Mainstreet Cape Breton

Marcie Shwery-Stanley has been an advocate here in Cape Breton for people living with disabilities for 39 years. She has served on advisory boards and committees at every level of government. But her work is just beginning. This fall CBRM, along with every municipality other in Nova Scotia, will create a plan to make the built environment completely accessible to all. Some jurisdictions have already created their roadmap. Wolfville and Kentville have already submitted their plans to the Department of Justice. CBRM's committee will meet for the first time next month. There's lots of work to do starting with elements most people would think have already been addressed. We are talking today about Crosswalks and the buttons we press to cross the street. An Accessible Pedestrian Signal (APS) provides auditory, visual and tactile information so that a person with vision and/or hearing loss, or physical disabilities will know when it’s safe (i.e., when the walk phase begins) to cross at a set of traffic signals. In addition, an APS may provide information to help a person with blindness travel in a straight line across a street or roadway. While there are a few in the community, they are far from the standard. Many don't have guiding sounds, some are simply mounted too high on the poll for everyone to reach. At George street and Wentworth for instance the recommended height for Accessible pedestrian signals is between 1000 and 1250 millimeters no more than 37 inches This one is 57 inches off the sidewalk height. I met Marcie there to see if she could reach it from her wheelchair.

Feed Nova Scotia is well known as a province wide network supporting food banks and programs to end hunger in our communities. In the last couple of months you may have noticed some subtle changes. Feed Nova Scotia talking more about the issues running underneath food insecurity in this province. It is naming poverty, racism, mental health and housing issues as some of the architecture that allows hunger to continue. We spoke with Sylvia Parris-Drummond, the chair of the board

Flood mitigation work near the Baille Ard trail in CBRM will go ahead as planned. In a tight vote, councilors voted to move forward with a strategy that would see some trees cuts down, and changes to waterflow patterns that they hope will prevent mass flooding. The Thanksgiving day floods of 2016 forced people from their homes. The Cape Breton Regional Municipality when up to 225 millimeters of rain fell in the area that day. Since then, there has been little consensus on what to do to mitigate the risk in the future. Amanda McDougall is the Mayor of CBRM and she joined us to discuss this.

You may have noticed a tall ship sailed into Sydney Harbour over the weekend. The HMCS Oriole is on it's 100th anniversary tour of the Atlantic Provinces. It's the oldest commissioned vessel currently serving the Canadian Navy. Most of it's action is now seen as a training vessel for young sailors. To find out more about the tall ship the CBC's Brent Kelloway went down to Sydney Harbour and spoke with HMCS Oriole public affairs officer, Acting Sub-Lt. Scott Ferris.

There has been a lot of history in Sydney over the years since it was first settled, that have shaped the community. But a big part of that history is hardly discussed. The contributions of women over the years is finally being brought to light. The Old Sydney Society is hosting the Harbour HerStory walk through Sydney's North end. To find out more about the walk and some of the cities historic women, the CBC's Brent Kelloway spoke with Joyce Rankin and Laura MacDonald from the Old Sydney Society.

Globally there is a movement by businesses that ship goods by transport truck and and those who seeking greener options for moving goods are also calling for rail enhancements. That lobby says rail can be run with clean energy, electricity produced by tidal, wind and solar power sources. The voices are getting louder after a UN climate report released earlier this week sounded the alarm about the irreversible impacts of climate change. There are people in Cape Breton looking at that very possibility. Dan MacDonald is an engineer with CBCL, and engineering and environmental design and consulting company. He's been looking at those possibilities of rail with a container terminal. He's here today with some of his findings and a few questions.

The crew at the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney have been working hard to keep shows on stage during the pandemic. Now with pandemic restrictions eased a bit they have some plans in place for these final few weeks of summer and into the fall. Wesley J. Colford is the artistic and executive director with HAT.

The Cape Breton Ramblers and Sydney Mines & District Little League host the “East Coast Summer Showcase” Baseball event this weekend.

The showcase is at the Nicole Meaney Memorial Ball Park in Sydney Mines on August 13 – August 15;

and includes local and players from PEI and Quebec.

(AIRED APRIL 21, 2020) The discussion in this edition of the People's School is grief. Cape Breton University professor Tom Urbaniak leads the discussion.

At the recent General Assembly of the International Council for Traditional Music, Membertou First Nation research collaborators and co-writers were awarded the 2021 ICTM Article Prize.