Post by IAMCAPER on Dec 27, 2006 10:08:06 GMT -4
SYDNEY — For John Morgan, the health of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is measured by the numbers.
“The progress of Cape Breton and its people in the regional municipality (is) based on statistical information about whether or not we are progressing or not,” said the CBRM mayor.
“What is most important to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t judge the last year or the year before or even next year based on any individual anecdotal event.”
In a recent year-end interview, Morgan, who has led the province’s second-largest municipality for the last six years, said the most important event of the last year wasn’t the $300-million resort and golf course proposed for Grand Lake, the steps made in reopening the Donkin mine or American-Canadian company PlanetSpace’s plans to build a launch pad in Alder Point by 2009 to supply the International Space Station.
He said the event that meant the most to the CBRM in 2006, in his eyes, was the census taken in May.
Information from that national snapshot, which will tell us, among other things, how many we number, where we’re moving and what regions of the country are suffering from population loss, will be released in the next few months.
Morgan is looking forward to what the census holds for Cape Breton.
“There’s a great debate continuing on whether we’ve turned the corner economically or does the region, in fact, face enormous challenges that require aggressive interventions and changes by the provincial and federal governments.”
The CBRM made a large step forward in its equalization battle with the province in late May.
Documentation for its legal action was finally filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia after more than two years of sometimes raucous debate among councillors and provincial politicians.
It’s unlikely the issue will be resolved in the upcoming year. The CBRM is arguing the municipality has been consistently short-changed $20-million annually by the province since municipal amalgamation in 1995. The province has yet to file papers in its defence.
“(The legal action) is about whether the provincial and federal governments get to simply turn their backs on the region and allow it to die.
“They are, in effect, putting a pillow over the head of the entire region by simply spending virtually all of the economic development funding in Halifax.”
Councillors and the mayor have been fighting with the province over other issues this year as well.
The most prominent remains the battle over strip mining. The latest volley was lobbed by the CBRM only weeks ago when an amendment to the municipality’s land-use bylaw passed council. It attempts to make it tougher, if not impossible, for strip mining operations to set up shop here.
However, there is little optimism that the department in charge, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations, will approve the bylaw amendment.
Morgan said it’s likely the province will ignore any attempts to stop the practice because of its “lack of concern for the environment in Cape Breton.”
An Antigonish-based company, Pioneer Coal Ltd., secured a coal lease in Point Aconi earlier in the year. The province has placed a three year moratorium on other possible strip mining leases in Cape Breton — a move some say is tied to the success or failure of the Pioneer Coal lease.
“The progress of Cape Breton and its people in the regional municipality (is) based on statistical information about whether or not we are progressing or not,” said the CBRM mayor.
“What is most important to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t judge the last year or the year before or even next year based on any individual anecdotal event.”
In a recent year-end interview, Morgan, who has led the province’s second-largest municipality for the last six years, said the most important event of the last year wasn’t the $300-million resort and golf course proposed for Grand Lake, the steps made in reopening the Donkin mine or American-Canadian company PlanetSpace’s plans to build a launch pad in Alder Point by 2009 to supply the International Space Station.
He said the event that meant the most to the CBRM in 2006, in his eyes, was the census taken in May.
Information from that national snapshot, which will tell us, among other things, how many we number, where we’re moving and what regions of the country are suffering from population loss, will be released in the next few months.
Morgan is looking forward to what the census holds for Cape Breton.
“There’s a great debate continuing on whether we’ve turned the corner economically or does the region, in fact, face enormous challenges that require aggressive interventions and changes by the provincial and federal governments.”
The CBRM made a large step forward in its equalization battle with the province in late May.
Documentation for its legal action was finally filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia after more than two years of sometimes raucous debate among councillors and provincial politicians.
It’s unlikely the issue will be resolved in the upcoming year. The CBRM is arguing the municipality has been consistently short-changed $20-million annually by the province since municipal amalgamation in 1995. The province has yet to file papers in its defence.
“(The legal action) is about whether the provincial and federal governments get to simply turn their backs on the region and allow it to die.
“They are, in effect, putting a pillow over the head of the entire region by simply spending virtually all of the economic development funding in Halifax.”
Councillors and the mayor have been fighting with the province over other issues this year as well.
The most prominent remains the battle over strip mining. The latest volley was lobbed by the CBRM only weeks ago when an amendment to the municipality’s land-use bylaw passed council. It attempts to make it tougher, if not impossible, for strip mining operations to set up shop here.
However, there is little optimism that the department in charge, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations, will approve the bylaw amendment.
Morgan said it’s likely the province will ignore any attempts to stop the practice because of its “lack of concern for the environment in Cape Breton.”
An Antigonish-based company, Pioneer Coal Ltd., secured a coal lease in Point Aconi earlier in the year. The province has placed a three year moratorium on other possible strip mining leases in Cape Breton — a move some say is tied to the success or failure of the Pioneer Coal lease.