Membertou Chief Terry Paul, whose band borrowed $6.8 million from Toronto-based private lender Bridging Finance Inc to finance an investment in a proposed Sydney container terminal, says he is not concerned about the arrangement despite Bridging having been placed in receivership on April 30 amid allegations of fraud and misappropriationRead More

Last week I wrote about the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission’s report, “Charting a new course for affordable housing in Nova Scotia,” sounding an alarm about its tendency to look to the private sector for solutions to the housing crisis. Days later, the federal government announced a $115.5-million, low-cost loanRead More

When it comes to social (or “public” or “subsidized”) housing, Vienna really seems to have its act together. I am tempted to present this information as though I’ve long been an admirer of the social housing of Vienna, but the truth is, I hadn’t realized it was a claim toRead More

Mary Makes a Meme How it started:     How it’s going:   On the bright side, having let it it sit empty for two years (and catch fire once), the entrepreneurs who bought the building for $225,000 are hoping to sell it for $399,000.   Mary Makes Another MemeRead More

This was going to be a story about CBRM council meeting in secret with Albert Barbusci of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) yesterday and then, during the regular meeting last night, approving a three-year extension to Barbusci’s exclusive contract with the municipality. (I’ve removed the SHIP Exclusivity Countdown Clock fromRead More

“Charting a new course for affordable housing in Nova Scotia,” the report dropped by the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission this spring, is one of the most annoying things I’ve read this year — and I read The Codfathers. The pointless graphics, large photos and needless repetition (particularly with regardRead More

Where fishermen shop A spectator reminded me that while I devoted a lot of ink to port matters in this week’s edition, I didn’t discuss plans to expand the retail space around the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion — a plan first mentioned during the Port’s February AGM. “Fisherman’s Cove” isRead More

The Atlantic Journalism Awards for 2021 were announced yesterday and the names of the gold winners in the Excellence in Digital Journalism: Enterprise/Longform category may sound familiar to you: Rob Csernyik/Mary Campbell – The Cape Breton Spectator – Sydney, NS – Sydney’s casino at 25. Yes, the Cape Breton Spectator,Read More

People, I watched that June 3 meeting between the Port of Sydney and the CBRM council and those are two hours of my life I will never get back, so I have to write something about it and I think the best thing for me to do would be toRead More

As I have explained elsewhere, I watched that two-hour, June 3 meeting between the CBRM council Port of Sydney staff and board members and need to write something about it to justify having lost that small chunk of my life, so have decided to try to provide some context forRead More