When CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke began mulling a run for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party back in December 2017, he appeared on the CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton and was asked by host Steve Sutherland if a win would put progress on the Port of Sydney containerRead More
“Hopefully, the [feasibility study by Chinese construction giant CCCC] will be completed by July and we will be able to fast-track construction for opening for business in 2019,” — Port of Sydney CEO Marlene Usher, April 2016 “If all goes well, we’ll be putting a shovel into the ground inRead More
What better way to begin 2019 than by looking back at 2018 with CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke? Clarke appeared on CBC radio’s Information Morning Cape Breton on January 3 to reflect on the year just passed and the Spectator listened with interest. In particular, it listened to the discussion ofRead More
The Spectator, Tree!Umphant I found Albert Barbusci! He’s in Kissimmee, Florida where “the Lemieux and Barbusci families” own and operate the Tree Trek Adventure Park! Okay, he may not actually be there right now (although why not be in Florida in December?) but he could be. When I stepped backRead More
ServiCom There is absolutely no humor to be found in the announcement that 600 Cape Bretoners have lost their jobs three weeks before Christmas with the closure of the ServiCom call center. Even Mayor Cecil Clarke’s mixing of metaphors (he’s hoping the potential sale of the local ServiCom branch willRead More
Our port “developers” — Sydney Harbor Investment Partners (SHIP) formerly Harbour Port Development Partners (HPDP) — have been engaged in promoting the Port of Sydney as a “deep water, transshipment and intermodal mega hub” capable of handling Ultra-Large Container Vessels (ULCV) since 2014 (although we only made it official inRead More
On October 11, the CBC’s Paul Withers reported from “inside the failed fight for federal funding for Port of Halifax.” He’s referring to the Port of Halifax’s application for money from the $2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF), established by the feds in July 2017 to “help infrastructure owners andRead More
CBRM councilors pushing for information on the progress of the second cruise ship berth ran into a wall during Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting (held on an irregular day and at an irregular time). District 10 Councilor Darren Bruckschwaiger tried his best to get Public Works Manager Wayne MacDonald to admit,Read...
This couldn’t have been more timely: just as we’re all talking about ports again, veteran journalist and sometime Spectator contributor Rick Grant got in touch to say he’d attended the Halifax Needham PC Association AGM on June 20 and had taken the opportunity to quiz the four PC leadership candidatesRead More
In 2016, consultant CPCS completed a 70-page, $80,000 report for the Province of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) entitled The Nova Scotia Transportation Sector: Global Challenges and Opportunities in which it weighed the relative merits of Nova Scotia’s existing and proposed container terminals and concluded that:Read More
