|
Posted Feb 11, 2008, 6:00 PM
|
|
Sarcstic Caper in Exile
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Calgary
Posts: 3,112
|
|
Friday, February 8, 2008
Cape Breton Post
Quote:
Gateway council could attract funding: group
Section: Cape Breton
The Sydney Marine Group will explore whether there is interest in setting up a local council to position the port to attract a share of funding earmarked for gateway development across Canada.
Local port officials think an Eastern Cape Breton Atlantic Gateway Council could play an important role in helping Cape Breton attract some of the $2.1 billion in merit funding earmarked for gateway development.
Internationally increasing volumes of trade and shifting trade patterns are bringing pressure to bear on global transportation and logistics systems and capacity problems are emerging along the western North American seaboard. The federal government responded by identifying $2.1 billion in merit funding in the 2007 budget for gateway development. An Atlantic Gateway framework concept has emerged and late in 2007 was validated in an independent ACOA (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) study that emphasized its huge potential to drive regional economic development.
"A regional federal-provincial committee is mandated to develop an Atlantic gateway strategy," Jim Wooder, chair of the Sydney Marine Group, said in a news release. "Consultations with regional stakeholders have begun. It's vitally important that Cape Breton advances its future requirements in terms of policy, infrastructure and integrated support systems. Decision makers need to understand the potential of the region to facilitate growth in international trade, our collective vision for the future and where we fit in a systems approach to gateway development."
About $400 million in federal gateway money has already been allocated to the Detroit-Windsor corridor. The federal-provincial committee is currently assessing Atlantic gateway infrastructure, marketing, human resource, security and policy requirements.
The Sydney Marine Group is comprised of Laurentian Energy Corp., Logistec Stevedoring, Marine Atlantic, Nova Scotia Power, Provincial Energy Ventures, Sydney Steel and Sydney Ports Corp. The Sydney Marine Group anticipates reporting on local interest in a gateway council by the end of the month.
|
More of the same foolishness. Stop listening to people trying to predict the future...they couldn't even get the 5-year prediction right!
Quote:
Population study has good news, bad news for regional municipality
Section: Cape Breton
By Chris Shannon, Cape Breton Post
Cape Breton Regional Municipality's population loss isn't as bad as first thought in a 2004 study, a municipal committee learned Thursday.
CBRM director of planning Doug Foster released details of a report by Environmental Design and Management Ltd. of Halifax. Its author, John Heseltine, who produced a population study for the CBRM in February 2004 as a consultant with Terrain Group, also of Halifax, stated the municipality's population will fall to 92,815 by 2021.
The previous study suggested the CBRM's population would fall to 75,987 in the same year.
"Things are looking a little better but they're still declining," Foster told the planning advisory committee.
There were 105,930 people recorded living in the CBRM in the 2006 census.
Using Statistics Canada information, along with its own indicators, EDM stated the birth rate will remain relatively steady, however the number of births in the CBRM will fall from 4,555 recorded in 2006, to an estimated 2,872 in 2021.
The EDM report - at a cost of $4,500 to the CBRM - said it's the result of a "startling decline in the number of residents of child-rearing age."
The drop in the number of women with the highest potential to have children (women aged 20 to 34) is "characteristic of Nova Scotia as a whole," the report said. Women in these age groups fell by 25.2 per cent across the province over a 15-year period beginning in 1991.
The municipality is showing some signs of life in attracting 40-, 50- and 60-somethings back to the island, Foster said.
"This is sort of one of those good news, bad news stories," he said. "They don't raise the birth rate and we still got this significant out-migration in this 20 to 30 (-year age groups).
"The (40-plus age groups) are going to put up our dependency ratio even faster in terms of an ageing population."
As it stands now, Nova Scotia has the second oldest population in Canada, next to Newfoundland and Labrador.
During the discussion Thursday, Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger said that municipal council should look at the positive news this study brings.
After all, the Terrain group study predicted a population of only 100,000 in 2006, a figure that was 4.7 per cent off the actual number of nearly 106,000 residents, he said.
"For anybody sitting on the fence in business trying to figure out if they should continue on or close down, here's a positive. It gives (business) a little bit of a kick to keep trying. Things are changing," Bruck-schwaiger said.
But from Coun. Vince Hall's perspective, the report was viewed as more of a grim reminder that the municipality continues to have one of the most rapid population declines in the country.
"We're still dying of a terminal illness," said Hall, who advocated the province enact a provincial population strategy, instead of concentrating all its efforts on attracting immigrants to settle here.
A motion was passed following debate for the CBRM's chief administrative officer to report on EDM's findings and provide a recommendation for the next steps council may want to consider.
|
Change predicted by EDM:
Pop loss from 109,330 (2001) to 100,000 (2006) -8.5%
Real loss from 109,330 (2001) to 105,928 (2006) -3.1%
Predicted loss of 9,330
Real loss of 3,402
only 36% of predicted loss actually happened...these predictions simply use trends from the census breakdown and assumes these trends will remain static until their end date.
Quote:
Possible sale of Sydney's Vogue Theatre raises questions, concerns
Section: Cape Breton
By Erin Pottie, Cape Breton Post
The Vogue Theatre may sit idle no longer, if a mystery bidder closes a property deal on the building.
Considered a Sydney landmark, the historic art-deco movie theatre located on Charlotte Street has been untouched and vacant since closing its doors in 1999.
Recently, an Internet website and a Facebook group have sprung up, asking to 'Save the Vogue' from any plans that involve a wrecking ball. It has provided a public forum on the building's future, though it might not be enough to influence its new buyer - whoever that person maybe.
"I just created the (Facebook) group as an addition to the webpage and it was to raise money to purchase the Vogue Theatre and start to restore it," said Sydney resident and concerned citizen Jason Morrison, who said he didn't realize at the time that the Vogue was almost sold. Morrison says there are five committed members of Save the Vogue who have been working on the project or idea since last summer.
"If the new owner knew there was this many people interested in trying to save the building - we're hoping they'd possibly resell it or do something with it themselves."
In less than one week, the online group has grown to more than 2,700 members, averaging between 100-200 new members each day. Morrison believes it would take $600,000 to purchase and restore the building and says he factored donations of labour into that estimate, but so far no money has been raised.
On the website, www.savethe vogue.ca, viewers can consider purchasing theatre chairs at up to $500 each, for 650 chairs, with a symbol of one's donation on the back. Morrison has not accepted any donations so far; he is first waiting to hear from the mystery buyer and learn his or her intentions.
"If the new owners don't plan on tearing it down then that's perfectly fine by me. If they're going to tear it down then I'm concerned because I don't think Charlotte Street should be without the Vogue," he said.
This is not the first time the building was expected to be sold to an unknown bidder.
Owner Ardath Dockwrey, whose father D.P. MacDonald built the Vogue in 1939, put the building up for auction with a winning bid of $125,000 in 2004. The sale price was far below its 1999 assessed value of $289,000, and the sale did not close.
Dockwrey confirms the possible sale of the Vogue, but is waiting to hear of a closing deal.
"I'll hear from my lawyer on that, there's always a certain amount of paperwork to do," she said, noting it wasn't her place to make an announcement on the new owner.
Last July, Ken Williamson, who managed the Vogue from the 1970s until its closure, took Morrison to see the building. Morrison said the architecture is still enough to draw people into the theatre, though cosmetically the seats, like many other things, are damaged, soiled and need replacing.
Rick Fraser, inspections and bylaw manger for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said the building has not been listed as condemned.
While the future of the theatre remains unknown, Morrison would try to stop the tearing down of the building through conversations - currently the group does not have legal counsel, but will be seeking a lawyer if the building goes for sale again.
"I'd like to talk to them to see if there's anything that can be worked out. There's a lot of other people on Facebook that feel they'd chain themselves to the building - I'm not sure if I'm that type, but I don't want to see it torn down.
"I personally would like to see it as a multi-use building - like a theatre with a stage for plays and I think it can be utilized during cruise ship season. It's always been my favourite movie theatre. I don't want to see it torn down, even if they convert it to offices . . . anything where it's standing is better than nothing."
|
Last edited by Smevo; Feb 20, 2008 at 12:45 AM.
|
|
|