Press Release: Very strong majority of Nova Scotians oppose private developments in N.S. Parks and Protected Areas

MI’KMA’KI/ NOVA SCOTIA - A new poll released this week has found that a very strong majority of Nova Scotians (78 per cent, or four out of five) oppose the provincial government permitting private developments like golf courses, hotels and spas in legally protected Parks and Protected Areas. Three in five Nova Scotians (59 per cent) are completely opposed, compared to only four per cent who are completely in support. The survey was conducted by Narrative Research and commissioned by the Ecology Action Centre (EAC). 

• 59 per cent of respondents were completely opposed
• 20 per cent were mostly opposed
• Only 15 per cent were either completely or mostly supportive  
• 6 per cent had no opinion

Last fall, Premier Tim Houston and his then Natural Resources Minister, Kim Masland, both said that their government is open to private development proposals for any of Nova Scotia’s Parks and Protected Areas. This new poll clearly shows that the Houston government’s position is seriously out of step with public opinion.   

“People across the province were shocked and appalled when the Houston government suggested that they would be willing to start un-protecting existing Parks and Protected Areas for the benefit of private developers,” says Lindsay Lee, Wilderness Community Outreach Coordinator with the EAC. “Four times in the past nine years, Nova Scotians have made it clear they won’t stand for a government selling or leasing Provincial Parks or Protected Areas for private development. But it seems like the government still hasn’t gotten the message.”

“At first, we were so relieved when the government rejected Cabot Golf’s proposal last fall. But to hear a few days later that the provincial government was willing to put other communities through what our community has been through—it’s unthinkable,” says Nadine Hunt, who has led three campaigns to save West Mabou Beach Provincial Park from private development since it became a legally designated Provincial Park. “To target our parks and throw our communities into chaos, over and over again, when private businesses could simply purchase and develop on private land instead? We just can’t understand why any government would be willing to jeopardize these special places when the vast majority of Nova Scotians don’t want this.” 

“Nova Scotians have been working in good faith with their duly elected governments for over 30 years, spanning eight different provincial administrations of all political stripes, to develop our Parks and Protected Areas Network,” says Lee. “These special places are legally protected for a reason, and people expect the government to respect Nova Scotia’s laws and the will of the people.”  

Lee says the results of the polling are not surprising, and are consistent with what the EAC has been hearing in communities for years. Still, the EAC hopes the decisive results of this poll will be the wake-up call provincial decision makers need. 

“It’s clear from these results that Nova Scotians are still overwhelmingly opposed to sacrificing our legally protected Parks and Protected Areas for private developments like golf courses and hotels,” says Lee. “We hope this will serve as a notice to the Houston government that Nova Scotians will not tolerate seeing three decades of critically important nature conservation undermined or undone."

The Narrative Research survey was sent to a representative sample of 540 adult residents from across the province using Narrative Research’s East Coast Voice panel and is weighted to ensure accurate representation of the population’s true distribution according to Statistics Canada 2021 census data.

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