Transparency 101 Amid the blowback from CBRM council’s rejection of a staff recommendation it fund a New Dawn/Ally Centre project with the $5 million it received under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), District 2 Councilor Earlene MacMullin took to Facebook to explain why she’d voted against the project,Read More
CBRM Council has agreed to increase the marketing levy on hotels and other “fixed-roof” accommodations from 2% to 3% and apply it to Airbnb and VRBO rentals. Destination Cape Breton (DCB) CEO Terry Smith made the request to council yesterday morning, explaining the changes will be governed by new legislationRead More
Watching the February 16 presentation to CBRM council by staff of the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC) I was struck by how often the presenters — Dave Penny, director of roll data and maintenance; Adam Hanna, assistant director of roll and data maintenance; and Lloyd MacLeod, director of assessment forRead More
If you’ve been missing the Cecil Clarke-style of government — characterized by council being asked to make big decisions on short notice with little time to digest background information — then you no doubt enjoyed District 5 Councilor Eldon MacDonald’s last-minute attempt to slip approval of the waterfront location forRead More
District 2 consists of most of the former town of North Sydney, plus all or part of Bras d’Or, Dalem Lake, Florence, Georges River, Groves Point, Hillside Boularderie, Little Bras d’Or, Mill Creek, Millville, Southside Boularderie, Point Aconi and Upper North Sydney. It is, like most CBRM districts, very oddlyRead More
Managing expectations Students of local municipal politics! Given that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke seems to be pretty obviously running for a third term (despite announcing on election night in 2016 that he would do no such thing) I invite you to compare and contrast the following items: Exhibit A ARead More
Tax deferment The tax deferment program discussed earlier this month by council has been fleshed out by CBRM staff and approved by council. The CBRM has adopted the framework developed by the Federation of Nova Scotia Municipalities (FNSM) and the Association of Municipal Administrators of Nova Scotia (AMANS), tailored ever-so-slightlyRead More
Something amazing almost happened during Tuesday afternoon’s (ir)regular monthly meeting of the CBRM council. As I predicted (call me Kreskin), Martin Chernin and Jim Wooder of Harbour Royale Development Limited (HRDL) asked for an 18-month extension to their exclusive agreement to develop the Sydney waterfront — a development that includesRead More
The executive of the Port of Sydney Development Corporation (PSDC) board has quit and I have to thank them for making that information public because if they hadn’t told us, we probably wouldn’t have noticed until next year’s AGM. The executive — chair Lucia MacIsaac, vice-chair John Khattar, treasurer JohnRead More
During last night’s CBRM council meeting, Jim Mountain and Robert Pajot of the National Trust for Canada reported on the results of a two-year pilot program to regenerate Sydney’s downtown. Mountain described the Trust to council as a “small charity based in Ottawa” that has been involved with main streetRead More
