I checked the Port of Sydney web site this week and did a spontaneous jig of joy around the old control center (which is what I call my office since I added the second desk and the map of the world): they’ve posted a whole year’s worth of board meetingRead More

How to Choose a Cruise I was poking around the internets, looking for information about the cruise ships we’re expecting in 2017, and I stumbled on Cruise.Com, an online travel agency specializing in cruises. I found you could look up information about individual vessels so I checked out the CelebrityRead 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

I received a copy of Due Diligence Assessment of Plans for Second Berth at the Sydney Marine Terminal! Thanks, ACOA! I thought I’d have to wait for the movie. It’s the assessment prepared by management and consulting firm CPCS for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Nova Scotia DepartmentRead 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

Don’t ever say I haven’t done my bit for transparency on the cruise file. I made an access to information (ATIP) request to Parks Canada to find out how much the Fortress of Louisbourg, the Alexander Graham Bell Museum and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park have made from cruiseRead More

First, the good news. The cruise ship most seen in Sydney during the 2016 season, Holland America Line’s Veendam, got an A grade from the Friends of the Earth in their 2016 Cruise Ship Report Card. The bad news? Our second-most frequent visitor, the Veendam’s sister ship Rotterdam, got aRead More

I’ll say it again: we need to talk about the cruise industry. We need to talk about its actual impact on our local economy, its environmental impact on our coastal waters,  its questionable labor practices and its crime problem. And we have to do it right now, before we pumpRead More

My first reaction to the 2014 Sydney Cruise Market Assessment Report was: why are we talking about spending $20 million on a second berth and not talking about our ground transportation problem? (My second reaction was—how do people who cannot actually write get into the report-writing business? Why would youRead More