CBRM Council last week approved a budget that nixed the 2017/18 heavy garbage pickup while re-upping the CBRM Blossoming Program. The reason given for canceling heavy garbage — i.e. Cape Breton Christmas — was that the CBRM already provided such a service following the Thanksgiving floods, never mind that the post-flood collection onlyRead More
Water, water I have a confession to make: I like listening to people discussing things they know about, no matter how dry (or in this case, wet) the subject matter. It’s a trait that seems to be growing stronger over time — I suspect it may even be a response to ourRead More
I’ve been trying to figure out what bugs me so much about the decision to rename Sydney’s downtown “The Waterfront District” and I’ve finally put my finger on it: coming up with a fancy name for a neighborhood should be the final step in a revitalization plan, not the first. Labeling theRead More
Transparency is so rare in Nova Scotia that most people recognize it only by its absence. Our region is home to a number of organizations that rely largely (if not entirely) on public money and yet are not in the least accountable to the public. To me, they’re like bigRead More
Some organizations are like cats, not in the sense that they hunt and kill mice (although with the level of transparency we have in the CBRM, who knows?) but in the sense that they have nine lives — end one and they start another. Business Cape Breton Association (BCB) isRead More
Charter? What Charter? I was perusing the list of recently completed Nova Scotia Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) requests, as one does, and discovered this one: All briefing notes, analysis and correspondence regarding the development of a municipal charter for Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Oh boy, oh boy,Read More
On 8 June 2016, at a “special” CBRM Council meeting, Mayor Cecil Clarke surprised councilors with the announcement that the CBRM had withdrawn from Regional Enterprise Network (REN) 6, an economic development organization incorporated in October 2014 and including the CBRM, Richmond County, Victoria County and Inverness County. CBRM councilors,Read More
Last Friday, as former Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz faced allegations of accepting kickbacks from a construction company and former Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum was found guilty on eight criminal counts including fraud and breach of trust, Philip Slayton’s phone was ringing off the hook. Slayton’s a lawyer by training —Read More
You know that really annoying stage toddlers hit at about age two? When no matter what you tell them, they say, “Why?” I never outgrew it. So when CBRM mystery solicitor Jim Gogan appeared at Tuesday’s nominating committee meeting to discuss changes to the Articles of Association of the Port ofRead More
Monday’s second coming berth announcement was a star-studded affair. Everyone who is anyone in Nova Scotia politics wanted to be there in person to see the CBRM’s $20 million concrete dream come true. Cape Breton-Canso MP (and Master of Ceremonies) Rodger Cuzner got laughs by warning those in attendance fromRead More
