Jennifer Henderson
Halifax Examiner
October 25, 2022
Full article here
The Cabot Group, which operates the Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, is intending to apply for a lease much [sic] of the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park to build a third golf course.
“I can’t think of a worse place, ecologically speaking, to have a golf course,” says Hunt.
“The main feature is the two-kilometre long sandy beach. It has one of the most extensive dune systems in the province. The front faces the Northumberland Strait, the back side is on the Mabou Harbour where you have salt marshes — it has a lot of biodiversity. You are going to rip and tear the property of trees. You are going to fill in marshes and strip off the marram grass on the sand dunes. I mean, the Nova Scotia government is in the process of trying to implement a Coastal Protection Act, right? This flies in the face of everything that Act stands for. If they give this proposal even the minimum amount of attention, then in my mind, the government has zero credibility.”
… Raymond Plourde is the wilderness coordinator for the Ecology Action Centre. Plourde supports Hunt’s position, adding that if the Cabot Group is hell-bent on developing another Cape Breton golf course, it should be paying to buy privately owned land and not asking to build on publicly owned land protected by legislation.
