Sydney port development: It’s time for a public tender

The clock is ticking for Sydney Harbour.

Last week, CBRM Council met for six and a half hours to consider awarding a fourth untendered contract to the latest version of the company (Novaporte) that has held on to the same since 2015 (previously named SHIP and before that Harbour Port Development Partners (HPDP), all headed by Montrealer Albert Barbusci).

After the marathon private meeting, Council met for one minute in public and voted 11-1 to have “CBRM legal representation continue negotiations with SHIP pursuant to Council direction”.

In speaking with CBC after the meeting, Mayor Clarke indicated that the CBRM legal department would have another agreement for SHIP/Novaporte for Council to review within two weeks.

He went on to name the growing list of port-related opportunities now in sight in Atlantic Canada: offshore energy, changing trade patterns, a new national arctic strategy, investments in the Coast Guard. He rhymed off a similar list the day prior in his year-end interview on CBC when asked why Novaporte should get a fourth untendered contract.

Although Mayor Clarke often conflates massive shifts in global, national, and provincial economic flows and policies with the work of Nova Porte, it is important that we speak about the past (what Novaporte/SHIP/HPDP/Barbusci have or have not accomplished in the last ten years) and the future (new opportunities for Sydney Harbour) with the separation they are due.

HPDP, then SHIP, then Novaporte have had the exclusive untendered contract to develop the Greenfield site since 2015. No development has happened. No terminal operator. No shipping lines. No marshalling contracts. No demonstrable progress reported to CBRM Council and the community. A trip to China. A trip to Denmark. Now they’d like another contract negotiated in private to protect their commercial interests. They’d like us to wait a little longer to see if in years 11-15 they might make something happen.

If you owned a business, or ran an organization, or headed up hiring, would you hand over another multi-year employment contract to an employee who failed to produce anything in their first ten years of employment? Or would you post the job to see who might come through the door?  

SYDNEY PORT SITES: FIRST AND NEAR LAST PLACE

In August 2025, Net Zero Atlantic (NZA) released a report on the ports throughout Atlantic Canada in light of anticipated demand for offshore wind development. Beginning from a list of 77 ports, and narrowing this down to 10 for in-depth study, Net Zero Atlantic ranked the readiness and positioning of each port. Incredibly, part of Sydney Harbour – Atlantic Canada Bulk Terminal (ACBT) – tied for first place with the Port of Argentia in Newfoundland.

The study – which looked at things like upland area, water frontage, water depth at berth, distance to main navigation channels, and distance to offshore wind leases – put the investment needed for the Bulk Terminal at $135-$230 million (with the upper range representing the cost to achieve a full-service offshore wind site) and the construction timeline at 27-51 months.

When asked about the study by CBC, Vice President of ACBT, Richard Morykot, said the privately owned company has already invested tens of millions of dollars, has been marshalling parts for the U.S. offshore wind industry and is ready to spend more in advance of the expected boom in Canada.

In comparison – as an offshore wind lay-down/marshalling site – Novaporte’s proposal ranked ninth of the ten requiring almost three times as much cash ($653 million) and taking twice as long to come to fruition (48-63 months). Given this, it’s odd to hear Mayor Clarke repeatedly try to weave together future offshore wind and a fourth untendered contract for Novaporte, while remaining silent on the immense global opportunity that Atlantic Canada Bulk Terminal has quietly unlocked.

The role of the mayor’s office is neutral leadership in a coordinated multi-stakeholder development of all port assets on behalf of the community, not advocacy for one company to have their untendered contract renewed again.

WEIGHING THEIR OPTIONS

Council has a lot to consider, with a great deal resting on their shoulders, in the weeks ahead.

On the one hand, they could give a fourth untendered contract to a company that has shown no progress while holding exclusive development rights for ten years. On the other, they could decide to stop throwing good money after bad. To step into the unknown and work to issue and distribute a professional request for proposals for the development of the Greenfield site. One would leave the community feeling like its backroom business as usual. The other would offer a sense of hope and confidence that we can conduct our business in accordance with modern principles of good governance (transparency, fairness, competition, community interest).

If we want to be treated like a serious community, we have to act like a serious community. If, and as, other levels of government look to us for business cases for investments in things like rail, we must be able to show that we understand and employ sound business practices like tenders for municipal contracts. After all, we manage to tender for things like garbage pickup and snow removal.

The strategic position of Sydney Harbour as trade winds and renewable energy winds shift is undeniable. Cape Breton, and Nova Scotia as a whole, may prove to be at the epicentre of the next energy revolution and so there is so much to be hopeful about: the restoration of rail, Coast Guard ice breakers, transition to renewables, offshore wind leases, green hydrogen. But none of these are the result of past contracts for HPDP/SHIP/Novaporte/Barbusci, and none of them justify future untendered contracts.

We must be careful in this moment not to link our optimism and emerging national and provincial developments to a private sector company that has brought us neither.

Much opportunity lies ahead.

A new contract with Novaporte is insufficient.

It’s time for a public tender.

Erika Shea is the President & CEO of New Dawn Enterprises, Canada’s oldest non-profit community development corporation.

Cape Breton Post, January 15, 2026