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

More BullSHIP? In a bit of revisionist history that would probably secretly impress the government of the People’s Republic of China, Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) CEO Albert Barbusci has erased all mention of the Chinese from his latest Novaporte container terminal press release. I figure the next step willRead More

Clarification: On May 8th, 2019, the Cape Breton Spectator published a column entitled “No Port News Dept: Where’s Barry? that referred to Mr. Barry Sheehy’s role as a consultant to the Sydney Harbour Investment Partners.  The article expressed  a  concern about the lack of information from the Sydney Development CorpRead 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

In 2016, consultant CPCS completed a 70-page, $80,000 report for the Province of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) entitled The Nova Scotia Transportation Sector: Global Challenges and Opportunities in which it weighed the relative merits of Nova Scotia’s existing and proposed container terminals and concluded that:Read More

Shout out Let’s start this out on a positive note: the staff at the Port of Sydney are really great. CEO Marlene Usher referred to them as her “small but mighty” team during her opening remarks at Port Days on Thursday and it’s true, the entire operation — including cruise,Read More

When Municipal Affairs Minister (and Sydney-Whitney Pier MLA) Derek Mombourquette first expressed the notion that the province could find a way to facilitate the CBRM’s port project without rushing through a “phase one” CBRM Charter focused entirely on the deal, I thought it was a good sign. I was soRead More

Whatever else our port promoters Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) have been up to these past few months, they’ve finally cleaned up their internet presence. These quotes, for example, have been removed from their revamped web page: They’ve also changed their logo. From this: To this: I could say moreRead More

FOIPOP Follies For the record: I received the response to my freedom of information/protection of privacy (FOIPOP) request to the NS Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) for an “unedited” copy of Neil MacNeil’s rail fees report. I got bupkis. There are a couple of additional emails not includedRead More

Shovel-ready Wednesday marked a momentous day in the history of Sydney port development: two First Nations Chiefs and a Montreal property developer came together to shovel…something. Part of me is ashamed at my inability to grasp the importance of Wednesday’s event, but part of me thinks that since neither BarryRead More