Welcome back, Bettens It’s taken me weeks to confirm this item, but Mark Bettens, formerly CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s executive assistant, has returned to the CBRM Fire and Emergency Services Department from whence he came. As you will recall, when Cecil Clarke became mayor in 2012, he created two newRead More

The CBRM has published its latest travel expense data for council and senior staff and, as you might expect, given the pandemic, people weren’t traveling much. Council had begun meeting by video/teleconference in March 2020, the Atlantic Bubble was instituted on 3 July and popped on 26 November 2020, andRead More

Hired guns CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s executive assistant Mark Bettens (he of the exorbitant travel expenses) and spokesperson Sheilah MacDonald have taken paid vacation to work on Clarke’s re-election campaign. I confirmed this with CAO Marie Walsh this week. There’s nothing to stop them doing this — other than theRead...

Beggaring belief So, it’s done — Albert Barbusci of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) has completed his work and all that stands between the Port of Sydney and a multi-million dollar terminal for ultra-large container vessels is our decrepit railway. Barbusci told the Cape Breton Post‘s David Jala (who describedRead More

During Tuesday’s General Committee Meeting, CBRM council finally decided to scrap its $140/week ($7,280/year) travel allowance (described so regularly as “controversial” you’d be forgiven for thinking that was its official name). Instead of simply collecting $140 each week no matter how many kilometers they’ve actually traveled, CBRM councilors will nowRead More

Note: On Friday June 21 I received a revised version of the travel expenses and have updated the totals accordingly — I have also attached the revised travel sheet at the end of the article. In the five months after losing his bid to become leader of the provincial ProgressiveRead More

Acting on a tip from a reader, who seemed to think that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, his executive assistant Mark Bettens and (the now former) economic development manager John Phelan were doing an unusual amount of traveling on the public dime last fall, I sent a request under Section XXRead More

Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’mRead More

I am trying to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’m focusing on events scheduled for weekdays during businessRead More

One of the (many) messed up aspects of our access to information system here in Nova Scotia is that responses to municipal FOIPOP inquiries are not made public, unlike federal and provincial responses, which are published online. Fortunately, some civic-minded Cape Bretoners share the results of their municipal FOIPOPs withRead More