Terry Smith of Destination Cape Breton (DCB) appeared before CBRM council Tuesday morning and got a very easy ride from councilors, many of whom made a point of thanking Smith and his organization for all their “hard work” and complimenting him on his interesting presentation. District 8 Councilor James EdwardsRead More

The arrival of the first cruise ship of the season — the Seven Seas Navigator — in Sydney on Sunday set me to thinking about all things cruise again, so I tried to compose a snapshot of the industry, particularly as it relates to the Port of Sydney, and that’sRead More

You Bet Watching a hockey game recently (I won’t identify my team, I’ll just tell you I won’t be doing any post-season viewing), I was struck by how many times the broadcaster cut away from the action to ads featuring famous athletes and Hollywood stars encouraging me to bet onRead More

Tomorrow’s Legends, a not-for-profit corporation registered federally in 2021 by Bill Kachafanas (brother to the CBRM’s regional solicitor), wants to take over the Centennial Arena and turn it into a multi-court sports facility. According to its listings in the federal corporate registry and the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint StockRead More

Editor’s Note: Since publishing this story, I’ve heard from the HAT’s Wesley Colford who told me the information about the expansion should not have been included in this week’s council agenda and asked that readers wait to hear his full presentation during an upcoming council meeting.   I was veryRead More

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

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

CBRM council met on Tuesday to hash out details of its 5%, across-the-board tax cut but before they got into it, District 8 Councilor James Edwards moved that the cut be phased in over three years rather than introduced in one fell swoop. This led to a reprise of muchRead More

Talk of big box retailers benefiting from CBRM’s recently announced 5% tax cut got me to googling and I discovered that these corporations have been getting quite creative in their attempts to reduce their assessments south of the border. I will preface this by saying that my “research” (which I’veRead More

Editor’s Note: On April 28, The CBC’s Tom Ayers reported that the CBRM will actually pay $3.8 million for the Nickerson property. The $2.5 million budgeted for 2022-23 represents the outstanding balance. The Spectator apologizes for the error.   Did you happen to catch the price tag on the land theRead More