Letter to the Editor
Bob Bancroft, President of Nature Nova Scotia
The Chronicle Herald
January 8, 2020
Further to Jim Vibert’s Jan. 6 column on the provincial government’s planned conversion of Eastern Shore’s Owls Head Park Reserve to a golf course, readers may recall that Nature Nova Scotia and two other groups took the province to the Supreme Court last September over its failure to enact its own species-at-risk legislation. Wildlife cannot survive without suitable habitats. Owl’s Head is one more example of the government’s callous disregard for species at risk, and public consultation.
Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin assures us that the province will reach the goal of 13 per cent protected areas in 2020. Is he aware that his government and the federal government pledged to protect 17 per cent of that land base by 2020?
For decades, Mr. Rankin’s Lands and Forestry senior bureaucrats have been steadfastly converting the remaining habitats on public lands into golf courses — cheap chips and pulp to enable private profits.
They are not acting in the public interest, nor protecting species like the mainland moose.
Public servants? These bureaucrats, and their mindsets, need to be replaced.
Bob Bancroft, president, Nature Nova Scotia
