In 2016, consultant CPCS completed a 70-page, $80,000 report for the Province of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) entitled The Nova Scotia Transportation Sector: Global Challenges and Opportunities in which it weighed the relative merits of Nova Scotia’s existing and proposed container terminals and concluded that:Read More

Eyking (and Clarke!) in China As reported in last week’s Fast & Curious, I requested a copy of Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking’s itinerary from his recent trip to China. I received a response from his office which I am pleased to share with you today. Eyking’s assistant Elizabeth Arsenault sentRead More

When governments and public bodies are proud of the deals they’ve brokered or the progress they’ve made on sticky issues or the money they’re allocating for studies and reports, they climb onto the roof of the tallest building they can find and sing their triumphs to an admiring world. WhenRead More

I have been wading through pages of documents related to the CBRM and Business Cape Breton (BCB) and the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) searching for answers to questions about economic development funding and Glace Bay revitalization and the role of our economic development “entity.” While I still haveRead More

Why am I so interested in Business Cape Breton, the CBRM’s economic development “entity?” Because I just can’t get a grip on what it’s supposed to be — it’s neither flesh, nor fowl nor good, publicly accountable municipal body. It’s a non-profit society with a board made up of localRead More

What a night. Full disclosure: I went to bed at midnight, before everything was done and dusted but as the less interesting option — another Liberal majority — was looking very  likely. I say “less interesting” because the Danish television show Borgen has convinced me the only interesting governments areRead More

The Sydney Subdivision of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (CBNS) must be the most studied stretch of unused track in the country. The Subdivision was the subject of three different reports (with a total price tag of $152,600) in 2015. It’s to be the subject of a $460,000 studyRead More

Did you see that 28 October 2016 story by the CBC’s Paul Withers about the CBRM and its consultants? It was the oddest thing. The “news” was that the CBRM has no record of the work done for it by the first pair of consultants it hired to promote theRead More

Guys, I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality: it’s the Council. There’s one exception: District 6 Councillor Ray Paruch. He tries to bring more transparency to proceedings but it’s like trying to make Lady Gaga wear pants. It all became clear to me at the PortRead More