Mayor Cecil Clarke’s contention that discussing council remuneration in camera (and treating elected officials as “personnel”) is a longstanding CBRM practice sent me scuttling to the “CBRM Mayor and Council” clippings file at the McConnell library this past week, where the first thing I discovered was that controversy over theRead More

Scratch any problem in almost any municipality in Nova Scotia and you will likely uncover the same root cause: the province’s underfunded equalization program. I see you over there, covering your ears and singing. And you, pretending you’re engrossed in that hardware store flyer you just fished out of aRead More

On 8 June 2016, at a “special” CBRM Council meeting, Mayor Cecil Clarke surprised councilors with the announcement that the CBRM had withdrawn from Regional Enterprise Network (REN) 6, an economic development organization incorporated in October 2014 and including the CBRM, Richmond County, Victoria County and Inverness County. CBRM councilors,Read More

What to make of that? I just attended Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) Mayor Cecil Clarke’s special pre-budget meeting with the business community. I would estimate attendance at 40, including press, council members and “facilitators”—Mistress of Ceremonies Eileen Lannon Oldford of Business Cape Breton (BCB) and keeper-of-the-microphone Christina Lamey. TheRead More