COMMENTARY: Is West Mabou Beach the new Bermuda?

Gerard Naddaf The Cape Breton Post - November 7, 2025 Originally published here Republished here in full with the author's permission

Welcome to the Premier’s vision for the area and all provincial parks

PREFACE

With the province facing a $1.2 billion deficit and the U.S. trade war, Premier Tim Houston says his government must be open to ideas such as turning part of a provincial park into a golf course.

“We love our parks,” Houston said, “but we need to be open-minded and listen to opportunities if there’s maybe a better use for a land that might get more people involved and enjoying Nova Scotia.”

What I find worrisome is that this may be just the beginning. If the government and supporters are so willing to expropriate provincial park land in order to benefit a foreign or domestic corporation, then what will stop them from selling off more of our precious parks?

I say this as someone who works in the history and influence of ideas and cultures from antiquity to the present, and who has travelled and given talks and lectures around the globe. I’ll have more to say on my connection to this cause, this existential threat, further on.

WHAT STATISTICS CANADA TELLS US

During the last public outcry in 2022 involving the same developers who are again lobbying to turn West Mabou Beach Provincial Park (WMBPP) into a new international golf destination, I investigated what research by Statistics Canada and Economics and Statistics Nova Scotia revealed about Inverness Centre (the location of the golf courses) and Inverness County in general. The opinion piece was titled: “Are Cabot Golf Courses Really Economic Catalysts?”

Some of the findings I dredged up for that story still stand today. Consider the following two points:

First, the population of Inverness County has been one of decline from 2006 to 2018, the initial heydays of the Cabot Links golf clubs.

In 2016, the community of Inverness (or Inverness Centre), had a population of 1,248. In 2021, it was 1,228. The County of Inverness fared somewhat better. From 2016 to 2021, the population increased by 111 souls or 0.6%: 2016 (17,235); 2021 (17,346). This small increase had nothing to do with the existence of two world class golf clubs, but rather because of COVID. To escape the trials of restriction policies, interprovincial migration took off and a handful of people chose Inverness County as their new roost – although some have since moved on.

The second point I made, which is still the case, is that if we were to believe the lobbyists, you’d think that Inverness, thanks to the golf clubs, had been transformed into a new El Dorado, teaming with fabulous riches and opportunity.

Well, here are the facts: In 2019, the average employment income in the community of Inverness was $33,500 and $36,880 for the County of Inverness (the national average was $50,560; provincial, $43,520). This was almost a decade after the Cabot clubs had blessed the area. I note 2019 because in 2020 COVID restrictions were in effect and income stats were skewed due to relief funds made available by the federal government to support citizens as needed.

For the record, Stats Can publishes detailed statistics for the entire country every five years, with the next update scheduled for release in late 2026. I doubt that much has changed.

Indeed, the latest projections for Inverness indicate a potential 4.7% decrease in population between 2021 and 2031. Interestingly, the positive growth in 2023 rose by four times in neighbouring Richmond County (2.62% versus 0.68%). Inverness has among the lowest growth rate of any county in Nova Scotia.

So, what wealth and population boom is Cabot bringing to Inverness?

There’s lots of building, for sure, but it’s mostly by non-residents who don’t pay income tax in Nova Scotia. More and more people from away are buying up properties. They’re turning our area into a holiday haven and will eventually outnumber the locals where it counts – in the eyes of the government. Also, they’re here for the natural beauty, not to enjoy our rich culture. As with the Gaelic language, others, sadly, will threaten old traditions.

Property tax, meanwhile, is ridiculously low. For example, using Property Online, which for a fee provides up-to-date information on properties in Nova Scotia, an analysis of every property from the east mouth of Mabou Harbour to Inverness Harbour (around 25 kilometers with 75 or so properties, which are mostly non-resident), revealed that the total property tax revenue, which includes several million-dollar properties, is UNDER $100,000 a year.

WHAT ABOUT CABOT?

Property Online indicates that the assessed value of Cabot Cliffs (three separate PIDs) in 2025 is $5,839,200 and the property tax is $110,949. The assessed value of Cabot Cape Breton (four separate PIDs) in 2025 is $1,964,200 and property tax $35,593, which is a lot less than I pay in income tax, but that’s another story!

Imagine if the government, or anyone for that matter, offered Cabot $7,803,400 for their world-class golf courses! Ask Cabot for a number and you’ll get what the true property taxes should be.

In truth, the government on behalf of the taxpayers of Nova Scotia and Canada have given Cabot a lot more than $7,803,400 in loans and subsidies. Already back in 2018 it was estimated to be $17 million, but that number may be just scratching the surface. More importantly, there’s a tradition that government loans are not repaid in Nova Scotia, underscoring the proverbial saying, “Never give a sucker an even break.” I mean, seriously, the American owner Mike Keiser has very deep pockets and, by every measure, he is making a killing at Cabot Cape Breton. Then again, how many of our resorts were sold to government insiders for one dollar and then flipped?

The amount of money that Cabot has been able to fleece from the government has not always gone unnoticed.

Cabot also received a $25 million low-interest loan. The government can confirm or deny this, but let me note that even a saving of two percentage points would equal $500,000 per annum.

WHAT ABOUT JOBS?

When Cabot owners and local lobbyists laud 500 jobs, good-paying jobs, created in the area – with more to come – we should be more than a little sceptical. Not the Houston government, however. They insist that Cabot creates hundreds of “full-time” good-paying jobs. But find someone in Inverness who knows anyone who has a full-time job at Cabot.

Because most jobs are so poorly paid, local businesses, including Cabot, must bus in foreign students from the Sydney area to fill the vacancies. And then, they have to bus them back as there is no affordable housing, if any, in the land of the rich and famous! What the jobs do offer a handful of locals are coveted unemployment benefits, which help them survive the winter.

PROUD CULTURE AT RISK

Anyone who visits the town of Inverness regularly will notice little change to the front street, despite the influx of new wealth. That will likely change. Cabot and other non-residents developers could eventually buy up every building in town for a song and begin to build or rebuild a new cookie-cutter paradise. The loss of language comes first, followed by the remnants of culture. That has always been the way.

In any event, it’s ridiculous to suggest that the tens of thousands of tourists visiting the area are there mainly for the golf. Quite the contrary. They are there for the hypnotic beauty and hospitality of the area. They are, well, cultural tourists!

I want to insist, again, that this isn’t about opposing golf courses. Cabot can purchase local land to build a golf course – and they have plenty of money to do so. My complaint is about the shameless route they’ve taken – how the company has divided the community through intense lobbying tactics to secure the right to develop, at public expense, a local public jewel and playground on the ocean.

A RED LINE CROSSED

So, this issue is not just a friendly disagreement among neighbours; it’s a red line that has been crossed. Over the past year, Canadians of all stripes have been incensed not only by Donald Trump’s derogatory remarks and threats regarding Canada, but also his abuse of power at home and abroad. Could it happen here, we ask?

Well, Tim Houston and his supporters are showing similar characteristics to Donald Trump and his entourage, though when it comes to public parks, I don’t think even Trump would be willing to open them all to developers.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAND OFF LIMITS

We’ve all heard people complain that they can no longer fish, hunt, walk or swim in places where they and past generations enjoyed from time immemorial. No trespassing signs have become the norm on private properties. And now we have our own government claiming they will do the same for our public parks if their personal friends and lobbyists make a “good” case.

HOUSTON’S FAVOURITISM

Although I loath to say this, many of Tim Houston’s policy decisions are reflective of someone who spent too much of his previous career (12 years) as a resident tax consultant in the tax-free haven of Bermuda. Whether legal or not, Bermuda is where very wealthy people find ways of not having to pay taxes, which is a fundamental part of our civic responsibility.

It’s the profession of some as in the case of Houston to find the best ways of helping them avoid paying taxes, which is indicative of citizens who don’t exhibit the qualities of shame and justice.

Opening our public parks to development, scrapping the Coastal Protection Act, legislating a fixed election date law and then ignoring it when it seemed opportunistic to do so, attempting to silence the auditor general, and/or using the Attorney General to protect the names of those who are receiving favoritism, including untenured contracts (to just scratch the surface), are symptomatic of someone who wants to turn Nova Scotia into the Bermuda of the North – a place where non-residents, lobbyists and other political friends seem to receive privileges that undermine the quality of life for tax-paying and law abiding Nova Scotians.

Gerard Naddaf is emeritus professor of philosophy, York University, Toronto. Formally from North Sydney, he now divides his time between Halifax and Cape Breton. His most recent book is Making Sense of Myth. Conversations with Luc Brisson, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.