|
Posted Jun 1, 2007, 11:28 PM
|
![Smevo's Avatar](image.php?u=5440&dateline=1170306800) |
Sarcstic Caper in Exile
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Calgary
Posts: 3,114
|
|
This will be in tomorrow's post, but I'll be away, so here's what's out so far from the Cape Breton Post Online.
Quote:
News RSS Feed
Last updated at 11:03 AM on 01/06/07
Port Hastings candy shop on track for June opening: owner
Breaking News
The Cape Breton Post
PORT HASTINGS - The owners of a shop being billed as Canada’s largest confectionery store are hoping it will open its doors this month.
The Candy Shop is planning a grand reopening at its new location at the former Smitty’s restaurant in Port Hastings, overlooking the Canso Causeway at the entrance to Cape Breton.
“We don’t own the building yet, and so we have to wait for the people who are fixing the thing to finish putting the roof on before we can actually start, and we don’t have a date for that,” said Charles Bosdet, who owns the business along with his wife, Peggy Ann.
The shop will be located just above the Port Hastings visitor information centre, the busiest site of its kind in the province.
Read the full story in Saturday’s Cape Breton Post.
|
These are from the Friday, June 1, 2007 Cape Breton Post
Quote:
Cambridge Suites earns tourism award
Section: Business
By Chris Hayes,
Cambridge Suites Hotel has received a tourism award recognizing the professionalism of its employees.
Cathy Burt, the Sydney hotel's human resources manager, said the Cambridge Suites was one of only six hotel properties in Nova Scotia to have received the National Business Recognition Award for Professional Certification.
The award is presented by the Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resource Council which is the human resources division of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia.
It recognizes that the Cambridge Suites has met national criteria for implementing professional certification for employees, including front desk clerks, room attendants, food and beverage servers and other positions. The award signifies 86 per cent of employees have achieved national certification, the highest tourism credential available for employees in Canada, Burt said.
Burt noted the hotel has received the award for four years in a row.
Hotel employees must pass exams to receive the certifications that are based on study guides provided by the tourism industry group. They are also evaluated by tourism officials acting as mystery guests.
Burt said employee expertise is an important part of the hotel and tourism industry.
"When people hear that your hotel is investing that amount of time and money in the employees so they can give the best service they can, I think that speaks high volumes to the guests. I am hoping it does,"
Hotel guests filling out comment cards consistently rate service standards at over 94 per cent, Burt noted.
Lisa Dahr, manager of professional development for the Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resource Council, said the award was created about five years ago for operators who were obviously investing in their workforce.
Dahr said she would like to see more Cape Breton employers receive the award.
"You could do some good marketing around that if you have good creative marketing," she said.
The hotel also noted employees including line cooks in Goody's Café, the sales manager, human resource manager, assistant general manager, maintenance manager and evening manager have also received other certifications within their professions.
While many tourism businesses are struggling with high turnover rates, the hotel maintains a higher than average industry rate of staff retention, Burt noted.
In December, 2006, Cambridge Suites Hotel, Sydney was also presented the Tourism Industry of Nova Scotia's Crystal Award - Human Resources Leadership Award.
|
Quote:
CBRM getting greener with construction of water treatment plants
Deadline for completion is April of 2008
Section: Cape Breton
By Chris Shannon,
The construction of the community's water treatment plant is just one piece of the puzzle that's being developed to make the Cape Breton Regional Municipality a greener place.
Under provincial legislation, municipalities across the province are required to meet the guidelines of the Nova Scotia Water Protection Strategy by April, 2008.
Louisbourg is one of three remaining facilities which must be built to ensure the CBRM has fully treated water supplies, which meet the highest standards.
The other two facilities are in New Waterford, which is about one-third complete, and North Sydney which won't be tendered for construction until the fall.
CBRM utilities manager Mike MacKeigan said the municipality is not only keen to improve the quality of its water, but how much of it residents use.
"We're trying to do things like water conservation," MacKeigan said.
"We've got a fairly aggressive leak detection program in place and we're always tightening the system up so we can get as low as we possibly can in terms of the demand."
He said the Louisbourg plant is estimated to cost $7.5 million and service about 500 of the village's residents. The New Waterford facility, at a cost of $11 million, will be ready for commissioning by next spring, and the Northside plant based in North Sydney, has an estimated cost of $14 million, servicing as many as 18,000 residents.
In Sydney, there were $1.5 million in upgrades to the water treatment facility to accommodate residents from Sydney River, Westmount and Coxheath, who were connected to the Sydney wellfields water supply.
On average, 3.2 million gallons of water are used each day by about 28,000 customers in the Sydney area. At peak periods 3.6 million gallons are used.
"It was minor upgrades to the filtration system . . . so the filters can run for longer periods of time before they need backwashing. It was all done as a means to economize the amount of water that's being used."
The Department of Environment and Labour is fully aware of the CBRM's construction schedule for these facilities and MacKeigan acknowledges the municipality won't make next April's deadline.
"They don't appear to be concerned that we're not going to meet the April, 2008 timetable. They've indicated their support for what we're doing. They're pleased that we are moving forward with all of our plants and everything on our go-forward plan."
Municipalities such as Halifax have asked the department for an extension to the deadline because more work needs to be completed.
The new guidelines were released back in 2002, giving municipalities six years to comply with the regulations. The legislation was developed after seven people died in Walkerton, Ont., in 2000 after drinking water contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
|
And the biggie is back again...
Quote:
PlanetSpace evaluating two launch sites
Chairman says talks with province going well; project on schedule
Section: Front
By Tanya Collier MacDonald,
PlanetSpace will pick the site for its orbital launch pad by the end of July, says the company chairman.
"Everything is going really well with our discussions with the province of Nova Scotia," said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria. "We've settled on two launch sites and we're evaluating them."
Kathuria declined to identify where the sites are but did confirm both are located on the island. Original reports had the launch site near Alder Point, a small rural community outside Bras d'Or. The final decision must be made soon so the company can meet milestones set out in a Space Act agreement it signed with NASA in February.
Kathuria said the U.S.-based company, which has its corporate offices in Chicago, Ill., is gearing up for operations. Its sub-orbital manufacturing facilities are running in Ohio and it has nearly completed a full-scale engineering mock-up of its rocket ship, the Silver Dart.
As soon as the location is finalized, PlanetSpace will open an office here within 60 days, he said.
"We'll be spending a lot of time between Cape Breton and Chicago," he said.
The proposed site will be similar to the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, he continued.
"If you actually look at Kodiak launch sites and see launches, you probably can't tell if it's Cape Breton or Alaska."
In an economic impact document prepared for the Alaska centre, it's reported the complex produces 45 direct and 72 indirect jobs in Kodiak. Its employees are among the highest paid workers in the community, with average monthly earnings of $5,120.
The centre used local vendors for about 25 per cent of its purchases of goods and services, spreading about $6.7 million among 82 Kodiak-area businesses in 2005.
It spent another $7 million with other Alaska vendors that year, with portions flowing to the Kodiak economy. Its launch customers spent about $1.9 million on travel and hospitality during launch operations, including 480 trips to Kodiak and 7,000 room nights. Overall, the impact on Kodiak was about $24 million.
Kathuria said PlanetSpace is working to launch a demonstration cargo spacecraft to low-earth orbit from Cape Breton by December 2009.
"The entire spacecraft needs to be completed, tested and flown, but from Cape Breton's point of view, we have to complete an entire launch site well before then," said Kathuria. The launch site will take under one year to complete.
"You'd probably see orbital launches out of Cape Breton, sub-orbital space tourism, manufacturing and (research and development) of some core parts of the space craft," he said.
"It'll be fascinating."
|
That's all for now...I have a brief vacation from my SJ trips, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up and fill in the gaps within the next 2 weeks.
|
|
|