Francis Campbell
The Chronicle Herald
November 25, 2021
“My desire is to protect that land,” Premier Tim Houston said Thursday at the completion of a news conference in Halifax.
“We understand the importance of Owls Head, we understand the importance of listening to Nova Scotians on what they want to happen in their province.”
Premier Houston
“My commitment during the campaign was that we would look at what was signed and we’d work with what’s in front of us,” the premier said. “Nova Scotians should have confidence in what’s unfolding there. The taxpayers of this province got out of that deal that was signed by the prior government without any cost of pain. That’s a good thing for Nova Scotians. We’ll continue to manage that file with the same approach. We understand the importance of Owls Head, we understand the importance of listening to Nova Scotians on what they want to happen in their province.”
Houston said the first hurdle was to deal with the mess his Progressive Conservative government inherited from the previous Liberal government.
“We’ve dealt with the mess we inherited,” Houston said. “Now, I think Nova Scotians should have some confidence that we’ll move forward appropriately.”
Houston said his government “dealt with the file like adults” after winning the August provincial election.
“We made it very clear the level of consultations that would be required before there was any movement toward constructing a golf course on that land,” Houston said. “We laid out what would be required for consultations and the proponent made their decision based on that.”
Dealing with the file was Step 1, the premier said.
“We have some work to do around the next steps, around protecting it and around really understanding the file,” Houston said. “But we had to deal with what we had to deal with. We’ve done that and we will continue to do that.”
