Some in Cape Breton are angry and preparing to fight as a nearby golf course developer eyes the windswept beaches of West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.
Nadine Hunt was part of two previous campaigns to stop the Cabot golf company from expanding into the park on the west coast of Cape Breton Island.
This time is worse, Hunt said in a recent interview.
Now, the provincial government seems open to the expansion, she said. The company has even made a website for the project.
“We feel powerless,” Hunt said, the sable-coloured beach stretching out behind her. “People have said, ‘We’ll be in front of the bulldozers.’ Many, many people have said that. It’s terrible if it’s going to have to come to that.”
West Mabou Beach Provincial Park encompasses about 2.8 square kilometres of sand dunes and beaches along the shore of the Northumberland Strait, in Mabou, Cape Breton. The park is home to more than a dozen rare and endangered species, including the piping plover, a tiny shorebird that nests in the sand.
It is the only known spot in the Maritimes to find the upswept moonwort, a fern whose thick leaves curl upward in clusters of finger-like lobes.
The park attracts tourists and locals, Hunt said. On Friday, a couple read books in lawn chairs they had set up in the sand. Other visitors brought dogs who swam in the ocean and chased thrown pieces of driftwood.
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Cabot owns and operates two 18-hole golf courses in nearby Inverness, N.S., plus an 11-hole short course, three restaurants, a 72-room lodge and nearly 50 villas and homes, according to its website.
The company did not respond to a request for comment, but it has launched a web page for what it calls its “Mabou golf project,” saying it is “exploring the potential for a new world-class course at West Mabou Beach.”
In 2023, Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservative government said provincial parks legislation wouldn’t allow for a golf course at the beach.
But after winning 42 of 55 seats in Nova Scotia’s 2024 election, the Houston government suggests a golf course could be good for the local economy.
A spokesperson for the province’s Department of Natural Resources confirmed last week that Cabot has come forward with ideas for a new development on land within the park.
“If a company wants to explore new opportunities that could lead to good jobs and other investments in our communities, we think that’s great and we will hear them out,” said Alicia Doyle in an email.
On Tuesday, the Tories used their majority to vote down a Liberal motion that would reaffirm the government’s commitment to protected land, including West Mabou Beach.
When asked if Cabot had approached him, Kyle MacQuarrie, the Progressive Conservative member for the region, told The Canadian Press in a statement that he was “informed only that something would be coming forward.” MacQuarrie declined to be interviewed.
People in the region are angry, Hunt said. They worry that discussions have been going on behind closed doors and they won’t have a say in the outcome. There were nine letters opposing a West Mabou beach golf development in last week’s edition of the Inverness Oran, the local paper.
“The anger is amplified even more this time,” Hunt said. “Like, the third time, are you kidding me? This company is coming back for the third time to try to get this park, after being rejected twice? What disrespect does this show for the community?”
Sivan Hobden said she and her husband moved to the area because they loved the park so much. She said the province’s current rules allow the premier to remove, without consultation, the public park status of a piece of land.
She worries the Houston government will use those rules to delist West Mabou Beach as a provincial park and let Cabot move in.
If the government is interested in supporting job creation and economic growth, they should tell Cabot to buy private land instead, Hobden said.
“That is the crux of the issue, they can just buy private land,” she said. “It would have the same economic benefits.”
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