Cabot Golf and Government Ties at West Mabou Raise Serious Questions

Letter submitted by Doug Lowry The Inverness Oran - October 8, 2025 Port Hawkesbury Reporter - October 9, 2025

Dear Editor,

This all feels vaguely familiar; as though I’ve seen this script before. Groundhog Day? No, that’s not the one. West Mabou Beach? Ah, yes. That’s it! That’s definitely it!

Residents of this area have become all too familiar with the perennial strategy of Cabot Golf: Try, try, try again. Cabot golf course proposals almost remind me of the annual traditions of Christmas or Thanksgiving that come around each year; except, with Cabot, there are no festivities taking place and it feels more like the never-ending visit spent with your in-laws. This time, however, it’s a little different. Perhaps, this year’s strategy is something more along the lines of: Try, try, try again… When all else fails, seek friends in high places. A seemingly no-nonsense strategy to end the unwelcomed tradition once and for all.

In these last two years there have been some very interesting developments despite what might appear as a brief interlude in this never-ending saga. I suppose the developments could be said to have originated with Cabot’s selection of former Premier Rodney MacDonald to act as their chief government lobbyist; a seemingly reasonable choice on the surface of things. After all, Mr. MacDonald is one familiar with the operations of provincial government and, well, if he happens to be the former PC leader and the PC party is given the mandate to govern, then his connections to his former party certainly could prove to be an asset.

Of course, already, at this point in the game, Cabot Golf put the government in a precarious position by creating a conflict of interest for the government and an obvious one at that. This much was evident two years ago, but because no formal proposal was ever submitted at the time – just a whole lot of disruptive tire kicking – the threshold for a conflict of interest never truly was reached.

This is no longer the case. The formal announcement of a proposed Cabot Golf course development at the site of West Mabou Beach Provincial Park has created the aforementioned conflict of interest that the government managed to avoid last time around.

Unfortunately for the citizens of this electoral district, the erosion of trust in the provincial government has worsened since the election of MLA Kyle MacQuarrie. Through no fault of his own, but rather as a result of his publicly known personal friendship with former Premier MacDonald, the degree of influence held by the former Premier, over what should be an impartial decision-making process, has only contributed to the public’s suspicions regarding the nature and degree of this conflict of interest that today’s government has willingly decided to engage.

This sort of development should immediately prompt the government to publicly disclose the existence of a conflict of interest - which, on its own is not necessarily an issue – that is only, however, if the relevant parties in government immediately disclose the existence of the conflict of interest (or even the mere appearance of one) and recuse themselves from participation in the area where the conflict of interest applies. In this particular case, MLA MacQuarrie should have formally disclosed to the public that there is or may appear to be a conflict of interest and to recuse himself. This did not occur. On the contrary, MLA MacQuarrie has publicly admitted to having private discussions with former Premier MacDonald on the very topic of a Cabot golf course at West Mabou Beach.

This, on its own, is a serious violation of the public institution for which MLA MacQuarrie represents. Making matters worse, a strange coincidence – or maybe, not so much of a coincidence at all – Premier Houston made the eyebrow raising appointment to the newly created position of Assistant Minister of Natural Resources in the early days of his most recent mandate. This is, of course, MLA MacQuarrie.

This bizarre appointment on the part of Premier Houston - almost as if doubling down on the multiple, already existing conflicts of interest - was an all-too-obvious foreshadowing of what was to come; that being, the announcement of a formal proposal from Cabot Golf to, yet again, attempt another annexation of public land at West Mabou Beach – but this time around, Cabot has secured the necessary friends in high places. Both the creation of the new ministerial position and Premier Houston’s appointment to it, have created a situation where there are now not only several blatantly obvious conflicts of interest, but it is suggestive of something far worse: government collusion.

I am referring, specifically, to the strategically designed creation of government infrastructure, through the creation of new Assistant Ministerial positions and carefully selected appointments to fill them, in order to create favorable conditions for the approval of a Cabot golf course. In the process, the good people of Nova Scotia are being robbed of their public assets as this PC government looks to award them to a private enterprise that this government is sympathetic to and to which they have personal connections. There is very little value in this arrangement for the people of Nova Scotia.

The PC government has claimed that consultations with the public are actively taking place and that these will ultimately determine the direction the government takes. But let’s not forget that this same government, only two years ago, made the declaration that West Mabou Beach is protected under the Provincial Parks Act and that no proposals for a golf course at the site of the provincial park would receive government consideration. So, acknowledge these “public consultations” for what they truly are: a mere façade deliberately designed for the purpose of deceiving the public so as to make the evaluation process appear legitimate.

One is left to wonder just how many public consultations are really necessary? Is the government so out of touch that the last round of consultations a mere two years ago have been forgotten?

Of course not, the PC government is not suffering from a case of amnesia and the past two years have not been spent idle; quite the opposite, in fact. As all these pieces have carefully been put in place, ever mounting evidence suggests that the two parties have been working together behind the scenes – and outside the formal processes of government – to ensure that a Cabot Golf course at West Mabou Beach is all but a foregone conclusion.

This is so egregious a violation of the public institutions of government that, at minimum, it not only warrants, but rather, demands, the immediate resignation of MLA MacQuarrie and Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton. And, given the seriousness of this gross abuse of power and violation of public trust, an independent public inquiry should be formed to evaluate both the scope and severity of the corruption within Premier Houston’s government, as it applies to West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.

Doug Lowry

West Mabou

Note from Doug: Please note the admission of an error in my letter: the government has not received a formal proposal from Cabot Golf as the letter states.

Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton announced yesterday that "only talks" - not the submission of a formal proposal - have occurred so far between Cabot Golf and his department, the Ministry of Natural Resources. Secret, private talks - outside the formal processes of government - that the minister was unwilling to share with the public yesterday despite the request to do so from a questioning reporter from CBC. The citizens of Nova Scotia have the right to know what is going on and why the Ministry of Natural Resources is having confidential discussions with a private enterprise over a proposal to award public lands and why information about the substance of these talks is being withheld from the public.