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

My judgement of port announcements has been forever damaged by what passes for them at the Port of Sydney (where the word “partner” is applied so broadly it has lost all meaning) but Tuesday’s announcement by the Port Authority in Québec has the ring of actual development about it: TheRead 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

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

Over a year ago, I began creating this timeline, intending to track two separate but connected stories: Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) and more particularly, the large-vessel component of the NSS. The criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. The impetus was the upcoming trial — scheduled for August 2019 —Read 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

Spring in this neck of the woods can mean robins and peepers and humming birds — they’re coming, don’t you know:   It can mean heavy garbage (the tender has been issued) or the re-opening of the Tasty Treat (Frosty’s now, I guess). But it’s also the time for theRead More

“Hopefully, the [feasibility study by Chinese construction giant CCCC] will be completed by July and we will be able to fast-track construction for opening for business in 2019,” — Port of Sydney CEO Marlene Usher, April 2016 “If all goes well, we’ll be putting a shovel into the ground inRead More

What better way to begin 2019 than by looking back at 2018 with CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke? Clarke appeared on CBC radio’s Information Morning Cape Breton on January 3 to reflect on the year just passed and the Spectator listened with interest. In particular, it listened to the discussion ofRead More

Our port “developers” — Sydney Harbor Investment Partners (SHIP) formerly Harbour Port Development Partners (HPDP) — have been engaged in promoting the Port of Sydney as a “deep water, transshipment and intermodal mega hub” capable of handling Ultra-Large Container Vessels (ULCV) since 2014 (although we only made it official inRead More