Proposed RV park should not be approved
Maybe we are poor, but the proposed RV Park and Campground project in Big Pond Centre has no place here.
It will not make anyone here richer, but it will put an end to a cherished, peaceful and deserved way of life. We will also have lost a portion of our precious assets: clean air, clean water, clean earth, silence - nature at its best.
I attended the Cape Breton Regional Municipality public meeting on Feb. 19, and you could see and feel the pain local people expressed with their dreams of peace in danger of being destroyed.
Calgary developer Chris Skidmore must have felt this pain too and realized it was a mistake to build such a project in such a location, in proximity of a densely inhabited area. I hope he will forget about this location for his project after witnessing the despair of area residents and that CBRM councillors will not amend the land-use bylaw in any way to allow this project to go ahead.
The bylaw’s purpose, after all, is to protect the land, the inhabitants and their properties and secure their safety and their well-being in every way. They should not be changed for the satisfaction of one person. The residents invested their lives and bought and built properties while counting on the rules of the municipality to respect them and their properties. Should council vote to alter the established order and the protecting bylaw it would be deceitful for those people and bring about a lack of trust from all citizens of CBRM.
There are lots of other areas in Canada where one can buy land and establish a business that are not in close proximity of a village.
Secondly, the nearby Bras d’Or Lake and land near the proposed park and campground must be protected. The Bras D’Or Stewardship Society has worked hard, in association with First Nations, to have the Bras D’Or Lake recognized worldwide as a reserve to be protected. The Bras D’Or and its watershed were given the very prestigious designation as a Unesco Biosphere, recognized in the entire world. This is certainly a recognition to be proud of but has its obligations, too, if we want to keep this prestigious title. We must respect and maintain the wonderful gift of nature that we have here.
To the CBRM councillors, please do not change the bylaw for this project. Respect the citizens who count on you to protect their rights, because rights they do have, and the established rules (the bylaws) should not be changed at every opportunity to accommodate anybody. It would be a betrayal, not only to the residents of the area threatened but to all of us. Christiane Tanner Westmount