I promised to deal with the volunteer awards that were presented during last week’s CBRM council meeting and, on the one hand, I can do that rather easily by telling you that the following awards were presented to the following people/groups: Gary MacDonald Memorial Award: Sukhmani Sahib Society, Sydney AnneRead More

In 2021, a special committee of the Senate of Canada issued its report on the country’s charitable sector. I am not going to pretend to a deep knowledge of this committee’s work, given I just discovered its existence on Monday, but I will say that the question the committee setRead More

Tailor-made A few years back, I bought a winter coat at Gala Re on Charlotte Street in Sydney. I love this coat—it’s mostly green wool with bits of blue and brown and every bit as warm as my puffer jacket. In style, it’s very 1960s—the early, more formal part ofRead...

I hadn’t meant to make this week’s an “all-council” edition of the Spectator but between catching up on last week’s budget deliberations and watching last night’s regular monthly meeting, I have council on the brain. So here (with the exception of the volunteer awards, which I will cover on Friday)Read More

Let’s focus on the good news: CBRM council has approved a project for funding under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI). Council took time out of its budget discussions on April 5 to approve a joint proposal from New Dawn and the Ally Centre of Cape Breton to buildRead More

In a different world, responding to Tuesday’s Cape Breton Post column by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing John Lohr would have been a cake walk. Lohr, after all, took pen in hand to compose a missive that began: Imagine sending a note to a municipality informing them they willRead More

As you know, I spent last week dealing with tech and admin issues and so didn’t cover CBRM’s budget deliberations. This turned out to have been a brilliant strategical move because, in a most unexpected plot twist, council suspended talks on its operating budget on Thursday in hopes the provincialRead More

I have found an excellent way to evaluate what port promoter Albert Barbusci told an audience at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre last Thursday—namely, that he was on his way to Baltimore to convince “three or four” American wind developers to store the massive components for their offshore windRead More

Tom Urbaniak, CBU professor and Cape Breton Post columnist, took to the pages of that publication on Tuesday to make a very interesting point about a recent, secret session of CBRM’s regional council. On February 27, writes Urbaniak: Council went into confidential session without notice to the public that aRead More

I think the first thing that struck me about this ad—brought to my attention by reader Elly Heim whose letter on the subject you must also read this week—is the stress on the word “free,” as in “Free Caddie Information Sessions.”   Is this actually the come-on? Did would-be caddiesRead More