While writing last week about the CBRM Regional Enterprise Network or CBRM REN it suddenly struck me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I didn’t really know what a Regional Enterprise Network was, so I decided I’d better educate myself. I began by looking up the existing CapeRead More

Now that Business Cape Breton (BCB) has been consigned to the ash heap of history, it’s time to meet the CBRM’s new sidekick in economic development — the Cape Breton Partnership. Because it seems there is to be a Cape Breton Regional Municipality Regional Enterprise Network (REN) and the CapeRead More

Spin Class I like following the CBC’s Jean Laroche on Twitter precisely for moments like these, where he captures something about the way our political system works that you don’t get to see unless you happen to hang out in the halls of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly: ThisRead More

I have been debating how to mark Open Government Week in Nova Scotia (May 7-11). Sitting in the graveyard behind St. Patrick’s Church in the rain with a 40-ouncer of Captain Morgan was my first idea, but I don’t like watery rum and frankly, I always knew the week wouldRead More

Highlights of this article: • Provincial government employees who were made aware of the security failure with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) website told Halifax police that the site had been “hacked” and that nearly 10,000 files “were taken” — which clearly overstated the nature ofRead More

Here’s how we obtained the documents. First, a quick primer on search warrants. To get a search warrant, police have to go to a judge or Justice of the Peace and submit a document called an “Information To Obtain a Search Warrant,” or ITO. The ITO lays out the policeRead More

(Wide) Open data I’m still trying to digest all I’ve read about the great hacking-that-wasn’t of Nova Scotia’s freedom-of-information portal. There is a lot to digest. The story has legs and has bounded all over the planet, a textbook case of — take your pick — lax data protection, policeRead More

This past week, we’ve heard Municipal Affairs Minister Derek Mombourquette, CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, District 8 Councilor Amanda McDougall, BCB board chair Parker Rudderham, CBRM Economic Development Manager John Phalen and (former) BCB CEO Eileen Lannon Oldford explain what is going on with economic development funding in the Cape BretonRead...

Discovering, thanks to the reporting of Rick Grant, that the CBRM mayor and council are holding a secret meeting today with port developer Albert Barbusci sends a chill up my spine. The meeting is being held at the Holiday Inn to avoid the bother of calling a special in cameraRead More

Equalize this Developments on the equalization front this week must be gratifying to the stalwart members of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF), a CBRM-based advocacy group that has been meeting monthly to discuss the issue of municipal financing for 15 long years. Against the backdrop of budget discussions, whichRead More