The agenda for Tuesday night’s Cape Breton Regional Council meeting included the proclamation, sponsored by Deputy Mayor Eldon MacDonald, of September 25-October 1 as Right to Know Week, the purpose of which is to “raise awareness of an individual’s right to access government information, while promoting freedom of information asRead More

Here are some other items from last night’s Cape Breton Regional Council meeting that you might find of interest:   The Mayor Gets Political Cape Breton University (CBU) interim president Dale Keefe and vice president of finance and operations Gordon MacInnis presented to council on the past, present and futureRead More

When governments and public bodies are proud of the deals they’ve brokered or the progress they’ve made on sticky issues or the money they’re allocating for studies and reports, they climb onto the roof of the tallest building they can find and sing their triumphs to an admiring world. WhenRead More

This was supposed to be a follow-up to last week’s article on wastewater in which I would present the response of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) to concerns about its readiness to meet federal Wastewater System Effluent Regulations (WSER). But what with vacations and long weekends and short workweeks,Read...

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of essays by Susan Dodd on Nova Scotia’s history of blaming coal mining accidents on the miners themselves — a history that finally changed in the wake of the Westray disaster. You can read the first and second essays here. ThisRead More

Editor’s Note: The following letter was received in response to Part One and Part Two of Susan Dodd’s “A Short History of Blame” series. There is no doubt mining was a dangerous occupation, particularly where gas was close to the operating surfaces and loose stone led to cave-ins. A goodRead More

I have been wading through pages of documents related to the CBRM and Business Cape Breton (BCB) and the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) searching for answers to questions about economic development funding and Glace Bay revitalization and the role of our economic development “entity.” While I still haveRead More

Why am I so interested in Business Cape Breton, the CBRM’s economic development “entity?” Because I just can’t get a grip on what it’s supposed to be — it’s neither flesh, nor fowl nor good, publicly accountable municipal body. It’s a non-profit society with a board made up of localRead More

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of essays by Susan Dodd on Nova Scotia’s history of blaming coal mining accidents on the miners themselves — a history that finally changed in the wake of the Westray disaster. You can read the first, third and fourth essays by clicking theRead More

Remember WIPSI? I know it sounds like a toy from the ’70s — a plastic lemon you’d tether to your ankle and skip over, maybe — but it’s actually Nova Scotia’s Workplace Innovation and Productivity Skills Incentive program. I wrote about it way back in June after stumbling upon aRead More