Limits on the collection of Nova Scotians’ social insurance numbers are part of a sweeping bill tabled on Tuesday by the provincial government as the legislature opened for its fall sitting. The bill includes one new piece of legislation and amends seven other acts dealing with issues as diverse as domestic violence and protests that […]

A Nova Scotia home-sharing program that was billed as a tool to help address the housing shortage fell far short of the government’s initial target, documents released by the province show. In an email shared as part of a freedom of information request made by a member of the public, a housing strategist for Nova […]

Nova Scotia’s largest electric utility says the impact of a sophisticated cyberattack in March could be much broader than first thought. Nova Scotia Power said in May that about half of its customers — 277,000 ratepayers — may have had personal information stolen by hackers. But the privately owned utility is now saying all of […]

Two Halifax residents say the city’s mayor is being investigated for an alleged breach of the municipal code of conduct because of comments he made about the power structure at city hall. The residents say Andy Fillmore was misleading when he told the CBC earlier this summer that the mayor reports to the chief administrative […]

Nova Scotia’s wait-list for public housing surpassed 8,000 people in June — a jump of about 1,200 people over an eight-month period, according to figures released Thursday by the Opposition NDP. The updated numbers are contained in documents released to the NDP through a freedom of information request by the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency. […]

There’s been a surge in the number of Nova Scotians with complex disabilities stuck in temporary housing, according to recent figures released by the province. This rise in what are called “temporary shelter arrangements,” or TSAs, operated by for-profit and non-profit agencies has occurred despite a plan by the province to decrease their use over […]

A measles outbreak Nova Scotia has risen to 30 cases in a northern part of the province with a low vaccination rate, health officials said Thursday. All 30 cases originated from travel within Canada to regions where measles is known to be circulating, Nova Scotia Public Health said. The agency had reported a single case […]

Nova Scotia Power says it is offering five years of free credit monitoring to all past and current customers in response to a recent cyberattack. The private utility had initially offered two free years of monitoring, following a March cybersecurity breach that gave thieves access to personal data belonging to 280,000 ratepayers — about half […]

Provincial politicians took aim at Nova Scotia Power during a legislative committee meeting this morning, saying the utility owes ratepayers answers after a cybersecurity breach gave thieves access to data belonging to 280,000 customers. The utility’s CEO and other staff were grilled by the public accounts committee about how the breach happened and what the […]

Nova Scotia Power’s CEO says up to 140,000 social insurance numbers could have been stolen by cyber-thieves who recently hacked into the utility’s customer records. Peter Gregg said in an interview Thursday that the privately owned utility collected the numbers from customers to authenticate their identities. “If there are a number of John MacDonalds, it […]

The federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into a ransomware attack that led to the theft of personal information belonging to 280,000 customers of Nova Scotia’s electric utility. Privately owned Nova Scotia Power confirmed last week that hackers stole the data and published it on the dark web. Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne said in […]

Nova Scotia Power confirmed on Friday what cybersecurity experts have suspected for weeks — that it was the victim of a ransomware attack. In an update posted to its website, the private utility said that no payment was made to the person or group behind the “sophisticated” attack. It refused to pay the ransom, it […]