September 14, 2022 at 3:08 pm
CBRM Council’s regular meeting began last night with the usual mishmash of proclamations that left us with a “Maritime Kids Health Day” (September 14), a “Medic Monday” (September 26), a “Cape Breton Classic Cruisers Fall Classic Show & Shine Weekend” (September 16-18), a Fire Prevention Week (October 9-15) and anRead More
April 20, 2022 at 1:23 pm
CBRM council met on Tuesday to hash out details of its 5%, across-the-board tax cut but before they got into it, District 8 Councilor James Edwards moved that the cut be phased in over three years rather than introduced in one fell swoop. This led to a reprise of muchRead More
April 13, 2022 at 12:25 pm
CBRM council voted on a 5%, across-the-board — residential and commercial — property tax cut this week. I think this chart, from the province’s Open Data portal, helps provide some perspective on this. It shows average Nova Scotia municipal residential property tax rates from 2009/10 to 2020/21. (It’s interactive, youRead More
April 13, 2022 at 12:23 pm
When we left off, CBRM District 8 Councilor James Edwards (who, as noted in Part I of this article on the CBRM tax cut, is a former Canada Revenue employee), was agreeing that he too, would like to pay less tax, but arguing that to be “fiscally responsible,” any reductionRead More
December 1, 2021 at 1:16 pm
Here’s an item from last week’s CBRM council session on affordable housing that I really wanted to follow up on: Deputy Mayor (and District 2 Councilor) Earlene MacMullin proposed the municipality look into the possibility of turning the Northside General Hospital, scheduled for closure and demolition, into affordable housing —Read More
October 13, 2021 at 11:51 am
Editor’s Note: I’m trying something new this week to see how it pans out: I’m writing the first part of this article based on the information attached to the CBRM council agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. I will then write the second part based on what actually unfolds during the meeting.Read More
September 15, 2021 at 12:08 pm
There was a wonderfully wonky — yet important — item on the agenda of last night’s CBRM council meeting, and I am not talking about the CBRM declaring Paul’s Pizza Burgers the official food of the municipality for 2021. I am talking about an item that pleased me personally first,Read More
July 14, 2021 at 12:51 pm
CBRM council seems to have righted a three-year-old wrong during its July 6 meeting by declining to extend a waterfront pre-development agreement with Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Ltd (HRDL) — an agreement that included a new central library. As Mayor Amanda McDougall explained to council, this does not precludeRead More
March 31, 2021 at 2:24 pm
Here are the important takeaways from this morning’s CBRM special council meeting on the proposed new CBRM Central Library: Aurevoir, HRDL? Council took a major step toward ending the agreement that has given a private developer, Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Limited, control over the proposed new library. AtRead More