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Cape Breton Post

E-waste depots to open throughout Cape Breton

Section: Business

Recycling depots that will accept unwanted electronics are set to open across the province, including seven recycling centres throughout Cape Breton, Friday.

Through a competitive bid process, 31 locations have been established by the Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship group, a non-profit electronics industry association funded by a handling fee on the sale of new electronics.

Products banned from landfill sites that must be recycled include televisions, computers, laptops, monitors, printers, mice, keyboards, cables and other components found in computers.

"Nova Scotia municipalities support this new program that will divert e-waste from our landfills and protect our environment," said Richmond County Coun. Richie Cotton, chair of the Regional Chairs Waste-Resource Management Regions.

"Nova Scotia has the highest recycling rates in Canada and this program will further Nova Scotia's reputation as a leader in recycling and composting."

Cape Breton depots include:

Sydney River: Pegg's Recycling, 434 Keltic Drive

North Sydney: North Sydney Recycling, 96 King Street, Building 2

Glace Bay: CAPE Society, 40 Lower MacLean Street

St. Peter's: St. Peter's Bottle Exchange, 9395 Highway 4

Port Hawkesbury: Strait Bottle Exchange & Recycling, 17 Paint Street

Inverness: Municipality of Inverness, 23 Beach Road, #2

Baddeck: Victoria County, 445 Margaree Road.

A piece of the highway twinning project

Roundabout expropriation cost capped at just under $1 million

Section: Business

By Tom Ayers, CAPE BRETON POST

The province has confirmed that the total cost of expropriating a health and beauty spa for a planned roundabout at Alexandra Street and Kenwood Drive will be just under $1 million.

The expropriation will cost approximately $989,000, which includes the purchase and preparation of a new site immediately north of Tracie's Spa on Alexandra Street, purchase of the existing property, new construction of a 5,000-square-foot building to house the spa, and business loss and disruption.

The deal includes a cap to prevent the province from paying ongoing costs to move Tracie's Spa, said Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal spokesperson Cathy MacIsaac.

A breakdown of the costs is not available, she added, because it includes confidential business information about Tracie's Spa.

Transportation department officials initially refused to divulge any financial information on the land deal, saying it is a private transaction between the province and Tracie's Spa.

They suggested the only option for finding out that information would be through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request.

Instead, they have since decided they could release the total cost to taxpayers without breaching anyone's privacy.

MacIsaac said the difficulty in finding out how much information could be released arose because expropriations involving ongoing commercial ventures are rare.

Steve Smith, a communications officer with the department, told the Cape Breton Post earlier that the contract to level the neighbouring property was tendered and awarded to Peter's Construction Ltd. for $190,000.

In a follow-up interview since the article was published, he said he "misspoke" and the contract had not been tendered, but was handled by Keith McKeen, a former highways engineer and private contractor who received three bids before awarding the work to Peter's Construction. The province paid the bill, anyway, Smith said.

Tracie's spa owner Tracie Breski has said she hopes to have the new building ready in July, and the province has said the roundabout is scheduled for construction this season. It will replace the existing set of temporary street lights at Alexandra Street and Kenwood Drive, and include traffic to and from the Highway 125 bypass.

Meanwhile, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has said the province is planning a new road from the Membertou First Nation to the intersection, giving the reserve more direct access to the highway.

MacIsaac said while the possibility of a road may have been discussed, there are currently no plans for a road from Membertou to the highway, so further details are unavailable.

I know it's news and not development, but I felt it worth it to put in here.

School board plans support for BEd at CBU

Darren Googoo, next Mi'kmaq board member, introduced

Section: News

By Tom Ayers, CAPE BRETON POST

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board is doing its best to support Cape Breton University's efforts to secure its own bachelor of education degree, board members were told at a regular meeting, Monday.

The board also met Darren Googoo, who is slated to become the board's newest Mi'kmaq representative once his appointment is ratified by the province.

Glace Bay board member George MacDonald raised the issue of CBU's proposed BEd, following a provincial report that recommended CBU's education degree, offered through Memorial University of Newfoundland, should be discontinued and that CBU should not be granted its own education degree.

MacDonald pointed out that Nova Scotia Minister of Education Karen Casey has said she won't make a decision on the recommendations for a couple of weeks, after receiving public input. He wondered what the school division is doing to support the university.

Supt. Ed Davis said the board office is currently planning a brief for the minister. In it, the school division plans to emphasize the need for a local degree and will appeal on the basis of "fairness and justice and economic problems" in the region.

Davis said the provincial review panel was mandated to examine the quality of teacher education in the province, "but what happened was the report then came out with an emphasis on the market supply and teacher certification and that sort of thing, that allowed them to zoom in on CBU."

As a result, he said, the school division will ask the government to redistribute the number of seats allocated in the province to include CBU among the education degree-granting institutions.

Board member Myrtle Turnbull-Campbell, also of Glace Bay, said she is asking everyone she knows to contact the minister of education in support of CBU, and encouraged other board members to do the same.

Meanwhile, the board's Mi'kmaq seat, which had been held by George Marshall, is about to be filled by Darren Googoo, who watched the board meeting at Memorial High School in Sydney Mines, Monday.

Googoo, director of education at Membertou First Nation and a former high school teacher, was appointed by the chiefs of Membertou, Eskasoni and Wagmatcook.

"We're just waiting for his letter from the department of education that grants his appearance as a board member," said Davis.

Googoo said he simply wanted to see the board in action before his appointment becomes official.

"I thought I'd come here, an opportunity to see the board process, learn the process, and bring myself up to speed," he said.