Barry Sheehy and Albert Barbusci of Harbor Port Development Partners (or Sydney Harbour Investment Partners or Blue Zen Memorial Parks) are proud of the many “partners” they’ve enlisted in their campaign to turn Sydney harbor into a mega-port for ultra-large container ships. They have “building partners” like the “American giant Bechtel.”Read More

Leaving? So soon? It seems the CBRM’s chief administrative officer (CAO) Michael Merritt is hightailing it back from whence he came. Merritt was hired in July 2014 and began work in October of that year, so when he leaves in April he won’t even have been on the job a fullRead More

Saturday’s port meeting was more of a rally than an information session, a fact acknowledged by Port CEO Marlene Usher and CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, both of whom thanked everyone in attendance for their “support” of the second berth project. Which is not to say there weren’t some good questionsRead More

Has Our SHIP Come In? My thanks to Tim Bousquet of the Halifax Examiner who has been trawling (not trolling) the NS Registry of Joint Stock Companies on a regular basis for new listings and found this one. Note the date of registration: I have contacted the registry in anRead More

I’m a bit obsessed with the port — and sadly, I don’t mean the fortified wine — which is why this week’s issue contains so many port-related stories. But somebody has to do something other than cheerlead. Somebody has to don the skunk suit and turn up at the gardenRead More

We’ve been hearing a lot about the rules of international business lately—much of it from a career politician who has never worked in the private sector. Do you know what’s big in the world of international business since Enron? Madoff? The 2008 financial crisis? Governance. I’ll let those anti-development, bleedingRead More

Port of Sydney information session, Port of Sydney annual general meeting, regular CBRM council meeting, (most) irregular CBRM council meeting: oh the wonders I have seen and heard this week. I’ve seen what should have been a moving moment — two First Nations chiefs addressing council for the first timeRead More

Harbor Port Development Partners (HPDP), the firm established by Barry Sheehy and Albert Barbusci to market the Port of Sydney, has become Sydney Harbour Investment Partners Inc. (SHIP). The name change was registered with Corporations Canada on 19 October 2016. Mayor Cecil Clarke wants CBRM council to extend HPDP’s existingRead More

“This is really big news for the CBRM, buddy.” Peter Gillis, president of Local 1259 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, is unequivocal in his response to Monday’s announcement that terminal operator Ports America would be involved in the promotion, development and ultimately management of the Novaporte container terminal in theRead More

Did you see that 28 October 2016 story by the CBC’s Paul Withers about the CBRM and its consultants? It was the oddest thing. The “news” was that the CBRM has no record of the work done for it by the first pair of consultants it hired to promote theRead More