CBRM councillor questions contract with port developer for proposed container terminal

A council member in Cape Breton Regional Municipality is questioning CBRM's contract with a company that's supposed to be pursuing a container terminal in Sydney Harbour.

Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger said his concern is that Novaporte has switched its focus to the growing offshore wind industry and that was never part of the contract with CBRM.

"We've got Novaporte, who are suggesting that a terminal is pushed to the side, it's not our main focus right now," he told council during its April 9 meeting.

"I've got an issue with that ... because we've got an all-inclusive agreement and that was supposed to be the job."

Last year, Novaporte signed a deal with Blue Water Shipping of Denmark to begin stockpiling huge wind turbine parts for offshore energy projects in the U.S., but that work hasn't started yet.

Mayor Amanda McDougall and several councillors applauded the move at the time, but Bruckschwaiger said he's now concerned the container terminal project is dead because the Nova Scotia government cancelled a railway subsidy that was keeping the terminal idea alive.

He is also questioning the Novaporte deal because a private firm, Atlantic Canada Bulk Terminal, has entered the offshore wind business directly across the harbour, while Novaporte is still talking about it.

McDougall said Novaporte's contract is just for a container terminal and it has not been amended to include offshore wind or any other business, but the company has kept in touch with CBRM council through a steering committee.

She said pursuing offshore wind business just makes sense because the industry is already underway on the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., and the Canadian and Nova Scotia governments are working on regulations to launch offshore wind energy projects in Atlantic waters.

"It's publicly known that Novaporte is looking and exploring options for offshore wind development and I think that's a great thing," she said.

Bruckschwaiger said his concern is that the municipality has invested millions of dollars into its pursuit of a container terminal and it needs to see some kind of return.

CBRM first signed a contract in 2017 to allow a company called Sydney Harbour Investment Partners to market 174 hectares of the municipality's land in Sydney Harbour for a proposed container terminal. 

CBRM bought the land for $6 million. Councillors have estimated the municipality has spent millions more on the land and on trips outside of Nova Scotia, including China and Denmark, to support the marketing of the property.

Under the deal with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners, then-mayor Cecil Clarke said if the company landed a deal, it would pay CBRM $10 million up front and it would pay for any municipal services, such as sewer and water.

Deal has been amended over time

At the time, Clarke hinted that a container terminal project could be secured by the end of 2017 or early in 2018, but that never happened.

The deal was later amended to allow Sydney Harbour Investment Partners to lease the land from CBRM for 99 years if it could secure a container terminal.

The details of that potential lease have never been disclosed.

The agreement was also amended in 2021 to extend the deal for three more years, taking it to the end of 2024. Sydney Harbour Investment Partners has since rebranded itself as Novaporte.

McDougall said it will be up to a new council to decide whether a new deal is needed with general municipal elections set for October and Novaporte's contract ending in November.