Letter: Cape Breton golf proposal should have alarm bells ringing
- savewestmaboubeach
- Jan 18, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 3, 2023
Letter by Gerard and Laura MacDonald Saltwire - Jan. 18, 2023
Originally published here
Protect West Mabou Beach Provincial Park?
It should be transferred to the Department of Environment and Climate Change so that no more closed-door meetings allowing one minister to possibly sign over our beach and park to Cabot Cape Breton take place.
The abuse of the Audubon name is only one deception used by Cabot. When our MLA Allan MacMaster’s office in Halifax asked for the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDA) that show the exact names of the pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, etc., used by the golf course and the amounts, Cabot refused the request.
We recently went into MacMaster’s Inverness office and told his staff to tell Halifax the Department of Labour can request the MSDA sheets, plus do a five-year investigation. If alarm bells are not ringing, they should be.
We have constant strong winds in the Mabou area and when they spray these poisons they will be airborne – eventually reaching our pastures, gardens and windows, much like the salt spray does. The poisons will also leach into our water table, contaminating our drinking water, the harbour and ocean, and the ponds and brooks which the wildlife drink from.
Would you want to eat lobster or fish or oysters from the harbour? After Cabot’s first attempt at a land grab in 2018, we would be at the park and started asking people from around the world who were at the park what they came here to Cape Breton to do. They would ask about hiking, fishing, dancing, music and whale watching.
When I would bring up golf, the common reply was, “we can do that at home.” They said, “we came to see this paradise, not a golf course.”
If Cabot gets their hands on our park and beach, it will be the cheapest land grab in Cape Breton history. With their millions, Cabot can go buy private land, but who would buy it when they would get it for just about nothing? The word lease is a joke.
Gerard and Laura MacDonald
West Mabou