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The Nova Scotia Voluntary Planning Board (VPB) was established in 1963 as the Voluntary Economic Planning Board to assist and advise the Minister of Finance in the development and implementation of measures to increase the rate of economic growth in the Province by means of "voluntary economic planning." A Board of Directors was in charge of recruiting and directing planning projects in primary economic sectors.

In 1970, the Board's mandate expanded well beyond economic planning to embrace most areas of public policy in the Province, including the environment and tourism, and it was renamed the Voluntary Planning Board. More recently, the VPB have provided the Premier and Cabinet with volunteer-driven, citizen-based advice through the work of its sector committees. Projects were developed as requested by the Provincial Government, seeing sector committees working for a set period of time to engage citizens and experts in the production of reports presenting findings and recommendations.

In 1999, the sector committees were discontinued, though they were temporarily reinstated between 2001-2004. The VPB Board of Directors undertook a strategic review in 2004-2005 which resulted in the permanent discontinuation of the sector committees. In December 2010 the Voluntary Planning Board office was closed and staff moved to a new Public Engagement Support Unit under the Treasury Board, and subsequently under the Office of Policy and Priorities.

In 1919 the NS Legislature passed the Water Act (SNS 1919 Chapter 4), which established the Province's control over the use of water and water courses and allowed it to license uses such as diversions for irrigation, the transportation of timber and wood in log drives, dams for power and the extraction of water from streams and lakes for domestic and industrial purposes. In the same year the NS Power Commission was created to generate and distribute electrical power to municipalities, industry and individual users. The Power Commission chiefly generated electrical energy from a number of hydro-electric facilities, but had administrative capacity and engineering expertise which allowed it to advise the Minister in Charge of the Water Act regarding water use applications. In essence the Minister delegated much of his power under the Act to the Power Commission. In 1963 chapter 42 of the Statutes of Nova Scotia transferred active responsibility for the Water Act to a board of commissioners constituted as the Nova Scotia Water Authority and expanded their powers to include the regulation of water and sewage systems and the ability to protect bodies of water and water courses from pollution. The original Water Act had less scope to regulate pollution and was limited to the regulation of obstructions to the flow of water such as the deposition of sawdust and waste wood. In 1973 the Water Authority was folded into the newly created Department of the Environment, with an Environmental Control Council created as an advisory body on applications and other matters submitted to it by the Minister.

The Women's Directorate was established in 1988. It functioned as the secretariat of the provincial government's Interdepartmental Committee on the Status of Women (renamed the Interdepartmental Committee on Women's Issues in 1992). The directorate was created to deliver services which neither the Interdepartmental Committee nor the Advisory Council on the Status of Women provided. The directorate acted as a coordinating unit to advise and assist government departments in their delivery of programs and services affecting women, to improve the condition of women in the public service, and to maintain a record of the government's accomplishments on behalf of women. The directorate reported to the chair of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Status of Women. In August 1996, the Women's Directorate was merged into the Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Beginning in 1989 writer and broadcaster Marjory Whitelaw undertook a women's oral history project which she conducted in Nova Scotia. A similar project, the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick's Women's Oral History Project, began in 1988, and was organized by oral history archivist Janet Maclellan Toole. Both projects were assisted by the Council of Maritime Premiers; the Nova Scotia project was encouraged by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, the Nova Scotia Cabinet Secretariat and the Women's Directorate of Nova Scotia. The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick provided transcription, supervision and fundraising assistance during the course of the project which appears to have ended in 1992.

In 1859, a preliminary decision was made to establish in Halifax a society to discuss and promote the subjects of literature, science, political economy, commerce, statistics and the arts. The goal was to promote learning and foster a new appreciation for scientific advancements. In 1862 the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science was actually formed, with a mission to encourage the study of natural science and all of its branches. In its first year officers were elected and by-laws were established. In January 1863 the institute began to hold monthly meetings to read and discuss scientific papers. Although those who made presentations were both professionals and amateurs, in the early years the amateurs outnumbered the professionals. The institute also decided to hold at least four field meetings annually to examine findings in the province. However, there were difficulties in arranging these meetings and they were held only sporadically. In 1874, it was decided that the institute should be divided into three sections, Natural History, Ethnology and Technology. The by-laws for these three sections were revised in 1884. In 1890, the organization changed its name to The Nova Scotian Institute of Science. In 1918 the institute decided to limit its geographic scope to papers on Nova Scotia. This decision in 1918 had to be amended in 1930 because of the shortage of material. By 1939 the papers being presented were almost all by professionals and could no longer be understood by most amateurs. Perhaps to compensate for this the institute gave popular lectures at different times during the year. These lectures were almost universally well received and attended, but were discontinued in 1931. In the first century of its operations, the institute also held two free scientific exhibitions, in 1926 and 1928. The Nova Scotian Institute of Science also aided with the establishment of the Provincial Museum in 1868. The institute still acts as a meeting place for Nova Scotians interested in science. It offers public lectures, runs a mentorship program and an annual scientific writing competition for university students, as well as financially supporting regional science fairs in Nova Scotia.

James Walton Nutting, lawyer, editor, and office-holder, was probably born in 1787 at Kempt, Hants County, the son of Boston Loyalist John Nutting and Mary Walton. From 1804-1810 he attended Kings College and graduated with a BA. In October 1810 he was admitted to the bar and began work in the office of William Thompson, prothonotary of the Supreme Court and clerk of the crown. He replaced Thompson in 1811 and held the office until his death, but was not officially appointed until 1834. Nutting was active in the Baptist movement in the 1820s as a member of the Granville Street Church (later First Baptist) congregation and the Baptist Education Society which founded Acadia College in 1838. With John Fergusson he co-edited the Baptist Missionary Magazine, 1834-1836, later the Christian Messenger newspaper until 1855. He was also governor of Acadia College, honourary secretary of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, and subscriber of the Micmac Missionary Society. He married Mary Elizabeth MacLean on 9 July 1810; they had three sons and two daughters. Nutting died 7 July 1870 at Halifax.

June Isaminger was born at Ann Arbour, Mich. She studied art in Washington, D.C. at the Abbott Art School and later, the Concoran School of Fine Arts. Privately, she studied oil painting with George J. Hamilton, lecturer and artist at the Phillip's Collection, Washington, and watercolour with Eliot O'Hara. From 1945 to 1951 she worked as medical illustrator at the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Md. where she met and married Rodney Olson in 1949. From 1967 to 1971 June Olson served as secretary for the Washington Water Color Association and was a founding member and president of Spectrum Gallery, in 1969-70. The Olsons spent their summers in Lunenburg, N.S. beginning in 1967 and moved there permanently in 1972. June Olson became active in the cultural life of Lunenburg County, opening her own gallery and teaching for the county's Department of Continuing Education. She served on the board of directors for Visual Arts Nova Scotia and the Lunenburg Heritage Art Gallery Committee. She is particularly known for her watercolour street scenes of Lunenburg as well as Mahone Bay and Chester. Since 1980, Olson has taught watercolour painting privately. As of 2002 she was residing in Chester Basin, N.S.

Rodney Andrew Olson was born 19 April 1914 at Somerville, Mass. He graduated from Tufts College with a B.Sc. in 1936. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and did oceanographic research for the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, 1939-1942. During the Second World War he served as a naval lieutenant. From 1946 to 1972 Olson was a research physiologist for molecular biophysics section of the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Md., where he met and married June Isaminger in 1949. Having summered in Lunenburg, N.S. since 1967, the Olsons made a permanent move to the area in 1972 when Rodney took early retirement as a visiting professor at Dalhousie University, Halifax. While residing in Lunenburg he turned his life-long hobby of photography into a second career. He died at Halifax on 29 June 1980.

The history of the Order of the Eastern Star is divided into three distinct time periods: the first from 1850 to 1866, under the leadership of Dr. Rob Morris; the second from 1866 to 1876, under the leadership of Robert Macoy of New York; and the third from 1876, when the General Grand Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, was established, to the present time. The origin of the Order of the Eastern Star, like Masonry, is shrouded in mystery. Many researchers believe it had origins in France as early as 1703. The origin of the Eastern Star as an organization with degrees in initiatory form may be credited to the leadership of Dr. Rob Morris. Never quite satisfied that full participation in Masonry should be confined to men, Dr. Morris felt that it should be for the whole family. However, according to Masonic laws women are not eligible for Masonic degrees. Knowing he could not change this, Morris sought another method whereby women could share fully in the Masonic experience. In 1850, while confined to his home after an accident, Dr. Morris developed the Eastern Star Degrees in their present initiatory form. The Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island was established in 1947.

Edward Owens was born in Ireland circa 1841 and was married to Elizabeth Benson Pendleton (born ca. 1851) between 1865 and 1867. She was the daughter of Thomas B. and Nancy Pendleton. Owens was a mariner and sailed on board the S.S. Nestorian of the Allan Line as well as vessels of the Inman Line before joining the crew of the S.S. Atlantic on 17 March 1873. This vessel was wrecked at Terence Bay, Nova Scotia on 1 April 1873 and Quartermaster Owens was instrumental in rescuing a large number of the people on board by helping to run lines to shore. He is believed to have died in the spring of 1911.

The Oxford Gold Mining Company operated principally in the Lake Catcha gold district near the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, on a peninsula between Chezzetcook and Port Petpeswick harbor. J.M. Reid was in charge of the mining operation. In 1882 the company acquired a number of areas north of the lake, erected a 10 stamp mill, and became a steady processor. In 1883-1884 the yield was good, with 2575 and 2019 ounces respectively from a seam at the 100 foot mark. Work continued there until 1887 when the Battery lead began to be worked. Most of 1889 was spent prospecting when parts of Lake Catcha were drained. In 1891, thirty-one men were employed and in 1892 there were twenty-two. During 1892-1893 a large amount of surface ore was processed and in 1894 work continued on the Coleman lead. Also in 1894, J.M. Reid, who had ably managed the Oxford mine for 10 years was forced to retire due to ill health; he died in July of the following year.

Karen Frances Oxley was born in Halifax, N.S. on 20 May 1946, daughter of accountant Charles Donald and Helen Mary (Jakeman) Oxley, piano teacher. She joined the Jubilee Singers in 1962 and later became a soloist, chorus leader, and sound consultant on Singalong Jubilee. She appeared regularly on CBHT Music Hop - Frank's Bandstand (1964-1967), Let's Go (1967-1968), and Countrytime, (1970-1973) and was a member of the musical group, The Dropouts. She recorded a number of commercial records, including Plain old three chord hurtin' country songs and Singalong Jubilee, both produced by RCA Camden in 1972. She married musician Jack Lilly in 1966, and her second husband, musician and sound technician Grant Kennedy, in 1980. Oxley's career was cut short by multiple sclerosis and she died in Halifax on 20 October 1992.

Bridglal “Bridge” Pachai, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., D.C.L., is a respected educator, historian and author, born in Umbulwana, Natal, South Africa on November 30, 1927. He was educated in Ladysmith and graduated from the University of Natal with his Ph.D. in 1963. He taught at universities in Ghana and Malawi, then moved with his wife Leela and children to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1975 to teach history at Dalhousie University until 1977 when he became Director of Saint Mary’s University’s International Education Centre from 1977 to 1979. In September 1979 he took up the post of Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the newly established University of Sokoto, Nigeria. After six years he moved back to Halifax and served as Executive Director for the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia, 1985 to 1989, then for Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, 1989 to 1994. He visited South Africa during its transition from apartheid to democracy, in 1991 and 1995. In 1998 he taught for a year in The Gambia. During his career he was general editor of the “Peoples of the Maritimes” book series for Four East Publications, lectured, wrote 17 books and published numerous articles on Blacks in Canada and in Nova Scotia, South Africa, multiculturalism and human rights education. His books include “Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land Volume 1 1600-1800” (Black Educators Association of NS, 1987) and “Volume 2 1800-1989" (Lancelot Press, 1991), “Peoples of the Maritimes: Blacks" (Four East Publications 1987, 1993), “Historic Black Nova Scotia" (Nimbus 2006), and two autobiographies “My Africa, My Canada” (1989) and “Accidental Opportunities” (Roseway 2007). For his dedication, his leadership and his experience in improving race relations and working towards greater appreciation of the Canadian cultural mosaic he was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2000.

James Fraser Paige was born 13 December 1873 in Pictou, the son of James William Fraser and Catherine (Cameron). He was educated at Leytonstone School, London, England, 1878-1887, and completed his mechanical engineering studies at the Mechanics Institute, Truro in 1896. From 1898 to 1941, he was employed as an engineer for shipbuilding companies in Canada and the United States, and also worked in Japan and Italy. He married May Murray, of Truro on 22 December 1897 and they had two children, Emeline and Murray. Paige died 16 February 1942 in Orange, Texas.

Mike Parker was born 9 October 1952 and grew up in Bear River, Digby County. His father owned the local general store, the Bear River Trading Company. During the summer and fall, his father was a hunting and fishing guide; and during the winter, he occasionally worked in the lumber woods. Mike grew up hearing stories and tales associated with the guiding and lumbering occupations. When Parker's father died suddenly in his mid-sixties, Mike realized that changing technology and the aging population conspired against the endurance of this lifestyle. Parker therefore began recording the personal experience narratives of guides and lumbermen in the Digby and Annapolis County areas. Parker graduated from Acadia University in 1975 (B.A.) and 1977 with a recreation degree. He has been teaching at the School for the Blind in Halifax since 1977. he has published two books using his oral history research and is working on a third about the merchant navy during World War II. Parker currently lives in Dartmouth with his wife and two children.

The Parrsboro Shore Telephone Company Ltd. was incorporated in 1885 (Statutes of Nova Scotia, 1885, chapter 109). The Directors were A. Stewart Townsend, Nathaniel H. Upham, Charles Smith, James A. Hatfield, Nathan W. Eaton, Clifford Sayre and Robert Dewis. The company provided telephone and telegraph communications in the districts of the counties of Cumberland and Colchester that lay south and west of the Intercolonial Railway. The company's head office was at Parrsboro, with local offices located at Partridge Island, West Bay, Diligent River, Port Greville, Spencers Island and Advocate Harbour. The capital stock of the company was $10,000, held in shares of $10.00 each. In 1905 the company had 120 customers.

George Geddie Patterson, barrister, teacher, judge, historian and author, was born at Greenhill on 16 June 1864, one of eight children of Rev. George Patterson and Margaret McDonald. He was educated at Dalhousie University where he received his BA (1882), MA (1887), LLB (1889), and LLD (1933). Patterson had a private law practice and was lecturer at Dalhousie Law School for several years. During the Second World War he was a member of the Wartime Rationing Board. Patterson also served as stipendiary magistrate and MLA for Pictou County, 1901-1906. He was appointed to the Executive Council in May 1906 but was defeated in the general election of June 1906. From 1907-1939 he was judge of County Court District No. 5. He was also the author of several journal and newspaper articles on Nova Scotia history and law. His book Studies in Nova Scotia History was published in 1940 followed by More Studies in Nova Scotia History in 1941. His History of Victoria County was published posthumously in 1978. A longtime resident of New Glasgow, Patterson was married to Margaret Dow Finck. He died 10 September 1951 at New Glasgow.

Rev. George Patterson, editor, Presbyterian minister, author and antiquarian, was born 30 April 1824 at Pictou, son of Abraham and Mary Elizabeth (MacGregor) Patterson, and grandson of Scottish emigrant Rev. James Drummond MacGregor. Patterson was educated at Pictou Academy and Dalhousie College. He served as first editor of the Eastern Chronicle from 1843 to 1846, when he left Nova Scotia to continue his studies at Edinburgh University, Scotland. He received his license to preach in 1848 and was minister of Salem Presbyterian Church, Greenhill from 1849 to 1876, when he resigned and moved to New Glasgow. Patterson was active within the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia, a member of several organizations including the Nova Scotia Historical Society and Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, and the author of prize-winning essays and books on a wide range of subjects. His biographies on Presbyterian ministers in the Maritimes were published between 1859 and 1889. He also edited a collection of his grandfather's writings under the title A few remains of the Rev. James MacGregor, D.D. (1859). Patterson is best known for his book, History of the county of Pictou (Montreal, 1877), a revision of his earlier essay which had received the Akins Historical Prize in 1874. He was also the recipient of honourary degrees (Princeton 1874, Dalhousie, 1890) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, 1889. He married Margaret McDonald in Sydney County on 20 March 1851; they had eight children. He died 26 October 1897 at New Glasgow.

Verna Eileen Long was born at Clementsport, Annapolis Co., N.S., daughter of Ralph and Zeddie (Wright) Long. She later moved to Halifax and was employed at Victoria General Hospital for nearly thirty years. She married Aubrey Donald (Don) Payne, youngest son of Benjamin Payne of Amherst, on 29 July 1946 at Pictou. They resided in Halifax where Don Payne was based with the Merchant Navy. She died 8 June 1989 at Halifax, aged 76.

Joan Campbell (Murray) Payzant was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1925, the youngest of four children of Robert Harper and Frances Gammell (Creighton) Murray. She was educated at schools in Dartmouth and then attended Dalhousie University where she earned her B.Sc. and B.Ed. She taught at the Imperoyal Village School until she married Lewis John "Pete" Payzant in 1948. The couple then moved to Montreal for two years where Joan taught at The Study, a private girls' school, until the first of their five children was born. She returned to the classroom in the 1960s and taught Nova Scotia history, which became a lifelong passion. Together, she and her husband wrote Like a weaver's shuttle _ a history of the Halifax-Darmouth Ferries . Thereafter, she wrote for local periodicals, the Dartmouth Free Press and completed several books, all involving the history of Nova Scotia. One of these books was a biography of her parents, "Rob and Francie." She has been active in the work of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum, the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia and the Dartmouth Club of the Canadian Federation of University Women. She passed away on August 14, 2013, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Albert Pearl was born about 1840, the son of Walter and Ann Matilda (Church) Pearl. He served as the lighthouse keeper on Green Island (subsequently Pearl Island) which was established in 1874 at the mouth of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. He was first married to Caroline Hutt. He married his second wife, Mary Dauphinee, at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on 28 February 1895. He died on 20 November 1910.

Mather Byles Pearl was born on 3 April 1876, the son of Albert and [Caroline Hutt?] Pearl. He succeeded his father as lighthouse keeper on Pearl Island after his death on 20 November 1910. He died on 5 January 1943.

Howard Mitchener Stevenson Pentelow (1901-1963), Halifax Explosion survivor, was born March 18, 1901 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada to William (b.1861) and Maud (Stevenson) Pentelow (b.1871). Howard was a cadet attending the Royal Canadian Naval College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in December 1917. On December 6, 1917 Cadet Pentelow was in the College’s gunroom when the Explosion occurred. He was cut by window glass and blown through a closed door, received wounds to his face and one hand. In 1919 he became a midshipman with the Canadian Navy, then left the military, became an electrical engineer in Chicago, Illinois, United States employed with the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. He married Naomi Frances Evadne Small (b.1902) in July 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, became a United States citizen in 1933. He died on 26 November 1963 in Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA.

Betty Peterson was born in the United States in 1917. As social activists, pacifists and Quakers, she and her late husband, Gunnar Peterson, were conscientious objectors during World War II. They also participated in the civil rights movement in Chicago for 23 years and in Vietnam War protests before leaving the United States to settle in Halifax in 1975. In Nova Scotia Peterson continued her advocacy for the peace movement, especially with the Voice of Women for Peace and Halifax Society of Friends (Quakers), and also supported causes concerning the environment, feminism, education, nuclear disarmament, and aboriginal rights. She participated in several out-of-province crusades, which were supported in part by Canadian Society of Friends and chronicled in national media reports, including a 1988 trek to Little Buffalo, Alberta, to support the Lubicon Cree Nation's land-claim fight and a 1987 trip to Goose Bay, Labrador to stand with the Innu protesting low flying military planes. Among her many activities in Halifax were participating in ecumenical movements for social justice (with Kairos), protesting the 1991 Gulf War, and promoting an alternative People's Summit (P7) during the 1995 G-7 meeting held in Halifax, NS. In the early 2000s she participated in public vigils protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a founding member of the Raging Grannies, a greying band of activists who used street theatre to promote peace and women's rights. In most of these organizations Peterson had a major role such as organizing, planning, and keeping detailed records of activities, names, strategies and results. She died on February 24, 2018, at the age of 100, in Halifax, NS.

This is a relatively unknown initiative by citizens of Philadelphia to establish a township in the vicinity of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia in the 1760s. Although not successful, this Philadelphia Township provides an interesting parallel to the more successful Philadelphia grant in Pictou County.