Out of the loop
Community group feeling left out of Baille Ard discussion
SYDNEY — Supporters of an urban nature trail under threat from flood mitigation efforts are frustrated after a council presentation was pushed ahead toward the spring construction season.
Back in early December, members of the Save the Baille Ard Forest Coalition asked the clerk's office for permission to deliver findings from an independent consultant’s report to Cape Breton Regional Municipality mayor and council.
Coalition member Wayne Mckay said, in preparation for Tuesday’s meeting, supporting documents were provided well ahead of its policy deadline.
Members of the CBRM agenda review committee later told Mckay the address would be pushed ahead to Feb. 18, as staff must first report to council on the matter.
“We’ve done our due diligence to present to council and we followed all the processes and the policy and we’re keeping in spirit with the way democracy should work,” said Mckay.
“The staff at CBRM, who seem to me to be calling the shots in this case, are actually promising meetings and those dates come and go and nothing happens, and nobody knows why.”
The Cape Breton Post was unable to reach the CBRM communications department Friday, as offices were closed due to inclement weather.
In the fall, members of the Baille Ard Recreation Association met with municipal staff and engineers from CBCL Ltd., who said they planned to host a followup session in early January after analyzing the group’s suggestions.
To date, no meeting has been scheduled.
Mckay said he personally feels as if some individuals involved want the matter to be a closed book.
“It’s been difficult to get information,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten information about whether they did an environmental impact assessment, we haven’t gotten information about whether they’ve consulted with the Mi’kmaw communities, which in our minds are two things that should be part of any process when you’re impacting lands this way.”
Mckay said several members of CBRM council have offered their support by attending rallies at the accessible trail system located behind Sherwood Park Education Centre in Sydney.
As part of the CBRM’S preliminary plans, as many as eight large embankments — each eight feet high, 50 feet wide and between 300 and 400 metres long — are proposed to cut across large sections of the 70acre forest and four-kilometre trail system.
Baille Ard Recreation Association president David Gabriel said putting the matter off until February creates unease that the project will move ahead as planned.
He said during a meeting in October, association members felt the CBRM proposal seemed more like a full-blown plan.
“It might not have described exactly where things were going, but the concept of these berms was there,” said Gabriel
“We gave a counter proposal that we thought would be far less invasive or harmful to the natural system or the ecosystem and we were waiting for a response. We still haven’t gotten a response.”
Members of the coalition say they are asking council to hear as much information on the subject as possible before rendering a decision. They also hope council might consider directing all parties to work together to find a solution.