50 years of community development on Cape Breton
Cape Breton Post, June 3, 2026
By Nicole Sullivan
Canada’s oldest Community Development Corporation is celebrating 50 years of doing business to better Cape Breton.
Since June 3, 1976, New Dawn Enterprises has been working to build Cape Breton up while improving life on the island for residents.
Founded by Father Greg MacLeod, a Catholic priest and professor of psychology at the then College of Cape Breton, it was started amid the decline of the coal and steel industries.
There wasn’t enough affordable housing, jobs or disability supports.
MacLeod created New Dawn Enterprises to address these issues and drew on the Antigonish Movement, which came from wanting to address socio-economic problems negatively impacting the Atlantic Provinces since the 1880s.
Five decades later, New Dawn is internationally known and praised, becoming the model for other initiatives addressing homelessness, food insecurity and education/skills development.
The non-profit, volunteer-driven organization has also become a national model for other social enterprises dedicated to bettering their communities.
Along with operating the Meals on Wheels program since 1983, New Dawn has opened seniors’ homes and run continuing care home care services.
New Dawn also owns Pine Tree Park, a pallet-shelter village that provides housing for people living rough, and Eleanor Court – a supportive housing complex with rental units and wrap-around supports. Many people living in Eleanor Court in Sydney were tenants at Pine Tree Park.
As well, New Dawn is investing in a new family and youth centre in Glace Bay, which is currently being built. It will provide a place for kids and teens to hang out, participate in programs and get a warm meal, as well as other supports.
“New Dawn is, at its core, something very human: a desire for the dignity of our community and everyone in it, a quest for freedom from the conditions that hurt us, and a knowing that we have everything we need to bring about a better future,” said CEO Erika Shea in an emailed release about the 50th anniversary.
“It is people of good heart, being of service, and bringing their gifts to bear to better the lives of others.”
Along with Cafe Marie inside the Eltuek Arts Centre, New Dawn also runs Cape Breton’s first private home care company and profits from businesses are reinvested into community development projects.
Through the years New Dawn launched a welding training program that later expanded to become the New Dawn College, oversaw a $13 million community investment program, launched the Cape Breton Island Centre for Immigration to provide settlement services for newcomers and transformed the former Holy Angels Convent into the Eltuek Arts Centre.
As well, New Dawn invested in a solar panel energy field at Pine Tree Park and created Nova Scotia’s first net-zero community.
“New Dawn’s aspiration was always to demonstrate that this community can do things for itself, can take on the challenge of solving problems that it is confronted with, and I think New Dawn has demonstrated that we can do it ourselves,” said Rankin MacSween, who was CEO before Shea after he took over for Fr. MacLeod.
“Of course, it’s never easy but we can do it, and I think, to this point, that is New Dawn’s legacy.”
For information about upcoming events celebrating New Dawn’s 50th anniversary, visit newdawn.ca.
