Just a guess but do you live at home? There is no way to borrow $7,000 to cover tuition (that's outside of "fees" and textbooks of course so more like $10K by the time all is said and done) and then be able to afford to pay rent and feed yourself for the year. The only way that budget squares is if A. you're earning more than average or B. there is help from the parents. At a minimum, on a typical student job, you're going to go $4,000-$5,000 into the hole each year.

My own debt pile is higher than the norm, mainly because I did graduate degrees. I did an MA in poli-sci and a MA in Planning (Dal's Planning = $8,000 or so a year just in tuition with no funding). My folks couldn't help significantly since they have 3 other kids. Most people I know who came out of undergrad and had to carry everything on their own owe about $30,000.

Ahh living on your own would do it. I'm still at home, it was about 6300 at smu which included all my fees, and with the used books that the book store sells now I only spent like 500 on books then I will get about 250 back because you can trade them back for 50% of the retail price.

Its easy in Quebec, especially if you are a resident. A degree from McGill is definitely one of the best dollar values in comparison to anything else in Canada... plus its known internationally. Tuition is frozen still I believe.

Heritage Trust will not appeal Waterside plan

By PAT LEE Staff Reporter
Tue. Apr 28 - 5:48 AM
Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia will not appeal the city’s approval of a nine-storey office tower in downtown Halifax, trust president Phil Pacey said Monday.

Mr. Pacey said time was not on Heritage Trust’s side when contemplating an effective appeal of Armour Group’s $16-million Waterside Centre project.

Council approved it in a 13-1 vote earlier this month.

"We looked at the likely calendar and by the time the Court of Appeal would have made a decision, a couple of things would have likely happened," Mr. Pacey said. "At the end of May, we know the Armour Group would be able to demolish the Imperial Oil building."

Mr. Pacey said the company also applied in October to bring down three other municipally registered heritage buildings. They are on a site bordered by Hollis, Duke and Upper Water streets.

"It’s certainly very sad, if the developer plans to go ahead with this project, because the buildings are important."

Armour Group founder Ben McCrea could not be reached.

The company’s Waterside Centre plan includes an office tower to be built above the facades of the existing buildings, along with an underground parking lot.

Council rejected the plan last October. But the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board overturned the decision, putting the vote back in the hands of council earlier this month.

Mr. Pacey said the approval harkens back to Halifax’s less-than-stellar record in protecting heritage properties.

"If you look over the history of things, it was in the 1970s that people were demolishing buildings by the hundreds and Heritage Trust got that stopped and saved these three blocks of buildings," he said.

"It was three levels of government working together . . . that did this, and it’s most unfortunate that we have not kept the faith for those who did this a generation ago."

Mr. McCrea said earlier that he hoped ground would be broken on the project by the end of the year.

( plee@herald.ca)

End of this year would be great to see this building start to go up.

The view of the site from my friends apartment.

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/42...600x600Q85.jpg

Just a shot I got yesterday;

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3303/...09d04222_b.jpg

Just an update, I was out for a run last night and noticed they were drilling core samples on the south east corner in front of o'carrols, so I'm guessing things are starting to move along.

Yep. It was the same truck(s) that were on the International Place site a few months ago.

That's seems to be in line with this



http://www.armourgroup.com/news.php?news_id=81

Thats good to read. At least in a couple of years there won't be a gap in the streetscape anymore.

Just thought I'd post the article.

McCrea Charts Course for Waterside Centre, Amy Pugsley Fraser, Allnovascotia.com, Aug 21,2009
Aug. 21, 2009
McCrea Charts Course
For Waterside Centre
By Amy Pugsley Fraser

Ben McCrea is readying to get Waterside Centre underway this fall.-

The Halifax developer put together a lengthy meeting Thursday afternoon with about a dozen
architects, nailing down the design details on his nine-storey redevelopment at the corner of Lower
Water and Hollis streets.

Those around the table included Lydon Lynch Architects principal Andy Lynch; mechanical,
electrical and structural architects; as well as LEEDS consultants who specialize in green building
design.

"We're deep into the detail. And they're all in it, up to their ears", McCrea, the founder and chairman of The Armour Group Limited, said Thursday.

He's hoping for a fall start for the project, which will bring about 85,000 square feet of class A office
space to downtown Halifax. He figures it will take about 18 months to complete. Essentially, the centres of the existing buildings have to be hollowed out while the facades and exterior
walls are retained.

That's going to be a little tricky, McCrea admits. "It has to be done fairly carefully or there will be a bigger mess. A lot of the inside work is done with small equipment and by hand".

Those considerations will force the project into a longer-than-usual construction time, he notes.
Over the last few months, there have been some slight adaptations to the original plans. But nothing
that would require an amendment to the development agreement rejected by council last fall and
overturned on appeal to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (see allnovascotia 2009-03-27).

The changes are necessary to adhere to the national building code, McCrea explained.
The lot - a tight block bordered by one-way streets - will mean some tricky maneuvering when it comes time to erect a tower crane and deliver building supplies, architect Lynch said this week.

"It's really tough going, because it's such a constrained site, so it's an interesting challenge. There are
a lot of issues related to the construction", he said. Right now, they're figuring on using Hollis Street as the loading zone for the crane - something McCrea figures will require some very temporary traffic disruptions. McCrea says there are different ways to go about constructing the building, either with structural steel or concrete.

"We've been looking at both methods to see which is the most practical for that sight, given the
restrictions (with) the traffic and the streets, and the structural hording that will go around the
exterior of the buildings while the work is going on inside", he said.

Tenants in the existing heritage buildings have slowly been making their exodus to make way for the
work. Last September, Unni Simensen's Sweet Basil restaurant closed up shop one month before the lease expired. More recently, Subway's Hollis Street lease ended. The sandwich shop is now up and running in part of the former Harbourside Market. McCrea's company paid for the renovations to move it over to the new digs across the street.

O'Carroll's last day has now been set at Sept 30, a deadline which allowed the restaurant to take
advantage of the busy tourist season. "As soon as they get through the summer business in the present location at O'Carroll's, it will be closing and we will be going to work", McCrea said.

Owners Bruce and Heather Keith have since opened the new Hart & Thistle on the waterfront side
of Historic Properties and a new, expanded O'Carroll's has been planned as a restaurant anchor for
Waterside Centre.

Like every business, McCrea says his Armour Group is not immune to the effects of the recession.
"We're all experiencing difficulties with that, but I have a project down there that is a 'have-to' project,
not a 'want-to' project", he said.

"Circumstances haven't changed a hell of a lot; it's something that we just have to do. We don't want
to have a bunch of derelict buildings".

On reading the post from yesterday, I noted that at the top of the page there was a discussion on tuition.
This will date me, but full time tuition at Dal in 1976 was $780. If residence was included the cost was $3,000 for the year.
I often wonder, if Dal hadn't built all those buildings in the past 30 years, could university education have been kept affordable.
Is there anything else that has increased in cost so much as an education?
JET

that seems like a bazaar assessment of Dal's development and tuition rate's


There are sooo many factors that have driven up tuitions....like...perhaps salaries???.....the unions have an inkling to like....ya know.... to see those raised ever now and then...;) .....what about insurance?......electricity?.....heating coasts?.....mantanince?....all have skyrocketed...not to mention all sort of add ons for disabled students and facilitating foreign students.....plus technology upgrades????


Operating coast's???

and Dal's progress is one of the major reasons Hali has is forging ahead as an urban center and leading the maritime...hands down

If you don't like DAL's status, that you should probably move to Sydney and go to CBU.....I here they haven't done much building over the last 30 years, so their tuition should be uber low, and hey I'm sure they have ALL the same resources, infrastructure, graduate, medical, dentistry, law and architecture degrees as DAL

is it beyond comprehension for Halifax to have facilities that can modestly compete with other parts of the world, places that are developing at lighting pace?

and all the millions the are funneled into the local economy though research grants?


man, that's the kind of attitude that many people (ignorant in my opinion) from "upper Canada" assume all maritime-rs have, they think that is the reason this region's development has been stunted for over a century and find the local mentality to be stubborn and short sighted in the business sense.....I hate this perception, and find it offensive...and I would not be here if I thought it where true........but dude.....common!!

That is kind of like saying housing would be kept affordable if they didn't build so many expensive new apartment buildings. Maybe Dal could have been cheaper if it had positioned itself as a terrible university with creaky old buildings, but most of what has been built there over the past decade or so has been essential both for students and research.

As for this building, good news. The downtown needs some new office buildings.

OK... glad I spoke up JET

Just curious, how many other things cost 10 times more than they did 25 years ago?
Food, rent, transit, beer, bud the spud .. ? Just curious
I paid off my $10,000 for two degrees @ $126.26/month over ten years.
What a luxury compared to today's debtload for students
and does no one question why? just curious.

Well, they did build the Ding-wall along Grand Lake Road, so that probably added to the tuition up there. :haha:

And CBU has the added advantage of offering an auto body repair program if pre-med proves too hard...

Whenever anyone argues that we have too many universities in this province, CBU is at the top of the list proving that point.

Yesterday (photos by me);

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2484/...28bfca3f_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/...8f87ab44_b.jpg

that shaw building is by far the best of the bunch.

Kinda funny that Subway and Darrell's were both in this building side by side and now they are both on Fenwick street side by side.