A port consultant’s report reveals that the Cape Breton Regional Municipality nearly paid $4.3 million to buy Sydney Harbour from Ottawa when such transactions normally involve a nominal fee of a dollar. The July report by MacNeil Management Consultants has now been released to the public through the CBRM’s website. The offer to pay millions for the harbour was later withdrawn by the CBRM. MacNeil Consultants was paid 103-thousand dollars to carry out the study on port governance and development as well as harbour divestiture. The report also reveals that port divestiture negotiations were delayed a year ago when the CBRM found out Transport Canada was in talks to transfer a quarter of the harbour to Marine Atlantic. Eventually, the Crown Corporation that operates the ferry service between North Sydney and Newfoundland reduced its request from 700 hecatares to 300. Regional Council voted to reject the report during a closed-door meeting earlier this week partly because the document expressed doubts about the possibility of setting up a container terminal in Sydney.
