CBRM councilors pushing for information on the progress of the second cruise ship berth ran into a wall during Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting (held on an irregular day and at an irregular time). District 10 Councilor Darren Bruckschwaiger tried his best to get Public Works Manager Wayne MacDonald to admit,Read...

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...

There are two sides to a pancake; however, every day there are lots of chats on staffing at CBRM, whether it be in the coffee shops, taverns, living rooms or wherever. Sometimes they start with: “It’s who you know down there.” Or someone mentions a name of someone just hiredRead More

I missed it the first time I looked at the front page of the today’s Cape Breton Post, but then again, it wasn’t exactly given big play: just a sidebar next to the headline stories about flood mitigation and recovering policemen. Eventually, though, I saw it: Yes, the mayor’s “political”Read More

Shout out Let’s start this out on a positive note: the staff at the Port of Sydney are really great. CEO Marlene Usher referred to them as her “small but mighty” team during her opening remarks at Port Days on Thursday and it’s true, the entire operation — including cruise,Read More

I was very interested to hear the “news” on CBC on Tuesday that the deeper channel dredged in Sydney Harbour six years ago is not being used because the necessary navigational aids have never been put in place. The gist of the story is that there was not enough money forRead More

This past week, we’ve heard Municipal Affairs Minister Derek Mombourquette, CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, District 8 Councilor Amanda McDougall, BCB board chair Parker Rudderham, CBRM Economic Development Manager John Phalen and (former) BCB CEO Eileen Lannon Oldford explain what is going on with economic development funding in the Cape BretonRead...

Rail Schmail Do my eyes deceive me, or has even the Cape Breton Post become a bit skeptical about the great Sydney container port project? All it took was port developer Albert Barbusci suddenly playing down the importance of a functioning railway to their project. As the paper reported Thursday:Read More

Port pay I always want to know what takes place at CBRM council in camera meetings, but I REALLY wish I’d been a fly on the wall for Tuesday’s discussion about renewing Port of Sydney CEO Marlene Usher’s $200,000 a year contract. Usher, once second in command at Enterprise Cape BretonRead More

Editor’s Note: The following article was produced with the Halifax Examiner, via our Joint Investigative Fund.   Upgrading the Sydney to Truro rail line to make it capable of handling double-stacked containers won’t come cheap, according to a study just completed for the Port of Sydney Development Corporation, but the fixRead...