Are most of us working for Cabot CB but we don't realize it?

Lorna MacNeil goCapeBreton.com - Jan. 14, 2023 Full article published here

Well, according to Cabot CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar: “We’re the largest employer in Cape Breton, and we realize our responsibility to be a good corporate citizen in that community.”

I live in Cape Breton, and instinctively know that this cannot be true. I have never met anyone who works at Cabot. I don’t get out much, it is true, and Cabot does hire people, but the largest employer on The Island?

... Cape Breton University, for example, must employ quite a few people.

• The Cape Breton Post has reported that 167 CBU employees make over 100,000 CDN a year.

• There are about 5,511 students enrolled annually at CBU and this number is climbing – it seems weird that a golf resort that closes for 7 months of the year would need more full-time employees than they do.

What does Nova Scotia Works have to say?

• There are 55,900 people in the Cape Breton workforce and that 82% of these workers work fulltime. So, working fulltime does not, as I understand it, include working in a seasonal job. This means that most people in Cape Breton do not work at its largest employer (according to Cabot Cape Breton.)

• The four largest employment sectors in Cape Breton are: in order, healthcare and social services; wholesale and retail trade; educational services; and construction.

I rest my case.

Why do I feel the duty to point out that Cabot Cape Breton, at least part of the time, dramatically overstates its positive impact on Cape Breton Island?

It has to do with Mabou.

Cabot is trying to make the case that what is good for Cabot is good for Cape Breton... So, it is important that we understand what Cabot is saying, and whether it is based in fact or not.

Read the full article here.