Labour and Advanced Education

AG Finds Island Employment Mismanaged Over $1M

AG Finds Island Employment Mismanaged Over $1M

June 21, 2023 at 12:06 pm

An investigation by Nova Scotia Auditor General Kim Adair has revealed “gross mismanagement” of public funds in excess of $1 million by Island Employment Association (IEA), the now-defunct Cape Breton third-party employment services provider whose chief funder was the Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE), now Labour, Skills &Read More

Downtown Developments

Downtown Developments

February 22, 2023 at 11:47 am

I spent so much time researching rail safety and green hydrogen this week that I have time to touch just briefly on two other issues that have piqued my interest of late. One is an observation about the newly refurbished section of Charlotte Street in Sydney, but first, I mustRead More

Source: CBU advertisement in Cape Breton Post, 14 January 2023

Seriously CBU, Stop

January 18, 2023 at 11:49 am

CBU President and Vice-Chancellor David Dingwall has issued ANOTHER open letter “to the Cape Breton Community,” this one occupying three full (expensive) pages in last Saturday’s Cape Breton Post, and it is another absolute dud of a PR exercise. It states: I want to assure you that I, as PresidentRead More

The Strange Case of Island Employment

The Strange Case of Island Employment

January 5, 2022 at 12:21 pm

As 2021 drew to a close, Island Employment, a third-party provider of employment services funded largely by the provincial Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE), was making some rather startling headlines. The organization — which began life in 2000 as the Persons With Disabilities Association of Industrial Cape Breton,Read More

CBRM Council: Walkway in the Sky

CBRM Council: Walkway in the Sky

October 13, 2021 at 11:47 am

CBRM councilors last night approved an easement to enable the construction of a pedway across the Esplanade connecting an NSCC Marconi building to be located on Charlotte Street to the rest of the new waterfront campus. The pedway will be 33 feet above the street and planner Karen Neville saysRead More

NSCC Marconi Waterfront Campus sketch

Land Acquisition Process for Marconi ‘Still Underway’

March 24, 2021 at 11:54 am

The provincial government department responsible for moving the NSCC Maroni Campus to the Sydney waterfront says the process of acquiring land for the project is “still underway,” which is why it would answer only part of the question I asked it this week. The Department of Labour and Advanced EducationRead More

Letter to the Editor: High Price for Virtual Education

Letter to the Editor: High Price for Virtual Education

February 17, 2021 at 1:45 pm

Why are Canadian universities charging unconscionably high tuition fees for a virtual online education? It is bad enough that Canada, unlike the Western European Nations France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, does not offer free tuition to her beleaguered young citizens but Canadian universities (e.g. Dalhousie) areRead More

Confessions of a Call (Center) Girl

Confessions of a Call (Center) Girl

November 11, 2020 at 10:21 am

A complaint has been filed with the Labour Standards Division of Nova Scotia against the Sydney Call Centre for breaching provincial labor laws. I should know. I filed it. I sent my four-page complaint with more than 40 supporting documents on October 2, alleging the center, which employs over 600Read More

Aerial view of Downtown Sydney NSCC Marconi Campus site. (Source: "NSCC Marconi Campus: Sydney Relocation," Ekistics)

Marconi Part I: On the Waterfront

September 16, 2020 at 11:25 am

It’s taken over a year — I first requested a copy of the Ekistics Plan+Design report on the relocation of the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Marconi Campus to downtown Sydney in April 2019 — and it ultimately required a FOIPOP to dislodge it and the censors have had aRead More

Marconi Part II: They Coulda Been Contenders

Marconi Part II: They Coulda Been Contenders

September 16, 2020 at 11:23 am

Since it was announced the NSCC Marconi Campus would move from its location next to Cape Breton University to the Sydney waterfront, I have been curious as to how the site was chosen — and what other sites were considered. Last week, I got the answer to the second partRead More