N.S. land protection should extend to scuttling West Mabou golf course idea: Ecology Action Centre

“I doubt if the ministers who made this announcement today are doing it with the intention that some future government might undo what they have done,” Plourde said of Monday’s announcement to designate 9,300 hectares of Crown land, including 800 hectares in the newly designated Sackville River Wilderness Area, for the benefit of Nova Scotians and the environment,” says Ray Plourde of the Ecology Action Centre.

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Top court dismisses as moot an appeal related to fairness in Owls Head case

Despite the court’s contention that the “issue arising in this case has not recurred and may never recur,” a very similar situation could arise from a  proposal by Cabot Cape Breton, owners of two successful 18-hole golf courses in and near Inverness on the western side of Cape Breton, applying to the province to lease about one-third of the 275-hectare West Mabou Beach provincial park to develop a third 18-hole golf course in the same area.

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COMMENTARY: West Mabou proposal threatens all provincial parks

“The recent contention around golf course proposals for West Mabou and Owls Head surely must have Nova Scotians, locally in the Mabou area and across the province, wondering if our provincial park properties will ever be truly protected from the ambitions of private developers and the presumed entitlements of political operatives,” writes Dale Smith, who served as manager of parks planning with DNR and as director of Protected Areas with NS Environment.

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Raymond Plourde: Pop Cabot’s trial balloon now

The reaction was swift and almost universal across the province: “OMG, not again!” 

The dust has barely settled on the Owls Head fiasco and another American billionaire golf course developer has the temerity to take another run at another treasured piece of protected public lands — this time at West Mabou Beach Provincial Park — for the second time, no less, having already been told no by the government in 2018. 

Cabot’s audacious request sets the stage for another Owls Head debacle. The nerve of these guys! 

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