Third Annual Wooden Boat Reunion Starts In Lunenburg

History and Heritage will be on display this weekend in Lunenburg as the third annual Wooden Boat Reunion gets underway. The weekend highlights include the Nova Scotia Schooner Association's Heritage Cup race for schooners and other wooden vessels. There's also dory rowing, and a putt-putt race between wood boats with single engines. Event chairperson, Maggie Ostler, says people can also visit the country's oldest saltbank schooner.



Ostler encourages anyone with a wooden boat to get involved in the festivities. A schedule of events can be found here .

Provincial Program Spruces Up Communities

The province is providing grants to community groups, businesses and municipalities through its Mainstreet 2.0 program. The program, announced Friday at the DesBrisay Museum in Bridgewater, will allow groups to access up to $1,000 in grants to make positive changes to their area. The money is designated for things like new flower beds, painting community benches and other revitalization ideas. Lunenburg MLA Pam Birdsall says it's money to help spruce up local communities.



Total funding for the project will be $1.5-million a year and is part of the province's tourism strategy. Applications will be available in the winter, with grants approved next spring.

South Shore: Liberals Call Hospital Crowding "Crisis"

The leader of the province's liberal party has deep concerns regarding the ongoing health crisis along the South Shore. Stephen McNeil was responding to the latest over-crowding issue in emergency departments in the region. Hospitals in Bridgewater, Lunenburg and Liverpool are operating at full capacity and currently have no hospital bed availability. South Shore Health is asking residents with non-urgent matters to visit local walk-in clinics or see their family health care provider until the issue clears. McNeil says the situation underlines the struggles and challenges within the current health care system. In a media release, he reiterated his party's plan to reduce the number of district health authorities in Nova Scotia from nine to one. The Liberals says they would re-invest the millions in cost savings into health services and infrastructure to help prevent against a similar crisis in the future.