Business

By Frank J. (Frank John) Aleksandrowicz, 1921-, Photographer (NARA record: 8452210) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

That ’70s Crisis

March 22, 2017 at 12:50 pm

“Tartan and coal” proclaimed the front page of the Cape Breton Post, rather cryptically, on Saturday and I couldn’t resist trying to guess what the headline referred to before I actually read the article: the world’s worst ice cream flavor? Sydney Academy’s Class of ’57 prom theme? Alexander Graham Bell’s terriers?  Read More

Port of Sydney Development Corp AGM, 15 December 2016. (l to r: Board chair Michael Merritt, CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, Port CEO Marlene Usher)

Port Board Drops Year’s Worth of Minutes

March 8, 2017 at 12:00 pm

I checked the Port of Sydney web site this week and did a spontaneous jig of joy around the old control center (which is what I call my office since I added the second desk and the map of the world): they’ve posted a whole year’s worth of board meetingRead More

Civic Centre, CBRM

CBRM Doesn’t Have All Docs in $40K FOIPOP But Fee Stands

March 1, 2017 at 1:00 pm

Remember the $40,000 FOIPOP? Actually, the price tag the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) slapped on a local man’s freedom of information/protection of privacy request was $42,804.50 — a calculation of the value of CBRM employee time that seems to be worked out to the last fraction of a second. SydneyRead More

Why? Because It’s Business Cape Breton!

Why? Because It’s Business Cape Breton!

February 22, 2017 at 2:00 pm

It’s Wednesday and you know what that means — time to beat the Business Cape Breton (BCB) drum! This week we’ve learned that BCB is both an outside organization immune to the rules governing departments of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality AND the CBRM’s “economic development entity,” immune to theRead More

US Judge Allows Trucking of Radioactive Chalk River Waste to South Carolina

US Judge Allows Trucking of Radioactive Chalk River Waste to South Carolina

February 22, 2017 at 1:55 pm

In my October column, “Roads to Hell: Nuclear Waste on the Move,” I reported on legal efforts to block shipments of highly-radioactive liquid waste from the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in Ontario to the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, a journey of over 2,000 kilometerss passing the GreatRead More

A Brief Introduction to PowerSchool

A Brief Introduction to PowerSchool

February 22, 2017 at 1:50 pm

What is this PowerSchool of which Nova Scotian teachers speak? The datafication (a word I thought I’d made up but which turns out to be real) of P-12 education happened after my time in the Nova Scotia public system, so I had to do some reading (a little skill I pickedRead More

Lessons from Paducah, KY: Let Artists Revitalize Your Downtown

Lessons from Paducah, KY: Let Artists Revitalize Your Downtown

February 15, 2017 at 11:35 am

I’ve been trying to figure out what bugs me so much about the decision to rename Sydney’s downtown “The Waterfront District” and I’ve finally put my finger on it: coming up with a fancy name for a neighborhood should be the final step in a revitalization plan, not the first. Labeling theRead More

Transparency in Action: Destination Cape Breton Association

Transparency in Action: Destination Cape Breton Association

February 8, 2017 at 1:30 pm

Transparency is so rare in Nova Scotia that most people recognize it only by its absence. Our region is home to a number of organizations that rely largely (if not entirely) on public money and yet are not in the least accountable to the public. To me, they’re like bigRead More

Transparency in Action: Business Cape Breton

Transparency in Action: Business Cape Breton

February 8, 2017 at 1:25 pm

Some organizations are like cats, not in the sense that they hunt and kill mice (although with the level of transparency we have in the CBRM, who knows?) but in the sense that they have nine lives — end one and they start another. Business Cape Breton Association (BCB) isRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

February 8, 2017 at 1:15 pm

Charter? What Charter? I was perusing the list of recently completed Nova Scotia Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) requests, as one does, and discovered this one: All briefing notes, analysis and correspondence regarding the development of a municipal charter for Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Oh boy, oh boy,Read More