Business

Bridging Finance Update

Bridging Finance Update

November 10, 2021 at 12:15 pm

I thought it might be time for an update on the Bridging Finance story but in case you’ve forgotten about Bridging, I’ll do a sort-of “previously on” recap. Bridging Finance is a Toronto-based “alternative lender” providing financing to projects considered too risky by traditional banks. It raises money through theRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

November 4, 2021 at 9:29 am

Munger Games Everywhere I look these days I see vanity projects — from billionaires propelling themselves into almost-space to local businesswomen producing 13-episode podcasts — but the story of Warren Buffet’s partner designing a dorm for the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) takes the proverbial vanity cake. AccordingRead More

Christine Saulnier

Calculating a Living Wage in CB (It’s $18.45/Hour)

November 3, 2021 at 1:42 pm

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in Nova Scotia has performed its annual public service of crunching the numbers to determine how much a worker must actually earn to live with some modicum of dignity in this province and the answer this year, for Cape Breton, is $18.45/hour. That’sRead More

Cabot Saint Lucia: Beach Access

Cabot Saint Lucia: Beach Access

November 3, 2021 at 1:40 pm

Editor’s Note: This week, I’m focusing on the concerns that have been raised in Saint Lucia over Ben Cowan-Dewar’s latest golf development, Cabot Saint Lucia. First up: beach access.     Finola Jennings Clark says when she first heard that Cabot, the golf resort company founded by Torontonian Ben Cowan-DewarRead More

Cabot Saint Lucia: Water, History & Sustainability

Cabot Saint Lucia: Water, History & Sustainability

November 3, 2021 at 1:38 pm

Editor’s note: This week, I’m focusing on the concerns that have been raised in Saint Lucia over Ben Cowan-Dewar’s golf resort, Cabot Saint Lucia. In this installment: water, archaeological and sustainability issues.   “Where open sea and land collide is where golf exists in its purest form,” is a BillRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

October 29, 2021 at 10:00 am

Yoga Mats Galore! Reading about the MV Zim Kingston shedding over 100 containers into the ocean off the coast of British Columbia put me in mind of the 1941 sinking that inspired Compton MacKenzie’s novel Whiskey Galore!  No, wait, that’s not strictly true — it put me in mind ofRead More

CBRM Council: District Energy

CBRM Council: District Energy

October 27, 2021 at 12:55 pm

A district energy system proposed for Downtown Sydney has undergone a significant metamorphosis since the last time it was on my radar, in January 2020. This scheme — one of a number of initiatives arising from a partnership between CBRM and Efficiency Nova Scotia that dates to 2015 — hasRead More

Banking on Food Banks?

Banking on Food Banks?

October 27, 2021 at 12:51 pm

Does anyone go shopping for groceries these days without having at least one conversation with another shopper about the rising cost of what we are putting in our carts? Assuming, that is, we are among those who can continue to purchase the same items we have been using for years.Read More

Missing the Boat on COVID

Missing the Boat on COVID

October 27, 2021 at 12:49 pm

Barry Sheehy did something in Monday’s Chronicle Herald that I would not have believed possible: he wrote an opinion piece (“Atlantic Canada missing the boat on U.S. port-expansion frenzy“) about congestion at US ports without mentioning COVID. Sheehy — described as an author, historian businessman, veteran and part-time Gabarus residentRead More

Guess Who Revamped Their Website?

Guess Who Revamped Their Website?

October 27, 2021 at 12:47 pm

Albert Barbusci and Barry Sheehy, the men behind Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) and Novaporte, the Sydney harbor container port project, have splashed out on a new website and what a glossy mix of stock photos and wild claims it is. Before we get into it, though, let’s take aRead More