More BullSHIP? In a bit of revisionist history that would probably secretly impress the government of the People’s Republic of China, Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) CEO Albert Barbusci has erased all mention of the Chinese from his latest Novaporte container terminal press release. I figure the next step willRead More
More BullSHIP? In a bit of revisionist history that would probably secretly impress the government of the People’s Republic of China, Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) CEO Albert Barbusci has erased all mention of the Chinese from his latest Novaporte container terminal press release. I figure the next step willRead More
Free the information CBRM Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan got back to me Tuesday night about another FOIPOP I submitted back in April looking for information about a matter before council. Her original estimate of the fee I would be required to pay for this (public) information was $215 andRead More
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles about the conclusions of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry. You can read the first one here and the second here.) Cassidy Bernard, a young mother died last fall in We’koqma’q (Whycocomagh). Last week,Read...
Believe it or not, summer is officially here and tourists, as well as former residents of our fair city, will be coming to Cape Breton. The latter group, especially if they grew up in the North End of Sydney, will definitely drive or walk around their old neighborhood during theirRead More
Several columns ago, I considered the difficulties a number of students seem to be experiencing, and noted that, when I discuss their situation with my colleagues, they have identified many of the same issues with their own students. The two most marked features of stress some of my students displayRead More
When I saw the headline “Life in lockup“on the front page of Tuesday’s Cape Breton Post I was impressed — a full, front page story (and two additional pages inside) exploring life in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility? SaltWire actually doing a valuable “deep dive?” Excellent. And then I readRead More
It’s not like I had high hopes for that “viability” study Grant Thornton has just completed for the CBRM — frankly, I viewed it as a $219,000 hoop we had to jump through to get the province to recognize our difficult financial situation — but I hadn’t expected to findRead...
You may have noticed that some American billionaires are actually anxious to give away some of those billions to help those who fall, well, billions short of having a half-decent chance at something even close to the good life. Are the guys with the big bucks “bucking for the finals”Read More
What to do this week By now, the bulk of the spring planting should be accomplished, or nearly so. Even with this cool weather tomatoes should be in the final stages of hardening off if not transplanted already. Squash plants should get planted in another week so you might startRead More
Complex systems Former Nova Scotia health minister Maureen MacDonald took to Facebook this week to express frustration with some of the recent criticism she’s seen leveled at the province’s healthcare system. She took particular issue with a speech given at a healthcare rally in Halifax by Paula Minnikin, a formerRead More
![Air Canada Airbus landing in Montreal. (Photo by abdallahh at Flickr [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]](https://capebretonspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Air_Canada_Square-200x150.png)
Note: On Friday June 21 I received a revised version of the travel expenses and have updated the totals accordingly — I have also attached the revised travel sheet at the end of the article. In the five months after losing his bid to become leader of the provincial ProgressiveRead More
The CBRM has posted its audited financials from fiscal year 2007-2008 to fiscal year 2017-2018 on the municipal website. From 2010-2011 on, they include travel expenses for elected officials and senior CBRM staff members. I wanted to compare Mayor Cecil Clarke’s travel expenses to those of his predecessor, Mayor JohnRead More
It took me well over the advertised 30 days and cost me $510 but last Friday I finally received the travel and expense data I had requested from the CBRM on 11 April 2019. My exact request was travel and expense data for Mayor Cecil Clarke, his executive assistant MarkRead More
I was listening to an interview with businessman Andrew Yang, one of the many Democratic presidential candidates in the US, during which he listed the jobs he felt were most vulnerable to automation in the near future (it was part the case he was making for a basic annual income).Read More
What to do this week It’s been a long time coming this spring, but the apples are in bloom and it’s time to start thinking about – nightshades! Not the deadly kind, of course, but a lot of my favorite foods are in that family. Namely, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants andRead More
Grandstanding Okay, so on Tuesday, as I was burrowing through the documents I’d received from the feds relating to the 2012 sale of the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club, I thought I might try to follow the CBRM Council meeting about the library at the same time. (You know howRead More
On 13 May 2016, I submitted an access to information and privacy (ATIP) request to ACOA asking for information pertaining to the 2012 sale of the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club (RCBYC) and adjacent lands to Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC). The request was transferred to Public Services and ProcurementRead More
“We recognized the need for a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and we have commissioners who came back with findings of fact and with calls to action. “We thank them for their work, we applaud their work and we accept their findings, including thatRead More
