February 3, 2021 at 11:17 am
Remember CBRM’s sister city, the Chinese port city of Dalian? I don’t blame you if you’ve forgotten, the relationship never really amounted to much and we basically stopped talking about it after our sister city (population: 6 million) sentenced a Canadian to death in 2019. But back in December 2015,Read More
January 27, 2021 at 2:19 pm
By a strange confluence of events, I had already decided to cover the subject of rail this week before I read the Scotia Rail Development Society editorial in Saturday’s paper. The editorial simply served to spur me on (no pun intended). Barry Sheehy and Albert Barbusci of Sydney Harbour InvestmentRead More
January 20, 2021 at 12:50 pm
You know the story: back in July 2015 I submitted an access to information request to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality asking for all port-related communications between Mayor Cecil Clarke, CAO Michael Merritt, the mayor’s communications staff (basically, Christina Lamey) and port promoters Albert Barbusci and Barry Sheehy from 1Read More
January 20, 2021 at 12:49 pm
In putting a timeframe of 1 December 2013 to 29 June 2015 on my access to information request, I’d hoped to cast my net wide enough capture the earliest communications between port promoters Barry Sheehy and Albert Barbusci and CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, and if I haven’t done so, I thinkRead More
January 20, 2021 at 12:47 pm
The documents I received last week reveal some very interesting details about the 2015 McKeil deal, which saw the CBRM purchase land in the Sydport Marine Industrial Park to lease to Ontario-based marine services company McKeil Marine. The transaction was a very contentious piece of municipal legerdemain that troubled theRead More
January 6, 2021 at 10:00 am
Happy New Year, spectators! I’m easing back into regular publication today with this one article. Full disclosure: I had expected to spend this week poring over documents released by the CBRM in response to my 2015 FOIPOP request. I knew I wouldn’t receive all 890 pages Privacy Commissioner Tricia RalphRead More
November 4, 2020 at 10:25 am
I’ve been thinking about what constitutes “journalism” lately and I’ve decided it all boils down to asking one question — and asking it repeatedly — and that question is: “Is it true?” In no area is that question more appropriate right now than that of proposed “developments” for downtown Sydney.Read More
October 7, 2020 at 11:59 am
The mayor of the CBRM is, on the one hand, just one vote out of 13 on all matters that come before council, and as I’ve noted before in these pages, the position is barely defined in the province’s Municipal Government Act (MGA) which states: “mayor” means the council memberRead More
October 7, 2020 at 11:54 am
District 5 encompasses a big chunk of the former city of Sydney, including Boulderwood, the Shipyard, the Downtown and the North End. It also includes Membertou First Nation and part of Mira Road. It is shaped like an ankle boot or a duck’s head, depending, I guess, on what floatsRead More
October 7, 2020 at 11:53 am
District 7 encompasses too many communities to name, but let’s just say Big Pond, Ben Eoin, East Bay and all the Grand Miras — Upper, North and South — fall within its boundaries. It looks like one of the seven dwarves’ caps. District 7 is another of those CBRM districtsRead More