At 9:30 on Monday morning, January 20, 2020, CBRM held a workshop with the goal of updating its Climate Change Action Plan, which Council adopted on May 14 of 2014.

Yay, CBRM Council?

Maybe.

Does this mean that Council now realizes that they have the jurisdiction or power to consider environmental impacts of a specific proposed development?

I feel like speaking in cartoon today: Here is how things have gone down in the CBRM when a development that threatens the environment has been proposed:

At this point, confusion still hangs in the air, like the ethereal mist above the lake on a cold winter morning, around how Council sees it role in protecting the lake and the lands around it. 

Say an enormous ill-inconceived development project for the Bras d’Or Lake were to saunter into chambers, sit down, put up its boots, and demand to be allowed to ignore the environment, would Council rightly state that it has the responsibility to protect the lake and its watershed?

I don’t know.

I hope so.

I do know that we should find out. 

Stay tuned.