A Liberal MLA is trying to squash the proposed golf course at West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.
Iain Rankin reached out to the new Minister of Natural Resources on Monday after hearing from many frustrated constituents on the possible development.
His letter congratulated Kim Maisland on her new role and addressed how community members do not want to see this special place lose its protection.
He tells our newsroom the social media post he made of it received over a thousand reactions, some who are frustrated.
“Most people, from my conversations, aren’t opposed to a new development. They’re opposed to development within the provincial park,” he shares with us.
This would be Cabot’s third proposal for the protected land.
“There’s no mechanism to allow a golf course within a current protected area within the provincial park. So, what would be required is removing that legal protection and that’s really the big part of this that bothers a lot of people in Nova Scotia, not just in Mabou,” he adds.
He says our parks which are deemed fully protected areas should remain that designation in perpetuity.
Lands go through a very rigourous process around biodiversity assessments and public consultation to evaluate and give protection to species at risk and sensitive ecosystems, he explains.
“A lot of our coasts and the vast majority in our province is privately owned, so the few areas that we have left that are crown land and especially areas that [have] gone through that process already should remain protected.”
Rankin is determined to put this whole idea to rest in interest of saving the land.
