Environmentalist says 2021 e-mail shows Tim Houston supported protecting parks from golf developers

Jean Laroche CBC News - Dec.25, 2022 Full article published here

"I will never allow this type of situation to happen under my watch," Premier Houston wrote before the provincial election. (Robert Short/CBC)

A Cape Breton environmentalist is hoping the contents of a 2021 email exchange he had with Tim Houston still reflects the premier's view on safeguarding protected land.

Neal Livingston, co-chair of Margaree Environmental Association, stumbled across the email over the weekend. In it, the PC leader is critical of then premier Iain Rankin's actions on the Owls Head file, which he qualified as "despicable." The email is dated July 19, 2021, just 48 hours into the last provincial election campaign.

...Livingstone sees a parallel between the fight to preserve Owls Head and efforts to safeguard West Mabou Beach Provincial Park in Cape Breton's Inverness County from a similar golf development plan. That's why he's come forward with the email.

In the message, Houston vowed a PC government would better safeguard land "on a protected list."

"I will never allow this type of situation to happen under my watch and certainly wouldn't instigate it like [Rankin] did," wrote Houston. "My position is that any property on a protected list should stay on a protected list, unless a court directs otherwise."

Livingston hopes that Houston, as premier, is ready to stand behind that pledge when it comes to West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.

Read the full article here.