By Richard Bell
The controversy over Owls Head has enmeshed several politicians, including Central Nova MP Sean Fraser. Opposition has been growing rapidly against the province’s proposed sale of land—long designated as Owls Head Provincial Park—in order to sell it to a wealthy American investor who wants to build three golf courses on the land.
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[Note: This article was published by The Coast on January 30, 2020 in partnership with the Eastern Shore Cooperator ]
By Richard Bell
More than 200 people packed into the Ship Harbour Community Centre in the afternoon on Sunday, January 26 in the latest escalation of a land-use dispute over the selling of protected Crown land to a private developer to build three golf courses—a dispute that also jeopardizes the province's reputation as a safe place to invest.
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More than 200 people turned out on Sunday, January 26 2020 for the public meeting on the fate of Owls Head Provincial Park. The Facebook group Save Little Harbour/Owls Head from Becoming a Golf Course and the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association sponsored the meeting. The sponsors oppose the sale of these public lands to a private developer planning to build three golf courses. During the Q&A session after the formal presentations, several people did raise questions about the need for jobs on the Eastern Shore, and the potential for the proposed golf courses to boost economic development on the shore. (If you see any corrections that need to be made to the speakers, please email them to: [email protected]. We apologize in advance for any misspellings.)
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In a video on the Eastern Shore Cooperator's Facebook page, MLA Kevin Murphy mounts a vigorous defense of the controversial decision by the provincial government to remove Owls Head Provincial Park from a list of protected areas in order to sell it to a very wealthy American couple who want to build as many as three golf courses there. [We apologize for the loud typing in the background.] This video is from the Musquodoboit Harbour Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Old School in Musquodoboit Harbour on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.
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What does Owls Head Provincial Park look like? I took a walk there on January 21 to get some on-the-ground photos. Few people have actually walked the land and the shore other than locals gathering berries in the many bogs. The aerial photos on Google Earth show a gently rolling landscape where the last glacier raked its fingers across the exposed granite, leaving long rows of furrowed granite with boggy areas in between the rows.
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Click on this link to see the press release announcing a public community information meeting on January 26, 2020 at 2pm at the Ship Harbour Community Centre at 214 West Ship Harbour Road off Highway #7.
By Richard Bell
Proponents of establishing an in-saltwater sanctuary for beluga whales ran into strongly-worded vocal opposition at a public meeting in Sheet Harbour on December 16, 2019, Opponents of the project from Mushaboom were out in force, with at least one warning of violence if the project were to go ahead.
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By Richard Bell
Gary Burrill, head of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party, told the Cooperator in a phone interview that the NDP intended to challenge the province’s decision to delist Owls Head Provincial Park and sell the land to a golf-course developer, particularly the use of secrecy.
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By Colleen Turlo
If you were out walking in Taylor Head Provincial Park on a brisk Wednesday at the end of October, you may have spotted a group of students huddled at the water’s edge or picking through the tall grasses by the beach—a group of Grade 10 science students from Duncan MacMillan High School taking part in a microplastics workshop.
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Sydnee Lynn started the Facebook group, Save Little Harbour/Owls Head from Becoming a Golf Course. She posted the following letter from Lands and Forest Minister Iain Rankin on this Facebook page. Key quote: "It is government’s role to balance the need to protect land with the need to allow economic activity in an area."
Dear Ms. McKay:
I am responding to your letter of January 12, 2020 regarding Crown lands located at Little Harbour, Nova Scotia, also referred to as Owl’s Head.
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