Are Golf Courses Really Economic Catalysts?
- savewestmaboubeach
- Oct 7
- 3 min read
Gerard Naddaf Go Cape Breton.com - October 7, 2025 Originally published here As astonishing as it may seem, the Cabot Golf developers are once again lobbying to have West Mabou Beach Provincial Park converted into their international golf empire. The developers are Mike Keiser, an American, and Ben Cowan-Dewar, a Canadian from Toronto where the head office of Cabot Golf (and thus taxes) is located. In November 2022 in the middle of the previous fever pitch connected with the controversy, I wrote a piece in the Saltwire Network which included the Cape Breton Post and the Halifax Chronicle Herald (now owned by Postmedia Network) that focused on the deceptive economic benefits based on information that can be gleaned from StatsCan which provides a detailed analysis every five years of every area of Canada, but with some annual updates. I’m appending the article below (without links) which is titled: Are Cabot golf courses really economic catalysts? I immediately had correspondence from individuals in other areas of the globe that found themselves in similar situations.
I anticipate writing another piece soon to take into consideration that latest development. Nothing should be more sacred than our provincial and national “public” parks.
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GERARD NADDAF: Are Cabot golf courses really economic catalysts?
Published in the PNI ATLANTIC NEWS (formally saltwire.com) November 19, 2022
There is a powerful chorus of local politicians, business leaders and editorial writers in the county of Inverness that is now lobbying the government to allow the owners of the Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs golf courses, Ben Cowan Dewar and Mike Keiser, to convert the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park — 215 hectares of a one-of-a kind sensitive ecosystem — into another world-class golf course.
The provincial park was created in 2001 by an order of the Governor in Council following a recommendation of the minister of Natural Resources (John Hamm, a Progressive Conservative, was premier at the time).
Corporate donations
Seeing this precious parcel of land requisitioned by developers to become a golf course when we don’t have enough public parks, let alone ones on the oceanfront in Nova Scotia (so much for Canada’s Ocean Playground!) — has hit a raw collective nerve. While most people are awestruck by the beauty of the natural habitat, others see money — big money.
One of the carrots that Dewar and Keiser have dangled in Mabou is a commitment to make an annual tax-deductible corporate donation of $125,000 to support five local clubs if their extravagant plan is approved. One may ask why this laughable sum, given what’s at stake, wasn’t offered to the community with no strings attached.
It reminds me of the German developer, Rolf Bouman, who claimed he was so upset with the non-resident property tax the province was proposing this year that he was closing his cultural initiative, Friends United International Convention Centre in Cleveland, Cape Breton, which supports and promotes Indigenous artists.
Philanthropy and goodwill so often come with a cost — the cost of doing business!
Promise of jobs
The developers, along with their local supporters and lobbyists, claim that a world-class golf course in Mabou would bestow upon the area a bonanza of jobs and prosperity akin to what we now find in the community of Inverness, a mere 20 kilometres away.
The head lobbyist is none other than the ex-premier Rodney MacDonald, a local Orpheus, entrepreneur, visionary and fixer in the community. In his opinion, ex-locals will flock home once again to get in on the action. It will be the second coming, a true epiphany!
Rankin MacDonald, in a recent impassioned editorial in the Inverness Oran (Nov. 9), also argues in favour of appropriating West Mabou Beach Provincial Park. He makes the point that the Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs courses were built on land that was less than desirable. But he then intones that because of the windfall that resulted for Inverness, locals should be willing to give up West Mabou Beach Provincial Park for the sake of similar or better economic progress in their area.
