It’s not like I had high hopes for that “viability” study Grant Thornton has just completed for the CBRM — frankly, I viewed it as a $219,000 hoop we had to jump through to get the province to recognize our difficult financial situation — but I hadn’t expected to findRead...
Editor’s Note: Given that the mayor of our municipality has spent much of his time in office — and thousands of public dollars — promoting a Port of Sydney container terminal, the Spectator feels all Nova Scotia port news is of interest to its readers. So when Halifax-based reporter RickRead More
On 13 May 2016, I submitted an access to information and privacy (ATIP) request to ACOA asking for information pertaining to the 2012 sale of the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club (RCBYC) and adjacent lands to Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC). The request was transferred to Public Services and ProcurementRead More
FOIPOP blues Since the dawn of the age of Big Data — hell, since the dawn of the age of Excel spreadsheets — tracking and collating information has become much easier for us humans. Data entry is boring but not difficult, and once entered (whether into a database or aRead More
I was looking over some old files as I was writing the article on the fine line between reporting and enabling and I came across a list I compiled of dubious assertions by proponents of the CBRM container port project in December 2015, seven months after the CBRM signed itsRead More
Free the information CBRM Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan got back to me Tuesday night about another FOIPOP I submitted back in April looking for information about a matter before council. Her original estimate of the fee I would be required to pay for this (public) information was $215 andRead More
If you were wondering why Andrew Prossin of One Ocean Expeditions (OOE), the Canadian cruise line specializing in Arctic and Antarctic cruises, canceled his keynote address at Sydney’s Port Days this year, you may have gotten your answer this morning: The Russian Academy of Sciences P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology,Read More
You cannot make this stuff up. “No news, good news?” was the front page headline in Monday’s Cape Breton Post. Subhead: “Sydney port developer says he’s not prepared to reveal ‘secrets’ on proposed Novaporte terminal.” Reporter Chris Shannon actually spoke with the elusive Albert Barbusci: The CEO of Sydney HarbourRead...
As noted in Part I of this “No Port News Is Good News” series, the Cape Breton Post reported on Monday that: [Albert Barbusci] is working with port marketer Barry Sheehy to secure the business required to move ahead with the construction of an international container terminal north of theRead More
‘Many or several’ A Tuesday night CTV news report about the cruise industry in Cape Breton (opening line: “It seems their ship has come in, once again, for the cruise industry in Cape Breton”), sent me scrambling for my secondary sources. First, because it seemed to contain confirmation that theRead More
