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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By Richard Bell
In a January 3 2020 email to the Cooperator, MLA Kevin Murphy said that he first heard about the golf courses about two years, and that he had had two phone calls from the golf course lobbyist, Michael Samson. He wrote that he had not talked about the project with any other lobbyists, nor had he discussed the project with anyone from the Owls Head community (within 50 miles of Owls Head.)
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[Editor's Note: The Cooperator is launching a web page dedicated to the Owls Head controversy. We will be posting articles from the Cooperator, and links to government documents, news stories from other media, and material from the Save Little Harbour/Owls Head From Becoming A Golf Course. This page already has links to interviews with exclusive interviews with MP Sean Fraser, MLA Kevin Murphy, the NDP's Gary Burrilll, and the PC's environment critic, Brad Johns. If you know of information that should be included, email to: [email protected].]
By Richard Bell
The revelation that the province’s Department of Lands and Forests has been secretly planning to sell Crown land on Owls Head to a wealthy American couple who own Lighthouse Links Development Company to build as many as three golf courses has stunned Nova Scotians.
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By Richard Bell
The Cooperator spoke with MP Sean Fraser about the provincial decision to make Owls Head available for sale. Fraser was just returning to his political duties after stepping back to deal with the tragic loss of his infant daughter.
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By Richard Bell
In a phone interview with the Cooperator, Brad Johns, Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party critic for the environment, was blunt about the province’s decision to delist Owls Head Provincial Park and sell the land to a golf-course developer: “The fix is already in."
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