I have received an answer to my questions regarding the Port of Sydney Development Corporation (PSDC) and the answer is:

The Port of Sydney's annual general meeting is Saturday, March 12, starting at 9:30 am at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion. This is the first AGM for the new Port of Sydney Development Corporation (PSDC).

Budget and organizational information will be presented at that time.

UPDATE: According to this Tom Ayers story in LocalXpress, there will be no opportunity for the public to ask questions at this meeting. Said CBRM CAO Michael Merritt, "The public is welcome to listen in on Saturday's meeting, but there are no plans to open the floor to questions from the public, though officials will stick around after the meeting to talk to anyone who has questions."

Moreover, the financials will be unaudited and incomplete, as the PSDC's fiscal year does not end until March 31, 2016. "Once [audited financials] are ready, likely in September, they will be posted on the corporation's website, but will have to wait for the next annual meeting to be formally adopted," Merritt told LocalXpress.

And as if that isn't enough transparency for one day, Merritt also says that the new port board--the one that was supposed to replace the interim board in April 2016--is not likely to be appointed "until sometime after the next general municipal election."

Mayoral spokesperson Christina Lamey also directed me to the press release describing the event which states very clearly that the PSDC is both "accountable to the public" and "a publicly accountable organization."

But as we prepare for Saturday's AGM, let's consider some of the ways in which the PSDC and the Mayor and Council have been less than publicly accountable on the port file:

1. Mayor Clarke presided over 21 in camera meetings between January 2014 and October 2015 during which, according to Councillor Ray Paruch, the port was discussed.

2. Mayor Clarke went to China in October 2014, telling the Cape Breton Post that he was travelling at the "invitation of the Chinese government" to attend a food safety and security conference and that he would also see a guy about a port. Before anyone could say, "That's weird, why China?" the Post provided this helpful explanation:

"The relationship with the Chinese dates back almost 10 years to former Cape Breton University John Harker's connections with universities in the far east. Clarke said the Chinese government wants to deepen the relationship by 'twinning' a Chinese city with the CBRM.

"'It's something that I've been open to and so they've taken the initiative, it's just (CBRM) responding on that side,' said Clarke."

In retrospect, he seems to be stressing that "It's all China's idea" theme pretty hard. Suspiciously hard, even.

But that's probably because we now know that Albert Barbusci and Barry Sheehy (Harbor Port Development Partners) had insinuated themselves into the port file by October 2014. We know this because when they were awarded their two-year exclusive contract to market the port in June 2015, the Mayor announced proudly that they'd been working on the file for 16 months, which meant, since March 2014.

We know that when the Mayor went back to China in November 2015, this time with Barbusci, his costs were supposedly covered by the same Centre for International Cooperation that sponsored the original food safety conference.

And we also know that twinning the CBRM with the Chinese city of Dalian is one of HPDP's crowning achievements to date, even though, in economic development terms, it's just slightly better than having six million Chinese pen-pals.

So what happened, basically, is that the Mayor secretly engaged new port marketers who had two advantages over the port marketers who had been engaged the old fashioned way (with Council approval) in July 2013: 1) they didn't know anything about marketing ports (I'm not sure this actually an advantage, but it is a fact); and 2) they worked for for free.

At least, they ostensibly worked for free: they claimed to have spent $1.2 million of their own money over that initial 16-month period. That means they were spending about $75,000 a month. (By way of comparison, Ed Zimny and Gordon Forsyth IV, the old port consultants, were paid $10,000 a month by the CBRM). And the latest estimate of HPDP's spending from PSDC CEO Marlene Usher is $3 million. So between June 2015 and March 2016, they've supposedly burned through another $1.8 million or $225,000 a month.

Will the CBRM eventually have to reimburse them? Could we see an itemized list of their expenditures?

(I clearly do not know how to write a "primer." That was a very long, roundabout way around of asking a question.)

3. The Mayor signed an exclusivity deal with Harbor Port Development Partners (in June 2015, as mentioned) allowing them to market our port for two years without a call for proposals. (See attached contract)

PORT GOVERNANCE

4.  The Mayor appointed former ACOA executive Marlene Usher to the post of PSDC CEO without an open job competition. The post pays $200,000 a year. If it's actually necessary, and if the CEO is really supposed to "devote all her time to developing a governance structure for the Port of Sydney," as Clarke said (CB Post, February 3, 2015), then why not hire someone with expertise in port governance?

5. The PSDC has no budget. The Sydney Ports Corporation had a final budget to take it from the beginning of December 2014 to to the end of March 2015, when the PSDC took over (you can see it discussed during the December 2, 2014 Council meeting; use the menu on the right to go to Port Update) but there has been, to the best of my knowledge, no budget passed since then.

So the PSDC has been operating for almost a year without a budget, although not without funds--the PSDC CEO was to take control over all Sydney Ports Corporation funds in trust. That included $2.5 million left over from the harbor dredge and earmarked for new navigational aids. Usher told the Chronicle Herald in February 2016, that some of that money had been "redeployed."

What are we going to use to pay for the navigational aids and when are we to get them?

Despite having no budget, the PSDC paid $159,000 for a port study by Bechtel and $82,000 for a port study by Industream of Copenhagen.

The PSDC has also paid some of the Mayor's travel expenses.

The PSDC has hired a business development manager (with no port experience) and was advertising for an administrative assistant, both, presumably, to be paid from its non-existent budget.

Could we have a full accounting of PSDC spending from April 1, 2015 to the present?

And seriously, what is up with the PSDC board? Why form the PSDC before you have a port governance model in place? Why create an interim board of elected officials and municipal employees, opening the door to any number of possible conflicts of interest? When is the actual board going to be formed? Who will be on it?

(Okay, that was no better. Maybe I shouldn't have called this a "primer.")

MCKEIL DEAL

6. In June 2015, the CBRM bought 24 acres of land from Sydport Operations (Jim Kehoe, president) and East Coast Metal Fabrication (Jim Kehoe, president) for $1.2 million in order to rent it to Prince Edward Marine (PEM), an arm of McKeil Marine. (See attached contract.)

Why did the CBRM need to get involved in what should have been a private deal between two private companies?

Why did it pay $1.2 million for a property that includes wharves so far past their best-before date that a 2011 Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) report prepared for Enterprise Cape Breton Corp (ECBC) said that "[b]ased on the age of the Wharf Infrastructure and its advanced state of disrepair, PWGSC is of the opinion that it has reached the end of its useful life."

How many of the following benefits to the sale, outlined to Council on June 16, 2015 by PSDC CEO Marlene Usher, have actually been realized:

• Capital investment by PEM estimated at $18 million
• Fuel purchase from local companies estimated at $3-4 million annually
• Provision of tug services with potential to add millions to local economy
• The creation of 100+ direct and indirect jobs over five years
• Improved infrastructure at Sydport Wharf
• Expansion of East Coast Metal Fabrication resulting in establishment of $1 million paint shop and job creation

Sign at Sydport wharves (March 9, 2016)

ARCHIBALD'S WHARF

7. In December 2014, the CBRM announced its intention to sell Archibald's Wharf, a public recreational property on the North Sydney waterfront, to Canadian Maritime Engineering (CME, See attached contract).

This deal, which took place despite serious public outcry, was sold on the promise of development and jobs. According to the contract signed between the CBRM and CME, CME was to invest $5 million in its North Sydney operations within a year of the beginning of the construction season--which, for the purposes of the contract, was May 1, 2015.

It's been almost a year, how much has CME invested in its North Sydney operations since May 1, 2015? (Hint: The picture you saw when you clicked on this article was taken March 9, 2016).

And I'm going to end it here, because if I keep going, I may never stop. The problem is, I've read so much about port development this past month that my feet feel soggy. And I haven't even touched on what's up with the railway? What's happening with the transfer of the harbor bottom from Transport Canada? Why is a Montreal real estate company called Canderel involved in the deal? Is the owner a friend of our Montreal-based port marketers? What, exactly, is the Chinese Communications Construction Company going to do for us?

But I'm guessing that if you go to Saturday's AGM, you'll be bringing your own questions.

And I'm looking forward to hearing the answers.