I thought it might be time for an update on the Bridging Finance story but in case you’ve forgotten about Bridging, I’ll do a sort-of “previously on” recap. Bridging Finance is a Toronto-based “alternative lender” providing financing to projects considered too risky by traditional banks. It raises money through theRead More

Barry Sheehy — “author, historian, businessman and veteran” — barged into my summer on Tuesday, via one of his trademark screeds for the Cape Breton Post. Although his bio acknowledges he is “involved with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners, which is marketing the port [of Sydney] for development,” he writes theRead More

As you may recall, the Spectator reported some weeks ago on the local implications of the scandal rocking Toronto-based private debt firm Bridging Finance Inc (BFI); namely, that Membertou First Nation borrowed $6.8 million from Bridging to finance its purchase of a stake in Novaporte, Albert Barbusci’s imaginary Sydney harborRead More

Tax Sales If the list of 104 properties — including 38 buildings  — up for tax sale in the CBRM has you wondering why CBRM doesn’t look into sourcing government funding for affordable housing and refurbishing some of them, you are not alone. I have long wondered about this too.Read More

A ridiculous article appeared in the Cape Breton Post on 20 May 2021. It might have been entitled “Man Yells at Cloud.” The protagonist, a Mr. Jerry Gillis, was astonished at the gall of the CBRM in following procedure in the handling of its committees and not just rubber stampingRead More

Bait and Switch? How, exactly, did we go from discussing a new Central Library to discussing a sports facility attached to Centre 200? I ask on behalf of the general CBRM public because obviously there are a few people who know exactly how this happened — they’ve been maneuvering toRead More

It’s been “over a year” since CBRM council has had an opportunity to speak directly to port promoter Albert Barbusci of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) and over five years since his “company” (it consists of two people, Barbusci and Barry Sheehy) officially began leading the campaign to establish aRead More

I have now received almost all the port-related documents the Privacy Commissioner told the CBRM to release to me. All that seems to be missing are the documents the municipality has never produced, not even for the commissioner herself. On the one hand, this is great, full stop. The CBRMRead More

The feasibility of developing a terminal for the world’s largest container ships in Sydney harbor is something you’d think the proponents would probably want to determine relatively early on in the process and yet, by 2014 — after the $38 million dredging of the harbor — the port team hadRead More

Remember CBRM’s sister city, the Chinese port city of Dalian? I don’t blame you if you’ve forgotten, the relationship never really amounted to much and we basically stopped talking about it after our sister city (population: 6 million) sentenced a Canadian to death in 2019. But back in December 2015,Read More