Pity the poor former world leader. How do you follow up a first act like that? I mean, if you’re not former US President Jimmy Carter, who has dedicated himself to good causes (like Habitat for Humanity and world peace), making himself more popular in retirement than he ever was in office.Read...

Dear Premier McNeil: I am writing with regard to the issue of the Nova Scotia government’s distribution of the Federal Equalization Transfers,  public concern over which has now reached a critical level here on Cape Breton Island, and in other non-metropolitan areas of the province. I was part of aRead...

What the hell happened to Business Cape Breton (BCB)? I feel the way I expect I will when Rogers Media finally gets around to canning Ron MacLean and Don Cherry — not sad, but somewhat disoriented. It’s all been so sudden: why, just last month, there was BCB CEO EileenRead More

Former CBRM economic development officer John Whalley’s civil suit against the municipality for constructive dismissal has been postponed to August. Whalley, who is represented by Blair Mitchell of Halifax, told the Spectator they requested the delay because his only witness, former CBRM CAO Jerry Ryan, was unable to attend courtRead More

When Municipal Affairs Minister (and Sydney-Whitney Pier MLA) Derek Mombourquette first expressed the notion that the province could find a way to facilitate the CBRM’s port project without rushing through a “phase one” CBRM Charter focused entirely on the deal, I thought it was a good sign. I was soRead More

I am rarely rendered speechless, but I am gobsmacked by the answers I just received from John Phalen, the economic development manager for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM). Phalen, you’ll recall, organized last week’s secret meeting between port promoter Albert Barbusci, CBRM councilors (nine of whom attended), Mayor CecilRead More

The Big Pond RV Park debate (which, as the Allman Brothers would say, is over but ain’t through) raised a lot of interesting questions for me, about everything from the purpose of public consultation to the role of the Nova Scotia Utilities and Review Board (UARB) to the responsibility ofRead 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

Cape Breton Regional Municipal Council voted on Wednesday morning to approve a zoning by-law amendment to allow developer Chris Skidmore to establish a 211-site RV Park in Big Pond Centre. The vote was 7-6 with Councilors Clarence Prince, Earlene MacMullin, Steve Gillespie, George MacDonald, Darren Bruckschwaiger, Jim MacLeod and Mayor CecilRead More

You’ve got to love the free market. Look at the wonders it produces when simply left to its own devices: an Ontario-based shipbreaking outfit suddenly realizes it should be busting up old naval ships in Sydney harbor, so moves here and starts hiring.   Although, as the Cape Breton Post explainedRead More