They're all coming out of the woodwork now...
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Ed...064280/Cost-of-failure-more-than-money/1
Quote:
Cost of failure more than money
Published on May 8th, 2010
Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post
[Fred Jackson]
Today is Day 6 in our countdown to the dredging decision for Sydney harbour.
Day 0 is next Friday, May 14, the date by which the preferred bidder, an unnamed company based in The Netherlands, needs to know whether a contract for the $38-million project can be signed.
What happens if May 14 comes and goes with no definite word from senior governments on funding the project this year? Or what if the word is no? Is that the end?
Well, not necessarily. Some proponents of the project, a broad consensus of companies, institutions, agencies and individuals led by Sydney Marine Group, would try to regroup, reload, and think of what to do next. But as Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce executive vice-president Aubrey Rogers remarked this week, failure to advance the dredging project would undermine the motivation of the whole coalition that has formed around it.
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The inevitable pessimist...
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Le...Dredging-drumbeat-falling-on-deaf-ears/1
Quote:
Dredging drumbeat falling on deaf ears
Published on May 8th, 2010
Letters to the Editor (The Cape Breton Post)
[Jim Peers]
The articles this week listing the unkeepable promises about the benefits of dredging Sydney harbour are falling on deaf ears. But this is how people with entrenched incumbency behave when, after living off others, their funding can no longer be sustained politically.
Dredging the harbour is an intellectual proposal on its way to financial bankruptcy so there is little interest shown among Cape Breton Post readers.
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http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Le...orld-shipping-fits-right-into-CBU-role/2
Quote:
World shipping fits right into CBU role
China, Suez and Cape Breton a partnership demanding to be realized
Published on May 8th, 2010
Letters to the Editor (The Cape Breton Post)
[John Harker]
Four years ago, I convened a gathering of community leaders in the boardroom of Cape Breton University to brainstorm about ways the university – seen by all to be very much a community university, albeit one with a growing global reach – could better reflect the undeniable fact that we live in a harbour-side community.
Or communities: the wonderful sense of particular identity on the island of Cape Breton must owe much to the importance of its maritime location and character.
Our meeting clearly showed us that, from widely varying perspectives and positions, the complex of ports, wharfages, and harbours known collectively as Sydney harbour, or the Port of Sydney, remains essential to any hopes this island has and must have of securing sustainable futures for its people.
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Had a bit of extra time and decided to figure out the impact to both CB and NS this would have from an employment standpoint. Estimates have suggested upwards of 6,000 permanent jobs being created as a result of dredging (direct and spinoff jobs associated with the container terminal), so I'll use that figure. Using last month's figures, and assuming no changes in participation or population (simplistic, I know, but I just wanted a visual example), here's what the differences would have been:
CB:
Employed - increase from 50,500 to 56,500
Unemployed - decrease from 10,500 to 4,500
Employment Rate - increase from 44.1% to 49.4%
Unemployment Rate - decrease from 17.2% to 7.4%
NS:
Employment Rate - increase from 56.9% to 57.6%
Unemployment Rate - decrease from 9.8% to 8.6%
So, we've already considered the elimination of the rail subsidy and the savings to NSP as benefits which, alone, make this proposition worthwhile for the province. Add to that now the increased tax revenue to all 3 levels of government, and I can't understand the hesitation behind this. That employment figure doesn't even take into account a possible shipbuilding facility from Daewoo I don't think, and they're on record (earlier in this thread) as being interested in the harbour and former SYSCO land, but can't establish the facility unless the channel is dredged. I know I'm oversimplifying things on the employment figures front, the numbers aren't exact, but still, the point is there.
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