I have a confession to make: I did not watch the full CBRM council meeting last night. I watched (with interest) the discussion of the proposed RV Park in Big Pond. (I spend my summers in Irish Cove, just a little further west along Route 4, so anything that happensRead More

Writing about wastewater earlier this year, I raised the possibility that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke might not be worried about meeting a December 2020 deadline associated with new federal wastewater regulations because he’s already announced he won’t be seeking a third term — which means he will bid us farewellRead More

I begin with a caveat: I watched the CBRM Council livestream from 4:35 yesterday afternoon to 9 PM last night, at which point, I surrendered and switched to Netflix. I consider this a sign of weakness on my part — but I also blame whoever scheduled the economic planning andRead More

Municipal Affairs Says… I couldn’t help noticing the Cape Breton Post picked up my story about port marketer Albert Barbusci and his reports to CBRM council. The Post‘s take is very much “nothing to see here folks” — the article makes the point, not once but twice (first in a statement,Read More

It’s Wednesday and you know what that means — time to beat the Business Cape Breton (BCB) drum! This week we’ve learned that BCB is both an outside organization immune to the rules governing departments of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality AND the CBRM’s “economic development entity,” immune to theRead More

You know that really annoying stage toddlers hit at about age two? When no matter what you tell them, they say, “Why?” I never outgrew it. So when CBRM mystery solicitor Jim Gogan appeared at Tuesday’s nominating committee meeting to discuss changes to the Articles of Association of the Port ofRead 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

Ports America (or as I predict it will be known in Cape Breton, based on what I’ve heard, read and said myself, “Ports of America”) is the real deal. It’s an actual terminal operator running ports all along the eastern seaboard of the United States, across the Gulf of MexicoRead More

“This is really big news for the CBRM, buddy.” Peter Gillis, president of Local 1259 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, is unequivocal in his response to Monday’s announcement that terminal operator Ports America would be involved in the promotion, development and ultimately management of the Novaporte container terminal in theRead More

District 2 Earlene MacMullin North Sydney resident Earlene MacMullin was an outspoken critic of the process by which Archibald’s Wharf, the town’s waterfront recreation area, was sold in 2015, but her desire to run for council pre-dates that controversial deal. In fact, it stems from a far more positive experienceRead More