Jennifer Henderson
The Halifax Examiner
July 19, 2021

Full article

Nova Scotians will go to the polls on August 17 to elect a new government. 

… The 38-year old Rankin may be the closest thing to a Green Premier Nova Scotians have seen to date, but he could also be hobbled by his support for the proposed Goldboro natural gas plant (which now seems aborted) and by some past decisions he made during his stint as Environment* minister, when he allowed the Owl’s Head provincial park to be de-listed as a protected place and open for business as a golf course development on the Eastern Shore (Did you know he has a diploma in golf club management?). 

Rankin was also at the cabinet table when — after hydro from Muskrat Falls was delayed — the McNeil government gave NS Power the green light (an ambiguous phrase in this case) to burn more biomass for the next two years. And how about the glacial progress on recommendations from the Lahey Report tabled three years ago during Rankin’s tenure as the Minister of Lands and Forestry? 

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*Editor’s Note: Iain Rankin was the Minister of Lands and Forestry (not the Environment) when the government secretly delisted Owls Head Provincial Park from Our Parks and Protected Areas: A Plan for Nova Scotia.

Thanks to the legal case, the public can now read the Memorandum to Executive Council submitted by lain Rankin (then Minister of Lands and Forestry) & Margaret Miller (then Minister of Environment) on February 26, 2019.

The Memorandum to Executive Council (MEC) focuses on the “Decision on whether to withdraw Crown lands at Owls Head identified for protection in the Parks and Protected Areas Plan.” 

Due to a freedom of information request (FOIPOP), the public can also read the Report and Recommendation to Executive Council that Minister Rankin submitted on August 23, 2019.

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