Protected areas plan prevents dialogue, innovative thinking
Kelly’s Mountain is a case in point
In a recent Cape Breton Post article (“Between a rock and a sacred place,” Nov. 20), Rod Googoo, Chief of Waycobah First Nation, raised concerns about the possibility of a quarry being established on Kelly’s Mountain in Victoria County.
We appreciate Chief Googoo’s concerns and welcome his contribution to a public dialogue that the Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS) recently started by suggesting the provincial government’s Parks and Protected Areas Plan should strike a better balance between protecting land and protecting jobs.
We also appreciate comments by Senator Dan Christmas who highlighted Cape Breton’s significant economic challenges in a recent speech.
Both these highly-respected Mi’kmaq leaders are raising important considerations related to striking the right balance between social concerns and achieving our shared economic goals. This is the sort of dialogue MANS wanted to start because we are concerned that the protected areas plan is unnecessarily harming the province’s economy, and even preventing potential improvements to protected areas.
MANS is asking the provincial government to strike a better balance between protecting jobs and protecting land by adding a “land swap” mechanism to the protected lands regulatory regime. This would allow mining and quarrying companies to access protected land by purchasing land of at least equal size and ecological value outside of the protected areas and arranging for it to be protected instead. This would ensure that the total amount of protected land remains the same or grows, the ecological value of protected lands remains the same or grows and Nova Scotians would continue to be able to access the minerals they need to create jobs and grow the economy.
Kelly’s Mountain is a case in point. It contains a deposit of over two billion tons of aggregate, which could create approximately 80 direct jobs for a half century if a quarry were allowed to operate there. That is a tremendous economic opportunity for Cape Breton and the province.
However, because the deposit is completely overlapped by protected land, we cannot have a dialogue about whether the quarry should be allowed to proceed, whether Mi’kmaq concerns could be accommodated through research, discussion and compromise or, indeed, whether the land should simply remain protected.
Who knows? Maybe the quarry could have been developed through a partnership between a mining company and the Mi’kmaq, which would have resulted in shared economic benefits and the utmost sensitivity to Mi’kmaq sites.
Unfortunately, the protected areas plan prevents that sort of dialogue and innovative thinking because it is completely inflexible – once land is protected it must remain protected forever, regardless of all other considerations.
The size of the Kelly’s Mountain quarry would have been less than one per cent of the mountain’s total area. It is over three kilometres from the Fairy Hole sea cave that is, legitimately, an important site for the Mi’kmaq.
However, three kilometres is well beyond any potential zone of impact from quarry activities. The original design for the quarry deliberately kept operations within the mountain so they would be hidden from outside view. While Kelly’s Mountain already has development on it, such as homes and roads, there are no neighbours or anyone near the quarry site who would be disturbed by it. Again, the quarry would have created 80 jobs for approximately 50 years.
We believe the Kelly’s Mountain aggregate deposit could have been developed with full accommodation of Mi’kmaq concerns such that it could have been a win-win for everyone. However, until the protected areas plan allows for that sort of dialogue to take place, this tremendous economic opportunity and many others will be impossible to pursue or even meaningfully discuss.
“We believe the Kelly’s Mountain aggregate deposit could have been developed with full accommodation of Mi’kmaq concerns such that it could have been a win-win for everyone.”