| Sydney, Nova Scotia |
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| settlements established in 1785 | |
| communities in the cape breton regional municipality | |
| port cities in canada | |
| mining communities in nova scotia | |
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Sydney is a community and former city in Nova Scotia , Canada , and is located on its namesake harbour in eastern Cape Breton County . With roughly 26,000 citizens, it forms the nucleus of the largest population centre on Cape Breton Island , the Cape Breton Regional Municipality , with which it has been amalgamated since 1995 . Sydney suffered an economic decline for several decades in the later part of the 20th Century as local Coal and Steel industries underwent significant changes. The closure of the Sydney Steel Corporation 's steel mill and the Cape Breton Development Corporation 's coal mines in 2000 - 2001 have resulted in attempts by the municipal, provincial and federal governments to diversify the area economy. At the start of the 21st Century , Sydney faces a significant challenge in the cleanup of the Sydney Tar Ponds , a tidal estuary contaminated with a variety of coal-based wastes from coke ovens that supplied the steel industry. After extensive public consultation and technical study, a CDN$400-million cleanup plan jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments awaits further environmental assessment. Sydney is home to a significant Tourism industry based on Cruise Ships as a result of its extensive port facilities. The port also holds potential as a logistics base for future offshore Petroleum and Natural Gas exploration in the ''Laurentian Basin'', southeast of Sydney; an area that has been touted as a potential economic catalyst for the industrial Cape Breton area. Light manufacturing and Information Technology are other sectors the Island's residents are attempting to strengthen in an effort to diversify the Island's economy. Cape Breton University is located immediately east of Sydney on the main highway to Glace Bay and the Nova Scotia Community College maintains the Marconi Campus adjacent to the university campus. Sydney is also home to the QMJHL 's Cape Breton Screaming Eagles . People born in Sydney include:
HISTORY Sydney was founded by Col. Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres in 1785 , and named in honour of Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (also the Home Secretary in the British cabinet at the time). Lord Sydney appointed Col. DesBarres governor of the new colony of Cape Breton Island . Col. DesBarres landed a group that consisted primarily of poor English citizens and disbanded soldiers. A group of Loyalists from the state of New York , fleeing the aftermath of the American Revolution , were added to the immigrants upon their arrival in the neighbouring colony of Nova Scotia . The site DesBarres chose for the new settlement was along the Southwest Arm of Sydney Harbour, a drowned valley of the Sydney River , which forms part of Spanish Bay. Between 1784 - 1820 , Sydney was the capital of the British colony of Cape Breton Island. In the early twentieth century Sydney became home to one of Canada's largest steel plants. The Sydney area became known as the Industrial Heart of Cape Breton because of the steel plant in Sydney and coal mines in the adjoining towns of Glace Bay and Sydney Mines. By the 1970's the coal and steel industries had fallen on hard times and were taken over by the federal and provincial governments. In recent years both industries have been closed. The residents of the area began to look to a variety of other economic development possibilities. Tourism, music, light manufacturing and I.T. have become the new backbone of the areas economy. During World War Two , Sydney was a very important port, being one of the two Canadian harbours from which Convoy s left North America for Britain. They tended to be slower convoys and had the prefix SC (for Sydney). For particulars about one convoy, SC 7, see the section in the article, HMS Scarborough . Also there were plans drawn up in case of a loss of the British Isles that the majority of the North Atlantic fleet would fall back to Sydney harbour. Sydney's coal shipping and steel manufacturing were essential ingredients in the Allied victory. Sydney is a community with many residents boasting a divers ethnic background. Whitney Pier is one of the larger areas where many ethnic groups reside. Whitney Pier area is located between the former Sydney Steel Plant, and city landfill. In one part of the community, Fredrick St, there was contamination found within a few of the homes and in the soil of those who lived in that area. An orange substance was found in some of the resident's basements. Testing of the substance lasted over a year and many were outraged by the incident. Some residents were relocated to a safer residental area in Sydney. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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