in the late morning to early afternoon, and that there could be four to six deliveries a day, as opposed to the previously anticipated three to four.
According to Turner, the company has coordinated with local municipalities to provide information on transport routes, and received transport permits from Public Works.
The Wedgeport Fire Chief Steve Jacquard said the station has coordinated with Elemental Energy in case of emergencies, and that they haven’t had any issues so far, but that delays are a possibility.
Transportation for propellers will continue until early August, and are being brought in from Mulgrave and Sheet Harbour.
As wind turbine parts get hauled to the Wedgeport Wind Project over the next several weeks, the fire chief said he is working on a plan in case a road closure results in a delay to emergency services response time.
In an interview with Acadia News, Steve Jacquard said that there have been “growing pains”, but they’ve been working with officials from the Wedgeport Wind Project to figure it out.
Three to four deliveries of wind turbine parts a day are moving from Sheet Harbour and Mulgrave to the site on Black Pond Rd.
The farm is set to have 13 turbines up to 200 metres tall to power 30,000 homes.
The delivery route could cause road closures and traffic delays for short periods of time along Highway 103, Highway 3 and Highway 334 according to a Facebook post from Argyle MLA Colton LeBlanc.
Previously, Jacquard said the department was planning on putting emergency equipment across the area in the unlikely case of being blocked in.
However, according to Jacquard that is no longer going to happen and instead the department has a contingency plan to coordinate with Yarmouth and surrounding emergency services teams, but that delays of up to 10 minutes are possible.
During emergencies, quick response time can often be a key factor. A study published by The Journal of the American Heart Association found that “appropriate initiatives should be adopted to reduce EMS response time”, and that response time influences survival during cardiac arrests.
Jacquard also said he has plans to meet with officials from the Wedgeport Wind Project to discuss the matter further.
The City of Saint John is taking steps to encourage more large-scale development.
A new incentive program was adopted by Common Council this week that is expected to maximize high-rise development opportunities in the uptown and inner harbour area of the city.
The program is based on an incentive review study presented to the city’s growth committee in May.
According to Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie, the study looked at various building types to determine if the City should provide incentives.
“The key findings of this study were that mid-rise developments were already viable, but that high-rise development was not viable without additional support,” MacKenzie said.
MacKenzie said the new incentive program would target land in the uptown and Main Street area where the municipal plan directs the highest level of density.
A project must have a minimum of 150 units at a density of 400 units per hectare and a minimum building cost of $40 million to qualify.
The report to council said the program emphasizes predictability and certainty. A grant is divided evenly over a 10-year period, allowing lenders to recognize the subsidy as stable income for underwriting purposes, reduce risk and improve chances of high-rise projects going forward.
