Nova Scotia Health has paused the text message notification feature for appointments on the YourHealthNS app.. (Nova Scotia Government YouTube channel)
Nova Scotia Health is still working on glitches in its new text message and appointment reminder service through the YourHealthNS app.
It suspended the new features last Wednesday when some people reported getting incorrect information about their appointments.
At least 2,100 texts, or about 10 per cent of all messages, were sent to phones with the wrong information. Other messages weren’t clear whether the appointment was in-person or virtual. And some got notices of appointments that didn’t even exist.
Nova Scotia Health said Monday that it has introduced a seven-day delay before appointments appear in the YourHealthNS app.
Appointments will only appear for the coming month. And notifications will be stopped on specialist appointments not made through hospital booking systems, like private clinics.
The text message reminder feature will be on hold while officials test the changes and make sure they work properly, Nova Scotia Health said.
The Region of Queens has appointed Dan McDougall as interim CAO. (Rick Conrad)
The Region of Queens has hired an interim chief administrative officer while it looks for a permanent replacement for Cody Joudry.
Dan McDougall will take over CAO duties from acting CAO Pam Lovelace, who will return to her job as municipal clerk. Lovelace, a one-term Halifax councillor and unsuccessful mayoral candidate, was hired in December.
McDougall has done the top job before at Queens. He was the interim CAO in 2023 after Chris McNeill resigned.
McDougall will fill in as CAO until the region finds a replacement for Cody Joudry, whom the newly elected council fired on Dec. 16, saying he wasn’t the right “fit”.
McDougall is a former CAO of the Municipality of Chester and for the Municipality of Colchester County. He has also worked for the province, as CEO of Housing Nova Scotia, and deputy minister of the Department of Municipal Affairs.
“Dan is a very accomplished executive manager with a proven track record supporting municipalities,” Mayor Scott Christian said in a news release.
“Council felt that it was very important to install an interim CAO who comes with a wealth of experience as a CAO, a strong reputation in the local government sector, and who does not want the permanent job, assuring that they can objectively support the organization through a robust recruitment process to identify the best candidate for the role.”
Council had hired Joudry in September 2023. The region had been without a full-time CAO since that May, when McNeill resigned.
The Region of Queens has reached a deal with its striking public works employees. (Rick Conrad)
UPDATED 2:55 p.m. Thursday
The Region of Queens and its striking 38 public works employees have reached a deal.
Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers voted 32-5 around 6 p.m. Wednesday to accept the region’s latest offer.
Jim Sponagle, the local’s business manager, told QCCR Wednesday night that it was hard to turn down.
“They came back with a financial offer that certainly we couldn’t overlook, couldn’t turn away. I felt it was a significant move from where we were,” he said.
“I think overwhelmingly (union members) were pretty happy with the deal.”
The main issues in negotiations were better wages, overtime protections and keeping temporary employees in the bargaining unit. The last contract expired March 31. The new contract runs from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2027.
The union said their members were some of the lowest paid municipal workers in Atlantic Canada.
They had been on strike since last Thursday, saying that the region’s latest offer wasn’t any better than the one members resoundingly rejected in mid-December.
Sponagle said the region improved its offer this week and it addressed much of the union’s concerns about wages. But he said the region said it needed the flexibility to call some employees in to work on weekends without paying overtime.
Sponagle said some members weren’t happy with that, but the majority supported the deal.
“At the end of the day, you can’t win every battle. … You can only do your best. I believe I left it all on the table and we couldn’t make any traction with that part of the agreement.”
About 20 supporters of the strikers showed up at Tuesday’s regional council meeting to urge councillors to tell the region’s negotiators to get back to the bargaining table and get a deal. That evening, the municipality gave the union a new offer.
Some family members of the workers told councillors they were ashamed of how the region’s negotiators had treated the employees.
“I think it had a significant impact,” Sponagle said. “The public put pressure on the mayor and council to do their job.”
It’s a three-year deal retroactive to March 31, with the first year giving raises to all members of $4 an hour or more, with 2.5 per cent increases in the second and third years of the deal.
Council ratified the deal in a closed-door session on Thursday morning. Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR that he was grateful the deal was reached.
“These folks have historically been underpaid and our council is pleased to be able to sign a deal with wages that reflect the value that these folks have for our organization and the importance of them to be able to receive a living wage and support their families and themselves.”
Christian read a statement at a short council meeting after the deal was ratified. He said that while he was happy with the deal, he was also upset by some of the comments people made about the region’s managers online.
“I’m unsettled by a number of public allegations and unsubstantiated claims and personal attacks towards some of the region’s employees,” he said.
“ Everyone in our community deserves to be respected, everyone in this organization deserves to be respected, and as your mayor, I need to ensure that all employees, including non-unionized staff and management of this organization, receive that respect, specifically, our (acting) CAO Pam Lovelace and our director of engineering and public works Adam Grant received an incredible amount of personal attacks throughout the later stages of this process as it became contentious.
“I won’t stand in silence as any employee of this organization, including my fellow councillors, are harassed, attacked or bullied.”
Christian said some comments were “pretty intense personal attacks”, with some people calling for Lovelace and Grant to be fired.
As talks broke down, tensions increased, with union members’ supporters pressuring councillors to step in and direct their negotiators to get a deal done.
Some supporters at Tuesday’s meeting were upset by comments made by Lovelace about the union refusing to return to the bargaining table. They were also upset that she tried to downplay the number of employees on strike.
“But there are going to be tough times, there are going to be unpopular decisions, there are going to be mistakes made,” Christian told QCCR, “and we all need to do better and the organization needs to do better to make sure that those appropriate channels are in place so that if there are frustrations and complaints and grievances within our community that there are good established channels to address those things.”
The region is still claiming that temporary employees are not members of the bargaining unit. The union’s unfair labour practices complaints about that are still outstanding. Dates have not been set yet for that hearing.
Christian said he believes most employees will be back on the job by Monday. And he said the region plans to hire experts to help address those tensions, calm things down and ensure that all employees return to a supportive workplace.
Striking public works employees with the Region of Queens were back on the picket line Tuesday in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)
Supporters of striking Region of Queens workers blasted elected councillors on Tuesday, demanding that they show some leadership in the dispute.
They want the mayor and councillors to tell the region’s negotiators to return to the bargaining table and settle the strike.
Thirty-eight members of Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have been on the picket line since Thursday. The union says they are some of the lowest-paid municipal workers in Atlantic Canada.
The region does not dispute that, but says it’s been trying to address those inequities in contract negotiations that have been going on for about a year.
Some positions pay less than $18 an hour, with some people on Tuesday saying that they can’t afford to support their families.
Family and friends of the striking public works employees told councillors at their regular meeting on Tuesday that they were ashamed of how the region has treated the workers. Elected officials do not get involved directly with labour negotiations, but can set the tone for the region’s negotiators.
Wages, overtime protections and even who’s in or out of the bargaining unit are the main sticking points in the dispute.
Meghan MacAdams was one of the people who spoke to council during the public presentation portion of the meeting. As striking workers picketed outside, she read out the names of the 36 employees.
Her partner has worked with the region for six years. In a recent CBC story, the region’s acting CAO Pam Lovelace claimed that only 20 employees were affected.
“Here is the individual handpicked by you all, acting as a representative of your side of the line, sharing inaccurate information,” MacAdams told councillors.
“ Was this an attempt to create a calmer narrative in which this issue was smaller than it really is, or is this simply a demonstration of how uninterested and uninvested the region has become in its workforce? What that one tiny detail told me, intentionally stated or not, is that those who run our county either can’t be trusted to provide us with truthful and accurate information, or they have become so disconnected with their employees they aren’t even aware of how many livelihoods they are toying with.
“Neither of these options sit well with me. Unfortunately, I see this as a clear indication of just how undervalued these men have become, which is one of the key issues in my opinion that has brought us to the divide we are at today. But I remain hopeful the region, the powers that be, will step up and make a fair and honest attempt at resolution. Our men deserve better.”
Debbie Wamboldt, a longtime community advocate and volunteer who spearheaded the successful fundraising drive for the popular inclusive play park in Liverpool, also expressed her frustration with the stalled talks.
“Most of you know me from the play park project,” she said.
“That took six years of my life to bring to this county because I was proud of where I come from. … But I have to say that I’m standing here before you as somebody who is no longer proud of where I come from. I’m not proud of where we’re standing.
“My husband has worked for the region for 20 years. We give our time to this community, and our community is standing behind us. And it’s your job now to stand behind us. We need to get back to the table, and our workers, my family, my friends, my husband’s colleagues, deserve better.
“This is shameful. This is really shameful.”
Before the strike, the region and the union had been negotiating to adjust job classifications and wage grids to bring Queens workers’ salaries more in line with other municipalities.
The region had commissioned a compensation review of unionized and non-unionized positions more than a year ago. That review has never been made public.
But in response, the previous council had agreed to boost salaries for some non-unionized positions.
Mayor Scott Christian says the wage parity study was the foundation for the region’s offer in the latest contract talks.
The region says adjusting salaries for some jobs would result in raises from 2.5 to 26 per cent. But talks stalled in mid-December after the region’s so-called final offer. About 97 per cent of employees voted for strike action.
Both sides met again last Tuesday with a provincially appointed conciliator. But union representative Jim Sponagle said the region’s offer hadn’t improved much from the one members had rejected. He said their wage offer amounted to about two per cent a year on top of adjusting for wage inequities.
Christian released a video on Facebook on Sunday, saying that he understands how challenging negotiations have been for employees and their families. He appealed for patience.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Christian and the rest of council were due to get an update on negotiations in a closed-door session. Before that, he said in an interview that councillors want a fair deal for workers, but one that doesn’t burden taxpayers.
He also said not all councillors have seen the wage review study, which he wants to be made public.
“I think it should be. It was something that I was very frustrated with before I ended up in this position as a resident that that wasn’t made publicly available. And so, I’m going to be asking our our staff here. and directing our staff here as to what elements or if that can be released, in in its entirety. We’ve seen we’ve seen portions of it. … There’s going to be more of that information provided to council today.
“To be honest, I’m not that comfortable with some of the tactics that have been employed by both sides of the negotiation. I feel like it has escalated and has become more contentious than it ought to have. … We’re going to be looking for direction from council as to (how) to de-escalate this, to get back to meaningful, productive conversations.
“We need both sides to come back to the table and with some humility, I think, and a willingness to concede and find a productive way forward. I agree the tone, the nature, the spirit of the thing has become really contentious and I’m not comfortable with it. I am going to meet with council and we’re going to … determine what we think is the appropriate next step with respect to directing the negotiating team moving forward.”
The striking workers are responsible for maintaining the region’s streets, sidewalks, parks and other properties. They also work in waste and recycling facilities as well as water and sewage treatment plants.
Their last contract expired March 31.
The region has said that services won’t be interrupted by the strike, with managers, supervisors and third-party contractors doing the work.
Residential property assessment values increased by 9.5 per cent in Queens County over last year. (Rick Conrad photo)
Nova Scotians should start getting their 2025 property assessments in the mail this week.
Annual notices were being mailed out on Monday, according to the Property Valuation Services Corporation.
It appears assessed house values have cooled a bit from the year before. Overall, total residential assessments in Nova Scotia increased by just over 11 per cent, or $16.1 billion. The value of residential properties in Queens County rose by 9.5 per cent, or $189.3 million.
2024 residential assessments rose by 25 per cent in Queens County, and by 19.6 per cent in Nova Scotia as a whole.
Overall, Nova Scotia commercial property assessments rose by 2.79 per cent, compared to 9.32 per cent the year before.
The independent, non-profit body says 2025 assessments are based on sales and financial data and reflect a market value as of Jan. 1, 2024, and the physical state of properties as of Dec. 1, 2024, including new construction, renovations, demolitions, and impacts from natural disasters.
Municipalities received the assessment roll for their region in mid-December.
Jeff Caddell, director of valuation standards for the Property Valuation Services Corporation, told QCCR on Monday that the residential market cooled in 2023 after the Covid boom, but then rebounded later in the year.
“There was still lots of demand for properties, and a lower supply of properties on the market than we had in previous years. And we saw interest rates starting to creep up in 2023 before stabilizing in the later half of 2023.”
Caddell said they’re beginning to analyze sales data from 2024 now, so it’s too early to know whether there’s any kind of trend.
“We’re monitoring those sales coming in now. It’s hard to say what the trend will be going through 2024.”
This year’s rate for the Capped Assessment Program is 1.5 per cent, the Consumer Price Index for Nova Scotia.
The CAP limits the annual increase in taxable assessment for eligible properties to no more than the annual inflation rate. About two-thirds of residential properties qualify for the CAP in 2025.
People are getting their assessment notices, just as the Nova Scotia government approved changes to limit the capped assessment value of homes rebuilt after the wildfires in 2023.
Premier Tim Houston announced in a news release Friday that people who have rebuilt homes destroyed in the wildfires in Halifax and Shelburne counties won’t see an increase in their capped assessment.
Caddell says assessors are happy to answer people’s questions about their property.
“There’s lots of property owners that contact us each year and it’s a great opportunity to engage with the property owner and talk about the market in their area, talk about their property specifically. If we can help somebody better understand the process, then we’re pleased with that.”
Residential and commercial property owners have until Feb. 13 to appeal their assessments.
Morgan Sampson, echocardiogram technician, and Queens General Hospital Foundation trustees Kelly Whalen, Kerry Morash, Janice Reynolds and Al Doucet with the new echocardiogram at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool. (Queens General Hospital Foundation photo)
Queens County residents will be able to stay closer to home for vital testing, thanks to an investment by the Queens General Hospital Foundation.
The foundation recently invested almost $400,000 to install a new echocardiogram and cardiopulmonary exercise testing machine at Queens General in Liverpool.
Al Doucet, a retired physician who is chairman of the hospital foundation, said that means that cardiologists and internal medicine specialists can now see more people here.
“They’re significant because they bring to Liverpool testing that otherwise was not available anywhere else, people had to travel for this,” Doucet told QCCR.
“But also, people that are in hospital, that are hospital patients, this equipment, especially the echocardiogram, it’s movable so that it can go up to the floors where people are sick so they don’t even have to come out of their hospital rooms and we can also use it on people who are sick in the emergency department.”
Queens General already has stress-testing equipment that involves patients using a treadmill to measure the heart’s response to physical activity.
But the new equipment uses a stationary bike to measure the response of your lungs as well. Internal medicine specialist Dr. Jeff Ratushny, who is based in Bridgewater, has a special interest in pulmonary stress testing, Doucet said.
“So this is an upgrade on our stress-testing equipment to add the pulmonary component to it. And that was really because Dr. Rathushny has a special interest in that. For our health professionasl that we have here, we want to give them the equipment that they need and that they want to give them the ability to come here and stay.”
The echocardiogram cost $275,000, while the exercise testing equipment cost $93,000. Those were just two of the significant contributions to health care in Queens County made by the foundation in the past year.
It has donated more than $1 million for equipment, training and other things to help attract more health professionals to the area and to make health care more accessible locally.
“Our mandate does not confine us to just the hospital. But everything that we look at it’s in the lens of how can we make this a better place to live for people, how can we make it the best place for care, how can we put the best equipment in that we can retain professionals that are coming to work here.”
The foundation is also contributing $725,000 toward the establishment of a new MRI machine at South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater.
And Doucet said they’re investing up to $3.5 million in a new CT scanner at Queens General. He said they’re working with Nova Scotia Health to recruit the technicians to staff that equipment properly.
The foundation relies on donations and investments to fund its work. Doucet said its volunteer board of trustees is concerned about financing projects big and small.
Whether that’s a new floor-cleaning machine, doing things to help staff morale or sprucing up the outside of the hospital with art and gardens, he said it’s all part of making Queens General a better place to work and visit.
“There’s very few hospitals that you’ll see flowers that are blooming at the front door. So we want to make the hospital not so clinical and not so sterile. We want it to be an inviting place so that it reduces the anxiety people have as they come in.”
Doucet said the foundation has helped recruit six physicians to the area in the past two years. And thanks to things like their online presence, they’re also attracting other professionals like nurses to the area.
But he said there’s more to do. That’s why they continue to recruit with the goal of having the Queens General ER return to being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The way it used to be when I was practising and the way it is now, things have definitely changed and we have to adapt to it. So having the foundation makes it at least easier for us to do that.”
For more information on the Queens General Hospital Foundation, visit their website at qghfoundation.ca, or their medical recruitment site at doctors-wanted.ca.
Unionized workers with the Region of Queens went on strike Thursday morning. (Rick Conrad photo)
UPDATED THURSDAY, 4:45 P.M.
Engineering and public works employees with the Region of Queens are on strike.
About 40 members of Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers set up picket lines at three locations in Liverpool on Thursday morning.
The workers are responsible for maintaining the region’s streets, sidewalks, parks and other properties. They also work in waste and recycling facilities as well as water and sewage treatment plants.
The union and the region have been negotiating for about a year. Their last contract expired March 31.
Jim Sponagle is the business manager of Local 1928. He was on the picket line this morning with some members near the Hank Snow Museum in Liverpool.
“There are still three outstanding issues: being forced to work weekends for straight time, no overtime, that’s one big issue. Wages still nowhere where they need to be. Wages are lower than any other municipality, jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada.
“The temporary employees are still an issue. I call it a union-busting measure where the employer has tried to carve out a work group from our collective agreement that have been in our collective agreement for decades. I don’t understand their position other than the fact that maybe they could deem them non-union and have them perform our work during a strike.”
Sponagle said both sides were back at the bargaining table on Tuesday, but he said the region’s offer hadn’t improved much from the one that members resoundingly rejected in December.
Members voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action. They have been in a legal strike position since Dec. 11.
“From our last strike mandate, the only change was they offered a half a per cent on Year 2 and a half a per cent on Year 3” of a new contract, Sponagle said.
The region issued a news release Thursday morning, saying that it filed a lockout notice with the province’s labour minister in response to the strike.
The region said all municipal services will continue as usual, including garbage collection and snow plowing.
Pam Lovelace, the acting CAO for the Region of Queens, told QCCR on Thursday that the strike took her by surprise.
“I was not informed in any way there was going to be a strike today,” Lovelace said.
“Although knowing that the union members and their leadership wouldn’t meet with us at the table on Tuesday to actually negotiate with a provincial conciliator, that was a good indication that they weren’t willing to reach a deal.”
A provincially appointed conciliator is a disinterested third party who will sometimes meet with both parties together, or meet with each side individually and communicate proposals back and forth. Each labour negotiation is unique and the conciliator generally gets a feel for whether it would be productive for both sides to meet face to face with the conciliator present.
Lovelace says that in this case, union negotiators refused to meet with the region and the conciliator together, and would meet only with the conciliator.
“And so because of that we weren’t actually able to have effective negotiations, we had to use the middle man of the conciliator rather than having constructive conversations.”
Union members are some of the lowest paid municipal employees in Atlantic Canada, at a time when regional councillors and senior staff have complained it’s difficult to fill job vacancies.
Some unionized jobs at the region pay less than $18 an hour. And some Red Seal-certified mechanics and technicians with the region make no more than $27 an hour, compared to $40 an hour in other jurisdictions.
Both sides were working on adjusting wage grids to alleviate some of those discrepancies. But the union’s Sponagle said there still hasn’t been enough movement from the region. Their latest proposal amounted to a two per cent raise in each year of a deal, he said.
Sponagle said his members want to get back to work. But they also want a deal that keeps pace with what municipal employees in other places are making.
“I dealt with other jurisdictions in P.E.I. when the employer understood. When they came with a fair wage increase it was hard to say no. It just seems this employer doesn’t want to work with the union. But somebody doesn’t like unions here at the Region of Queens.
“This is the first time since 1973 that I’m aware of IBEW Local 1928 going on strike. It’s not something we typically do. We like to do our work, we don’t complain and we go home.”
The union is still waiting to have hearing dates set for its unfair labour practice complaint against the region. It alleges that the region told some members that they still had to come to work in the event of a work stoppage or risk being fired.
Lovelace said the region is looking for a fair deal and to get employees back to work. But that’s only if the union is willing to return to the bargaining table.
“I’m already at the table, I’m waiting for IBEW Local 1928 to arrive at the table. And we will continue to operate and the services that the residents expect and hopefully we will see the leadership of Local 1928 come back to the table.”
Lovelace said managers, supervisors and third-party contractors would make sure that services aren’t interrrupted.
About 10 per cent of Nova Scotians are still looking for a family doctor or nurse practitioner. (Communications Nova Scotia)
More people are dropping off the Need a Family Practice Registry in Nova Scotia.
According to numbers released Tuesday by Nova Scotia Health, 9,200 people either found a doctor in the past month or were removed from the list.
Just over 110,000 Nova Scotians are still looking for a primary care provider. That’s down from more than 119,670 on Dec. 4. About 10.5 per cent of the population does not have reliable access to primary care.
Nova Scotia Health officials have been contacting people on the list to confirm they still need a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Health officials stopped providing breakdowns by region last summer. The last update in June showed that about 10 per cent of Queens County residents were still looking for a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Some of the new furniture at the new location of the Liverpool library. (Region of Queens photo)
The library in Liverpool is getting closer to reopening in its new temporary location.
The Region of Queens has been posting updates on its website as work has progressed at the Liverpool Business Development Centre on Harley Umphrey Drive, off White Point Road.
South Shore Public Libraries has not given a specific date for the branch to reopen. But the region says on its site that it’s likely to reopen by mid-January.
There’s still a lot of work to do. Workers are putting final touches on HVAC ductwork, sprinklers, electricity to the front desk, lighting, plumbing and the new kitchen.
Shelving units and some other furniture have been moved into the 6,500-square-foot space.
The region budgeted up to $1.26 million for the renovations to the empty space at the call centre building. The community was consulted on the design of the space.
A library steering committee had recommended a new library be built near Queens Place Emera Centre. But that was rejected twice by councillors.
The location on Harley Umphrey Drive is supposed to be a short-term home while council works on a longer-term solution.
Library officials got about 200 responses to a survey in the fall asking for suggestions on a possible new name for the new location. They haven’t revealed if the library’s name will change from the Thomas H. Raddall Library. That decision rests with the board of South Shore Public Libraries.
Kim Thorbourne-Whalen is the vice-chair of the Liverpool Championship Host Society. (Rick Conrad)
As fans rallied behind their favourite curlers in Liverpool last week, local businesses were also cheering for the post-holiday bump in sales.
Restaurants, bars and other food-based businesses in downtown Liverpool stayed open to try to capitalize on the influx of fans and curlers in town for the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials at Queens Place Emera Centre.
Some businesses traditionally close during the week between Christmas and New Year’s to give owners and staff a break after a busy holiday season.
At Main and Mersey Dining Room and Coffee Bar, co-owner Shani Beadle said the event helped perk up a slower time of year.
“I think when Christmas is winding down, it really helped bring more people into town and and lengthen the Christmas season, which is always helpful,” she said. “We had a lot of people from the curling here to lunch, for coffee, staying in our accommodation. So, everything’s helpful.”
Melanie Perron, co-owner of Hell Bay Brewing Company, said they saw more customers as soon as the curling event began on Monday.
“The week’s been great,” she said.
“We’ve definitely seen some new faces that we haven’t seen before come through the brewery and it’s just nice to see us in the bar as well at the Emera Centre, because it’s been a while since we’ve had our product for sale there directly through us. So the region has been definitely pushing local this time, which is great.
“It’s wonderful, especially this time of year because so many people are going into ‘Dry January’, so any beer sales that I can get any way is definitely a bonus for us.”
At Five Girls Baking, co-owner Leanne Arnott said they had planned to close from Dec. 25 until Jan. 2, but decided to reopen on Dec. 30.
“We were going to be closed and and get a few more days of rest and when we found out about the curling event, we thought, oh no, we better open. And we’re really glad we did.”
They baked special cookies decorated like the red and blue curling rings to celebrate. And Canadian curling legend Colleen Jones even dropped in to sample them. She had also visited the bakery in 2019 when Liverpool hosted the World Junior Curling Championships.
“I was hoping she would show up. She showed up (Friday) and I was tickled pink.”
Other businesses also stayed open or extended their hours, like Memories Cafe and Eatery and Route 3 Cellar Taproom and Grill.
Kim Thorbourne-Whalen of the local organizing committee said she believes the curling event helped inject $1.5 to $2 million in spinoff business for hotels, restaurants and bars in the Liverpool area. It’s also been a boon for the local Kiwanis Club, which provided canteen services at Queens Place for the whole week.
“The restaurants have been full, like the Cellar, Memories, they’ve had curling teams in there and curling families in there all week,” Thorbourne-Whalen said. “So it’s been felt throughout the community, not just with the hotels, it’s been all over.”
Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said he’d like to see more big events like the curling trials come to Liverpool.
“I think everybody’s blown away by how many people have been out for it. Main Street’s been busy. … I think that it should generate some good momentum to try to attract events like this in the future.
“I know this council has got big plans for Queens Place, doing some revitalization work and to make sure that we make best use of these facilities here. We’re looking at how can we make sure that we make use of this beautiful facility because you can see we can host top-notch events here.”
Main and Mersey’s Shani Beadle and other business owners say that bringing more events to town in the slower winter months would be a boost for businesses.
“I think that would be brilliant, because the summer is already quite busy, so having events like the Lobster Crawl, like curling, hockey, et cetera, is always really helpful.”
