The Latest Word

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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By Save Owls Head, ago

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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By Save Owls Head, ago

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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By Save Owls Head, ago

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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By Save Owls Head, ago

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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By Save Owls Head, ago

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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By Save Owls Head, ago