If I were the editor of the Cape Breton Post, which [SPOILER ALERT] I totally am not, I guess I would call what I’m about to write a rave/rant or a rant/rave (there isn’t even a good portmanteau word for that—all you’d get would be “rant” or “rave” which wouldRead More

As you no doubt recall, when ECBC ceased to exist and its employees were absorbed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) in 2014, its properties went to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) to be sold, following Treasury Board guidelines that say the federal government should own only propertyRead More

The only thing more expensive than running a railway, apparently, is not running a railway. That’s the justification offered by Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) — owners of the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway (CBNS) and its all-but-defunct Sydney Subdivision — for the high fees they charge landowners needingRead More

It just isn’t funny anymore Dr StrangeJob is angry! Every level of government—federal, provincial and municipal—is currently under scrutiny for questionable spending of taxpayer dollars: the recent federal staff relocation reimbursements, the latest provincial MLA frivolous self-promotional kitsch, the Guysborough County expense scandal and the ombudsman’s Richmond County expense claimRead More

The great $37 million Sydney harbor dredge was completed between October 2011 and January 2012. Over 4 million cubic meters of sedimentary material was removed from a 9-kilometer stretch of harbor channel in less than four months using trailing suction hopper dredge technology as opposed to traditional “clam bucket” dredgeRead More

I had intended to update my payday loans story when I heard back from the provincial government and the local Sydney credit union on the subject. If you read the original piece, you’ll know much of it was devoted to a consideration of pilot projects being tested by credit unionsRead More

Nova Scotia’s mania for public-private-partnership (P3) school construction was brief—more of an episode than an illness—but what an expensive episode it was. It started in 1997 and ended in 2000 officially, but the 39 schools built under the P3 banner were the subject of 20-year leases, so the P3 programRead More

My quest to determine what exactly is up with Business Cape Breton (BCB, formerly the Cape Breton Small Business Centre, formerly the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority) began in June when CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke surprised his council with the news that the municipality was leaving the Cape BretonRead More

  Halifax Examiner publisher Tim Bousquet and CBC Newfoundland commentator Drew Brown are both saying things of interest to Cape Bretoners today. Bousquet’s Morning File responds to the Cape Breton Post‘s front-page love letter to our “one millionth” cruise ship passenger (an apparently nice lady from Florida who seems to haveRead More

Tucked into the F.A.S.T. Furniture flyer in the Saturday, 2 January 2016 edition of the Cape Breton Post was an eight-page update on the Port of Sydney. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend the graphic on the inside cover page: It shows the silhouettes of a number ofRead More