Voting season CBRM council has cleared the way for online and telephone voting in October’s municipal elections, which the provincial government has declared will take place despite fears of a second wave of COVID-19 this fall. No particular concerns were raised during the council debate on the issue — havingRead More

COVID as context I try not to write about COVID-19 in this space because it’s taking up so much other space but there are some stories that one cannot write in May 2020 without at least nodding in the direction of the virus. Or at least, I thought there were.Read...

Editor’s Note: This space was supposed to be occupied by a “deep dive” into the Ekistics (sorry, Fathom Studio) report into the relocation of the NSCC Marconi Campus to downtown Sydney, but after a week of (politely) hassling the spokesperson for the Department of Education and Higher Learning for aRead More

What I will be watching for is to see if [Ben Eoin Development Group Inc] come back to the  public looking for further support — whether as a for-profit business or hiding behind the skirts of the not-for-profit Ben Eoin Recreation — because honestly, I think we’ve done our part.Read More

As I mentioned in last week’s piece on The Lakes Golf Club in Ben Eoin, I had asked ACOA, which holds a $3.5 million equity stake in the club, some questions about the sale. I was promised an answer by 5:00 PM last Tuesday, which was pushed to 11:00 AMRead More

This is an embarrassing confession for a reporter to make but here goes: sometimes, when I read news stories, they just wash over me in a wave of acronyms and quotes and dollar figures, leaving me no better informed than I was before I began reading. This is rarely aRead More

Port pay I always want to know what takes place at CBRM council in camera meetings, but I REALLY wish I’d been a fly on the wall for Tuesday’s discussion about renewing Port of Sydney CEO Marlene Usher’s $200,000 a year contract. Usher, once second in command at Enterprise Cape BretonRead More

When governments and public bodies are proud of the deals they’ve brokered or the progress they’ve made on sticky issues or the money they’re allocating for studies and reports, they climb onto the roof of the tallest building they can find and sing their triumphs to an admiring world. WhenRead More

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) will continue funding Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA), the island’s tourism organization, to the tune of $1.9 million over the next three years. The ACOA funding will match monies raised by a room marketing levy (imposed by the island’s municipalities) to a maximum ofRead More

B’Spoke Apparel: Addendum In this week’s edition, I reviewed some recently awarded CBRM tenders, including one for clothing for Transit Authority employees that was won by B’Spoke Apparel of Halifax. I noted that B’Spoke is owned by 180 Moda which is owned by Taura Lee (aka Taura Publicover). Here’s theRead More