November 23, 2022 at 2:23 pm
CBRM Council has agreed to increase the marketing levy on hotels and other “fixed-roof” accommodations from 2% to 3% and apply it to Airbnb and VRBO rentals. Destination Cape Breton (DCB) CEO Terry Smith made the request to council yesterday morning, explaining the changes will be governed by new legislationRead More
October 26, 2022 at 1:21 pm
CBRM Council held a relatively brief meeting on Tuesday morning that included a presentation from the municipal Water Utility on a proposed water rate hike. CBRM’s Water Utility, according to this handy description provided by the Utility and Review Board (UARB) back in 2017, is: …comprised of seven distinct areas,Read More
June 22, 2022 at 11:15 am
District 4 Councilor Steve Gillespie knows the electrification of CBRM’s transit fleet is inevitable as federal funding for diesel buses dries up, but he wants us to understand that he is adamantly opposed to it because it will be expensive and people in his district, who do not have busRead More
February 23, 2022 at 12:24 pm
Watching the February 16 presentation to CBRM council by staff of the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC) I was struck by how often the presenters — Dave Penny, director of roll data and maintenance; Adam Hanna, assistant director of roll and data maintenance; and Lloyd MacLeod, director of assessment forRead More
June 11, 2021 at 12:32 pm
Where fishermen shop A spectator reminded me that while I devoted a lot of ink to port matters in this week’s edition, I didn’t discuss plans to expand the retail space around the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion — a plan first mentioned during the Port’s February AGM. “Fisherman’s Cove” isRead More
November 25, 2020 at 11:52 am
The first episode of the new season of CBRM Council was three hours long, featured a bunch of new characters and offered up at least one new twist in an old plot. It seems to have been filmed in a black light theater although, sadly, none of the councilors tookRead More
October 7, 2020 at 11:55 am
District 4 encompasses part or all of Coxheath, Westmount, Prime Brook, Sydney River and Edwardsville. It is shaped like a hand writing with a rather blunt pen. The district is home to 7,215 registered electors, 3,813 of whom cast ballots in 2016. Steve Gillespie captured 1,325 of them to winRead More
September 20, 2020 at 11:15 am
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Campaign Trail Mix, the Cape Breton Spectator’s weekly round-up of municipal election-related news and views with the odd non-campaign item thrown in to keep things interesting. We still have a few bugs to work out — like the logo, which I made yesterday morning in GIMPRead More
February 26, 2020 at 2:06 pm
“Alarums and excursions” is an Elizabethan-era stage direction, which Merriam-Webster defines as either “martial sounds and the movement of soldiers across the stage” or “clamor, excitement, and feverish or disordered activity.” I thought of it this week as I was reading about the CBRM’s decision to locate the new SydneyRead More