It was very disappointing to hear CBRM placing blame rather than taking accountability for their flawed actions, only to reverse course due to public pressure—Acting Municipal Affairs Minister Colton LeBlanc   While I don’t support Tory politics, Minister LeBlanc’s comments summarize my view on the five-million-dollar CBRM affordable housing debacle.Read More

I have a sister just a year younger than me and when we were kids, while we mostly got along, we sometimes, being human beings, fought. When we did it within earshot of our father, he would immediately break into a chorus of the most annoying song ever written. ItRead More

Communications Writing about Island Employment’s travails this week, I had reason to visit the website of the Nova Scotia Career Development Association (NSCDA) and found myself perusing their catalog of training courses for their employees — or “practitioners” as they’re called. I ended up down a rather deep rabbit holeRead More

Monday’s special CBRM council session on affordable housing was so full of information that I find myself forced to choose one part to write about today, for fear of overwhelming you with facts and figures. It started with a presentation by Paul LaFleche, the deputy minister of Municipal Affairs andRead More

Affordable housing I came across a for-sale listing for Sadler Court, the 36-unit apartment complex on Alexandra Street in Sydney owned by New Dawn Enterprises. Sadler Court, as the New Dawn site says, “brings together the convenience of downtown living, the serenity of a natural setting, and, best of all,Read More

Editor’s Note: John Whalley, the former Economic Development Manager of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) is suing the CBRM for constructive dismissal. The case finally came to trial from 20-24 August 2018 and the Spectator was there. We’re presenting our coverage in a series of articles because the trialRead More

Poll vaunting There’s been a lot of hand-wringing this past week or so over that New Dawn Enterprises-commissioned poll asking, among other things, about possible successors to Cecil Clarke as CBRM mayor. I saw one impassioned critique that insisted the big problem with the whole thing was that Cecil Clarke’sRead More

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles on immigration and Cape Breton. Erika Shea, vice president of development for New Dawn Enterprises, says the community development organization plays two roles when it comes to immigration in Cape Breton. The first is as the home of theRead More

Governance is the process whereby societies or organizations make important decisions, determine whom they involve and how they render account.—Institute on Governance At the 17 February 2015 meeting of the CBRM Regional Council, Marlene Usher (in her new capacity as CEO of the Port of Sydney Development Corporation) and JimRead More