Seeking superyachts. Signed, Sydney, Nova Scotia

In today’s Big Story Podcast, Sydney — a town of 30,000 people on Cape Breton Island — is looking for a fresh economic start. Some think they can achieve that by encouraging the one per cent of the world’s one per cent to bring themselves, and especially their outrageously expansive, ridiculously extravagant and, yes, environmentally sketchy mega-yachts to its harbour. And, of course, their untold wealth to local businesses.

Michael MacDonald wrote about the effort to attract superyachts to Sydney for The Canadian Press. He says that while the plan could be an economic boon to the area, there are concerns about allowing in these kinds of vessels.

“[Superyachts] represent the extreme concentration of uber-wealth in a very small group of people, and I think it’s important for people who live in this region to ask the questions: do we really want to be part of that? Does this fit in with what we’re trying to do in terms of saving the planet?” says MacDonald.

So will this plan work? Is it a massively ambitious way to boost the economy, or an environmental nightmare? And could the answer to all of those questions be “yes”?

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