Save West Mabou Provincial Park - Again

I'd never heard of West Mabou until 3 years ago. Why would I? It's a small town, population approximately 1,298 (including the larger hamlet of Mabou proper) on the west coast of Cape Breton Nova Scotia. I first heard of it when my eldest daughter Sivan, who had travelled with her then-boyfriend Matthew, to the larger municipality of Inverness CB, a 15-minute drive north of Mabou, to visit his mother's family. She called me a day before they were leaving to come home to inform me that they had decided to buy a two-acre plot of land in West Mabou. I said, what's a Mabou?  

Google maps helped with some orientation. I had a few other questions, beginning with who are you buying the land from, for how much, and did you do a title search? She answered, It's from a fellow named Carmen who works in construction. He is selling off parcels of his family's farmland. And no, we met him, he liked us, he asked for a downpayment of $5,000 (whenever we could send it to him) and we shook hands. That's the way things are done in West Mabou. 

Mabou is actually known for a few things, most notably as the home of the famous (in Canada) singing Rankin Family. It's also where the American photographer Robert Frank had a home, and where the Canadian cartoonist-graphic novelist Kate Beaton lives. I had one of my only brushes with greatness at the regular Sunday Mabou farmer's market last summer, held at the local hockey arena. I sat down at a picnic table next to the composer Phillip Glass, who for decades has had a house nearby, and even named a theatre company he co-founded in the early 1970s Mabou Mines. We nodded hello to each other, as two locals typically do.

Well, Sivan and Matthew got married (on their land) and have since bought another adjacent piece of land to double their investment in West Mabou. They have built a small dwelling, and seem to be taking a stab at making West Mabou their permanent home. Sivan works at the local municipal library and Matthew is a construction project manager in the area. Most of our family has spent the last two summer vacations there, so this place in rural Cape Breton, which I'd never heard of just a few years ago, has become an integral part of our life. 

West Mabou is known for something else: West Mabou Provincial Park, which features a very popular sandy beach, beautiful wind swept dunes, and hiking trails with a view of the ocean.

The town of Inverness is known for something other than a provincial park. It's known for golf. A few years back a company called Cabot Resorts Corporation built two world class links golf courses along the ocean in Inverness. It was a boon for the community, which has been suffering economically for decades, ever since the demise of the Cape Breton coal mining industry. The golf courses were built, with the town's blessing, on the old slag heaps and garbage dump. The benefits to the town cannot be overstated. In addition to the obvious injection of investment, it cleaned up an environmental mess, and turned Inverness into a summer resort attraction. Golfers come from all over North America to play at Cabot. Walking along the pristine beach, helicopters are seen regularly delivering golfers from Halifax airport to play a round.    

And here's where a story about success takes an ugly turn. Now Cabot is coming for the magnificent grassy dunes of West Mabou Provincial Park for their next golf course development. 

For the third time. They failed the first two times because there was a groundswell of local opposition. The townsfolk didn't want it, and still don't. They'd rather keep their beautiful pristine provincial park the way it is, and are wary of the precedent that it will set if any protected provincial park lands can be targeted for economic development in this way. As my daughter, an unofficial spokesperson for the Save West Mabou Provincial Park effort said, "If they can do it here, no protected land in the province is safe. It renders the Provincial Parks Act meaningless." 

She rightly argues that there is plenty of opportunity to redevelop lands in the region, but Cabot is trying to avoid the hassles and cost of dealing with private owners. So much easier to simply get one party, the government, to de-list the park with legislation, so it can be leased to Cabot for 100 years.        

It's not completely true to say that everyone in Mabou is against the golf course redevelopment. Some local businesses see the economic benefits it brought to nearby Inverness. So in some respects it's splitting the community. 

But the folks at Cabot know they are in for a fight. There has been virtually no public consultation and they've been lobbying the government with subterfuge, explicitly to avoid scutiny. And Cabot has engaged some powerful lobbyists in the past, including a former provincial premier. The first time they made their plans known it only came to light after drawings of the proposed Mabou golf course were published on Cabot's corporate website. This time it went public after the issue was raised by an MLA in the Nova Scotia legislature.  

Last year my daughter, who got heavily involved two years ago, thought the fight was finally over after they won the last round. She's learning how relentless and unscrupulous corporations can be. It's back in the headlines and it's gone national. Goliath against David. The residents worry that this time the Progressive Conservative Houston government is more open to Cabot's influence. I hope not.