by Anne Farries, Herald News

This week in Waycobah, in central Cape Breton, the Trans-Canada Highway is clogged and rumbling as road crews widen it to accommodate traffic turning left into the new First Nation gas bar, convenience store and Tim Hortons.

Most of the three dozen, freshly-trained employees who began serving coffee or ringing in gas sales on Dec. 1 can walk to work from the surrounding hillside village. Chief Rod Googoo describes their employment as the culmination of five years of fiscal prudence that began with the band’s exit from federal co-management in 2011, the year he came into office.

“The future has come to Waycobah,” said Googoo, who brought his ...