OP-ED: Looking at historical tendencies and Cape Breton’s greenfield site

Advertisement 1 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Breadcrumb Trail Links HomeCape BretonCape Breton BusinessCape Breton OpinionOpinion OP-ED: Looking at historical tendencies and Cape Breton’s greenfield site The year 2026 has been an active year for the Edwardsville site Author of the article: By Contributed Published Sep 15, 2026 Last updated 9 minutes ago 8 minute read This aerial view of Edwardsville from 2017 shows the 431-acre (174-hectare) greenfield site, foreground, where Sydney harbour's proposed Novaporte/SHIP container terminal and logistics park was planned to be located -- but has not materialized. The land is owned by the CBRM. SUPPLIED Article content Late last week, Cape Breton Regional Municipality council clarified that it would hire a consultant to lead a competitive process for the development of the greenfield site in Edwardsville. Article content Article content An emergency meeting of council was called on Friday, Sept. 11, to address the confusion created by council’s meeting on Aug. 18, where the mayor and six councillors (Steve Parsons, Eldon MacDonald, Darren O’Quinn, Steve Gillespie, Paul Nickituk, and Esmond Marshall) voted to direct CBRM staff to restart negotiations with just SHIP while a consultant was hired and paid to conduct a parallel process for all companies that were not SHIP. Article content Article content The year 2026 has been an active year for the greenfield site. In January, council voted not to renew SHIP’s exclusive contract (in effect since 2015). In July, council voted to pursue an independent consultant to design a public tendering process. Article content With its July direction affirmed in Friday’s emergency council meeting, we’re once again positioned to right a decade-long wrong by issuing a transparent, public, competitive tender – one that the community has long called for, and one that six members of council (Earlene MacMullin, Gordon MacDonald, Ray Paruch, Kim Sheppard-Campbell, Steven MacNeil, and Dave MacKeigan) have spent years fighting for. Article content As we embark on this next chapter, it’s worth briefly revisiting the Aug. 18 meeting and what this meeting tells us about our historical tendencies when it comes to the greenfield site. Article content At centre left in the above photo is the greenfield site where the proposed Novaporte container terminal and Novazone logistic park that were expected to go in the Edwardsville/Point Edward…