As the temperature hit 41° C (with the humidex) on Sunday, I found myself thinking of CBU poli-sci Prof Tom Urbaniak’s recent Post opinion piece about our municipality’s woefully inadequate preparations for extreme heat: Severe, extended heat waves were previously rare around here. But our changing climate is changing ourRead More

A recent Cape Breton Post story painted an uncharacteristically accurate picture of the cruise industry simply by quoting one of its biggest beneficiaries, Dennis Campbell of Ambassatours Grey Line. Campbell’s company is one of two (both Halifax-based) handling cruise line shore excursions in Halifax and Sydney. The story was aboutRead More

UPDATE: Council met on August 23 and revealed that the second of these meetings involved the awarding of the food and beverage contract at the Miner’s Forum. It went to Scott Morrison, who owns Sydney’s Flavor Downtown, Flavor 19 and Flavor on the Water. (Although Morrison wasn’t mentioned by name;Read More

Right-sizing? I missed Monday’s public meeting regarding CBRM electoral district boundaries and council size but was interested to read that, according to John Heseltine, the Stantec consultant hired by the municipality to make recommendations, 21.4% of the 400 people who responded to an online survey think CBRM should have six,Read More

Summer, I have decided, is a time for experimentation. When the thermometer hits 30 degrees Celsius, the only thing I want to dive deeply into is the Bras d’Or Lake, so this week, I’m going to try something a little different. Instead of covering one topic in depth, I’m goingRead More

Green hydrogen first appeared on my radar in May of this year when I heard about Everwind Fuels, a newly formed company with the modest aim of turning Nova Scotia into a regional green hydrogen hub. US-based Everwind, headed by Australian private equity guy Trent Vichie, announced its intentions byRead More

I just read “Sustainable Prosperity,” the provincial government’s recently dropped 2022 Progress Report on the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act (EGCCRA) that, frankly,  lost me at the title. We need a new definition of “prosperity” before we can start talking about it in terms of “sustainability” because ourRead More

There’s been a development in Ben Eoin and it’s a doozy: the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is suing Ben Eoin Golf Club Limited and 3324714 Nova Scotia Limited, a company connected to Ben Eoin Development Group Inc (BEDGInc), for $3.5 million. Why? Well, according to ACOA’s Notice of Action,Read More

On the same day last week—July 8—600,000 liters of gasoline spilled out of a storage tank in Sydney’s North End and Rogers Communications showed us why Canada needs not more “competition” in the telecoms sector but a publicly owned internet provider (yes, I went there). I say this off theRead More

During the period covering the offences, the accused filed false GST returns claiming a combined refund of $20,628,805. Of that amount, the CRA paid $275,960 in refunds and allocated an additional $81,399 as a credit to other amounts owing to the agency, meaning the family and their companies were paidRead More