CBRM councillors question sale of land at Sydney harbour

Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillors raised questions about the sale of a piece of land off Sydney Harbour.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) councillors raised questions on Tuesday about the sale of a piece of land off Sydney Harbour. They feel the exchange happened without their knowledge.

The land in question is a piece of wharf property in Sydport Industrial Park.

District 2 Coun. Earlene MacMullin said she found out recently it had been sold in late March to Point Edward Marine, a company now owned by controversial port development promoter Albert Barbusci, with whom council voted earlier this winter not to continue port-related negotiations.

MacMullin put the item on the agenda at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke was asked by reporters following the meeting for his response to the many councillors who spoke out during the session, saying they, too, felt left in the dark.

“That’s a question for the CAO,” Clarke said.

“The transactions themselves are the responsibility of the CAO and senior management,” he added.

“We deal with hundreds of documents that come through the mayor’s office that council would have dealt with in the past. This is no different in terms of a transaction. It was a legal option that was triggered with regards to a purchase option and again that falls back to administration.”

There is still no word on the purchase price.

MacMullin and other councillors said knowledge of the sale would have factored into municipal budget talks, before a new budget was passed on March 26.

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