When I read that the Partnership Group-Sponsorship Specialists® would be presenting to council yesterday morning on the subject of naming rights my first thought was that Partnership Group-Sponsorship Specialists® is not a very good name. The Calgary-based “group” consists of Brent Barootes, president and CEO, plus a collection of hiredRead More

Former CBC “chief correspondent” Peter Mansbridge has an interesting new gig: he’s playing a journalist in a series of HomeEquity reverse mortgage ads and videos. The spots find him sitting face-to-face with his subjects, very much as he used to do on his weekly interview program, Mansbridge One on One,Read More

Cabot Takes an ‘L’ Cabot Cape Breton will not be getting a chunk of a Nova Scotian provincial park to turn into yet another golf course. Cabot hasn’t actually made a formal application to the province for permission turn part of the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park into its thirdRead...

I promised to deal with the volunteer awards that were presented during last week’s CBRM council meeting and, on the one hand, I can do that rather easily by telling you that the following awards were presented to the following people/groups: Gary MacDonald Memorial Award: Sukhmani Sahib Society, Sydney AnneRead More

In 2021, a special committee of the Senate of Canada issued its report on the country’s charitable sector. I am not going to pretend to a deep knowledge of this committee’s work, given I just discovered its existence on Monday, but I will say that the question the committee setRead More

Bait and Switch? How it started: Excitement is building for what’s expected to be a multi-million dollar development along the Cabot Trail by a private firm with European connections. Just two days after the sale of a beleaguered Ingonish ski hill, the facility’s new owners are hosting a public meeting.Read More

Tailor-made A few years back, I bought a winter coat at Gala Re on Charlotte Street in Sydney. I love this coat—it’s mostly green wool with bits of blue and brown and every bit as warm as my puffer jacket. In style, it’s very 1960s—the early, more formal part ofRead...

I hadn’t meant to make this week’s an “all-council” edition of the Spectator but between catching up on last week’s budget deliberations and watching last night’s regular monthly meeting, I have council on the brain. So here (with the exception of the volunteer awards, which I will cover on Friday)Read More

Let’s focus on the good news: CBRM council has approved a project for funding under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI). Council took time out of its budget discussions on April 5 to approve a joint proposal from New Dawn and the Ally Centre of Cape Breton to buildRead More

In a different world, responding to Tuesday’s Cape Breton Post column by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing John Lohr would have been a cake walk. Lohr, after all, took pen in hand to compose a missive that began: Imagine sending a note to a municipality informing them they willRead More