Environmentalist says 2021 e-mail shows Tim Houston supported protecting parks from golf developers

A Cape Breton environmentalist is hoping the contents of a 2021 email exchange he had with Tim Houston still reflects the premier's view on safeguarding protected land. 

Neal Livingston, co-chair of Margaree Environmental Association, stumbled across the email over the weekend. In it, the PC leader is critical of then premier Iain Rankin's actions on the Owls Head file, which he qualified as "despicable." The email is dated July 19, 2021, just 48 hours into the last provincial election campaign.

The Liberal government under Rankin quietly planned to sell the once-protected land at Owls Head, located about an hour's drive from Halifax on the Eastern Shore, to a would-be golf course developer. When Rankin was Lands and Forestry minister, he and other officials argued the site wasn't as significant as other land awaiting legal protection.

Last spring, the PC government designated Owls Head a provincial park.

Livingstone sees a parallel between the fight to preserve Owls Head and efforts to safeguard West Mabou Beach Provincial Park in Cape Breton's Inverness County from a similar golf development plan. That's why he's come forward with the email.

In the message, Houston vowed a PC government would better safeguard land "on a protected list."

"I will never allow this type of situation to happen under my watch and certainly wouldn't instigate it like [Rankin] did," wrote Houston. "My position is that any property on a protected list should stay on a protected list, unless a court directs otherwise."

Livingston hopes that Houston, as premier, is ready to stand behind that pledge when it comes to West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.

"That's a pretty clear statement about that protected area, stay protected — unless there's an extremely unusual situation that a court would make a decision on ... obviously we're dealing with a park as a protected area," said Livingston. 

"So maybe this will, really, both remind the premier and I guess tell the public that the premier's been very clear about parks and protected areas before he became premier."

Livingston said he forgot about the email exchange until a problem with his account forced him to delete hundreds of old messages. He was in the process of purging them when he stumbled across one with the PC leader.

The premier's office said Houston was unavailable to comment on the email Monday because he is in Washington, D.C., for meetings.

In a written statement to CBC News, his office stated, "The Government of Nova Scotia has not received an application [for the West Mabou Beach golf course proposal].

"We can't comment on a proposal that we haven't received or seen," said Catherine Klimek, Houston's press secretary.  "If an application does come in, the department will have to give any application due process and fair consideration.

"That said, we're committed to meeting our protected areas goals."

The PC government has promised to protect 20 per cent of Nova Scotia's land and water mass by 2030.