Letter: Other Parks Still Pending

Owls Head to become Nova Scotia’s next provincial park” (June 15 story). Kudos to Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton on this announcement. This magnificent 266-hectare section of the province’s coastline certainly deserves protection and provincial park status.

But what is the status of the 12 properties, many of them proposed new provincial parks or their expansions, for which public consultations were announced on Feb. 4, 2021? Or the eight parcels for which consultations were advertised on July 27, 2021? Or the 49 sites publicized as “also intended for protection” on Earth Day (April 22) in 2021? The public is waiting.

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Park designation saga doesn’t end at Owls Head, environmental group says

“Without stronger legal protections, Nova Scotia’s parks and protected areas will perpetually be at risk,” Lee said. 

That protection could come from a shift in common law to recognize that “the environment has become such an important issue for Nova Scotians and Canadians generally that it is time to recognize that the government does have an obligation to be transparent when it comes to important lands with ecological values,” lawyer Jamie Simpson told The Chronicle Herald in the past.

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National Observer: Once eyed for a golf course, N.S. pledges to make Owls Head a provincial park

“After nearly five decades of public consultations, government plans and scientific studies, Owls Head Provincial Park is finally getting the legal protection it needs and deserves.”

… However, the park is one of many areas needing protection, said Lee. There are 125 provincial parks, nature reserves and wilderness areas awaiting the same designation and could face delistment.

“Without stronger legal protections, Nova Scotia’s parks and protected areas will perpetually be at risk,” said Lee.

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