CBRM urged to extend trail

‘There’s zero kilometres connected in CBRM,’ says provincial chair

SYDNEY — As time winds down on the 25-year Trans Canada Trail project, proponents are urging local groups to take up the torch in building the trail through the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

Across the country, approximately 72 per cent of the trail is connected. It’s currently 17,000 kilometres long, linking the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts.

But in Nova Scotia, the percentage of Trans Canada Trails completed is below the national average, Blaise MacEachern, the province’s Trans Canada Trail committee chairman, said in a presentation before municipal council last week.

“If you look at the map of Nova Scotia … you’ll see there’s zero kilometres connected in CBRM,” he said. “But you’re not alone.” About 370 kilometres of the trail system is complete in Nova Scotia, comprising approximately 41 per cent in the province.

In the CBRM, there are four Trans Canada Trails, all of which are on the Northside.

A trail connects Pottle Lake to North Sydney, another from the Old Branch Road to Georges River, the third one in Upper Leitches Creek to Scotch Lake, and the longest from Scotch Lake to Grand Narrows.

Elsewhere in Cape Breton, there are trails in Little Narrows and one across Inverness County.

Garnet McLaughlin, an independent contractor with the Trans Canada Trail project in Nova Scotia, said municipalities need to “champion” trail projects by addressing trail development challenges, and providing concept planning and guidance on trail signage and road connections.

He said up to 50 per cent funding is available to community groups to build trails. However, the Trans Canada Trail project committee also outlines on its website that other sources of revenue from government, corporate sponsorship, and donations would be needed to construct and maintain the trails.

“It’s up to municipalities and communities to lead the way from there. The resources are there,” McLaughlin said.

If groups don’t come forward by this spring, he said the funding for the Trans Canada Trail allocated for the municipality would likely be put toward other projects, he said.

Dist. 3 Coun. Mae Rowe said the challenge for the municipality is working around land ownership to map out a trail.

She said interest in building these trails needs to come from community groups across the rural municipal districts in CBRM.

“There’s a window of opportunity here for funding,” she said. “We need to get our act together.”

Municipal planner Rick McCready said there’s always the possibility of looking at water routes as an alternative to trails in some areas.

Council passed a motion sending the issue back to the general committee in December where staff would present its recommendations on how to move forward.

The Trans Canada Trail was founded in 1992 with the intent of forming the longest, connected trail system in the world. When it’s fully connected, there will be 23,632 km of trail.

Funding will be available until December 2016. The trail is to be completed in time for Canada’s sesquicentennial on July 1, 2017.

The Trans Canada Trail foundation, which was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in October 2010, is responsible for raising funds to support the advancement of the Trans Canada Trail.

The foundation has undertaken an ambitious national campaign to raise $150 million, which is needed to complete the trail by 2017.