Garbage Collection

CBRM Council: Solid Waste

CBRM Council: Solid Waste

October 27, 2021 at 12:53 pm

Tuesday morning’s special session of council was dedicated to environmental issues of all descriptions and included a presentation by CBRM Solid Waste Manager Francis Campbell. Campbell’s presentation touched on three issues: Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging and Printed Paper (EPR for PPP), the Trashformers program and illegal dumping. Let’s takeRead More

Budget 2021: Rolling Stock

Budget 2021: Rolling Stock

May 19, 2021 at 2:04 pm

Editor’s Note: I’m doing a deep dive into the CBRM’s 2021-22 budget and dragging you with me. Last week, I covered water, roads and facilities. This week, I pick up where I left off, starting with that generator for the police HQ.    As the afternoon session of the AprilRead More

Meanwhile, in the CBRM…

Meanwhile, in the CBRM…

September 30, 2020 at 12:28 pm

Hired guns CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s executive assistant Mark Bettens (he of the exorbitant travel expenses) and spokesperson Sheilah MacDonald have taken paid vacation to work on Clarke’s re-election campaign. I confirmed this with CAO Marie Walsh this week. There’s nothing to stop them doing this — other than theRead...

Mounds of film plastics fill up multiple rooms at Camden Recycling in Edwardsville, waiting to be shipped. (Photo by Nikki Sullivan, Cape Breton Post)

Return to Trash Mountain

June 3, 2020 at 12:38 pm

CBRM reopened the Spar Road dump in late April because somehow, although most retail stores were closed and our consumption — one would think — had been reduced, CBRM residents were still managing to “overwhelm” garbage collectors with the sheer volume of trash they were putting out. As municipal managerRead More

Council: Taxes and Garbage and Flowers

Council: Taxes and Garbage and Flowers

May 20, 2020 at 12:04 pm

Tax deferment The tax deferment program discussed earlier this month by council has been fleshed out by CBRM staff and approved by council. The CBRM has adopted the framework developed by the Federation of Nova Scotia Municipalities (FNSM) and the Association of Municipal Administrators of Nova Scotia (AMANS), tailored ever-so-slightlyRead...

NS Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, 30 March 2020

NS COVID-19 Update for March 30

March 30, 2020 at 6:46 pm

Community Spread Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang announced on Monday that, having been unable to trace a case of COVID-19 to travel or a known source, they have concluded that transmission has occurred within the community or “community spread.” Strang has been warning for daysRead More

Major Plot Twist in the SHIP Show

Major Plot Twist in the SHIP Show

October 9, 2019 at 1:53 pm

I’ve been paying pretty close attention to this drama I think of as the The Albert Barbusci Show, but I must have missed the episode where we asked Barbusci, our port promoter and the CEO of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP), to identify a company with an untested method ofRead More

Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Plastics, Ben, Plastics

October 9, 2019 at 1:51 pm

Do you ever hear about a subject for the first time and think it must be a brand new thing and then do some googling and realize that, actually, people have been on about it for years? That’s what happened to me with port promoter Albert Barbusci’s scheme to establishRead More

Climate strikers at Civic Centre, Sydney, NS. 27 September 2019. (Spectator photo)

Clarke on Climate Change

October 2, 2019 at 1:08 pm

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke was “not in the building” on September 27 when students (and others) from his community gathered in front of the Civic Centre to demand action on climate change. (His spokesperson tells me he “had meetings scheduled” in the morning and “a funeral” in the afternoon.) ButRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

January 12, 2018 at 10:45 am

Chinese itineraries CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke has yet to publish an itinerary for his November 30-December 6 trip to China on which he was accompanied by CAO Marie Walsh, Economic Development Manager John Phalen and his executive assistant Mark Bettens. As it happens, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was inRead More