SUSAN LEBLANC: Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The Ecology Action Centre is asking people to write to the minister about the development threat at Mabou Provincial Park. As they explain: “Protected should mean protected. End of story. And yet, an American billionaire golf course developer is once again trying to swindle away the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park to develop a private 18-hole golf course. This legally protected and ecologically sensitive area is part of the mere five per cent of Nova Scotian coastline that is protected public land. We cannot afford to lose it to private development.” Will the minister promise that Mabou Provincial Park will not be turned into a golf course?
HON. TORY RUSHTON: As I’ve been very clear in the media, very clear in any of the letters that we’ve received in the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, there has been no application from any developer on this piece of land. As it stands right now, that park is still a park. It will remain a park, but there’s been no application as to this date.
SUSAN LEBLANC: Mabou Beach Provincial Park is a very special place. A 2019 study by Alain Belliveau of Acadia University commissioned by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society found the unique sand dunes and wetlands contained at least 17 rare plants and animals, including four birds that are listed under the provincial Endangered Species Act. This is why Nature Nova Scotia and many others have asked the Province to unequivocally reject the idea of a golf course at Mabou Beach Provincial Park. We know there is no formal proposal before the Province right now, but we also know that the developer is working hard on this.This is why the minister should stand up and be very clear that Mabou Beach will never become a golf course, and I invite him to do that.
TORY RUSHTON: What I can be clear about is that, as I said in Estimates the other night, the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables gets about 2,000 applications for differing abilities for Crown lands throughout the whole province. As we go through those applications one by one, Mr. Speaker, we make sure that Nova Scotians get the Crown lands, the protected areas, the economy, and the recreational development that they want to see within our province. There has not been an application for that. If there is an application that comes in, we will deal with that application. As of now, we can’t go on stories or myths that an application will come in.