February 8, 2023 at 10:53 am
I was debating just launching into my CBRM council coverage a week late without explanation but decided that would be the coward’s way out so instead, I will confess that I missed the memo about the January 31 meeting. In my defence, the last Tuesday in January is not theRead More
September 14, 2022 at 3:06 pm
There was—even cynical old me has to admit it—good news on the CBRM Central Library file during last night’s CBRM council meeting. In a memo to Council and staff, Mayor Amanda McDougall explained that the old Cape Breton County Courthouse in Sydney’s Wentworth Park (otherwise known as 70 Crescent Street)Read More
April 27, 2022 at 1:47 pm
One evening, years ago, I had had it after a day of argumentative and wailing kids and decided I was heading out as soon as supper was over. The bus arrived and I was aboard before I suddenly thought, “Where will I go?” After a few minutes, it hit me.Read More
April 22, 2022 at 10:00 am
Courthouse Dreams We discovered during budget talks on Tuesday that CBRM is considering the possibility of turning the former Cape Breton County courthouse in Wentworth Park into the new central library. I am trying not to get my hopes up too high as I write this because there are aRead More
December 15, 2021 at 11:56 am
Full disclosure: I thought 2021 was going to be vastly different from 2020 but instead, it unfolded like we’d given 2020 a 12-month extension on its contract. The COVID pandemic continued to loom large in everyone’s lives although, as you’ll see, I modified my response to it. I spent muchRead More
October 20, 2021 at 12:06 pm
This morning, I am going to take on some of the hot takes I’ve seen on CBRM council’s recent waterfront development decision. As you probably know by now, during last Tuesday’s meeting, council, rather than entertaining a new proposal from Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Ltd (HRDL), opted to issueRead More
October 1, 2021 at 10:30 am
Housing for the People? I want to write about the recent referendum on expropriating major landlords in Berlin, but before I do, I have to take you back in time, so you’ll better understand the context in which this referendum — which passed by a vote of 56.4% to 39%Read More
September 29, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Credit where credit is due: Tim Houston’s Tory government has followed through on an election promise and doubled funding to Nova Scotia’s municipalities, an increase of $32 million. The increase is for one year only but Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr, who made the announcement last Friday, saysRead More
July 14, 2021 at 12:51 pm
CBRM council seems to have righted a three-year-old wrong during its July 6 meeting by declining to extend a waterfront pre-development agreement with Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Ltd (HRDL) — an agreement that included a new central library. As Mayor Amanda McDougall explained to council, this does not precludeRead More