Economic development is the word on the street in the CBRM these days — CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke popped up on CBC Cape Breton’s Information Morning on May 4 to speak to host Steve Sutherland about it and CBRM Regional Council has vowed to meet once a month to discussRead More

Remember that brief swirl of controversy around the mysterious renaming of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s Civic Centre to “City Hall?” A front-page story in the Cape Breton Post on March 6 saying the issue would be on the agenda of that day’s General Committee Meeting (placed there by District 6Read More

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s term as Speaker of the Nova Scotia Legislature ran from June 2006 to October 2007 but in his head, I think it never ended. How else to explain an agenda item like this one, from the 7 March 2017 meeting of the CBRM General Committee:    Read More

Charter? What Charter? I was perusing the list of recently completed Nova Scotia Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) requests, as one does, and discovered this one: All briefing notes, analysis and correspondence regarding the development of a municipal charter for Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Oh boy, oh boy,Read 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

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 week I checked the Nova Scotia Tender Notices website and discovered the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) is in the market for a number of things, including external auditors. The lucky winners will get to audit the CBRM, the CBRM Water Utility and — what fun! — the PortRead More

What were you doing when the CBRM election results were announced? I was reading an article about assisted death and ruminating on Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). Note to self: do not contemplate serious philosophical, moral, or ethical issues while reviewing municipal election results.Read More

“Old age and treachery always overcomes youth and skill.” – Waylon & Willie Dr StrangeJob is no loser, but he does concede he will not win the CBRM mayoralty race. Yes, he is statistically the most favored candidate, not to mention the only mayoralty candidate actually liked by goCapebreton.com. No,Read More

I was going to start this introduction to my interviews with all 10 women running in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality elections this fall by asking the rhetorical question: “Why do we need women on council?” I was then going to answer (I know, I know, you’re not supposed toRead More