Teed off: Talk of new West Mabou Beach golf course plans angers Cape Breton opponents

Ian Nathanson The Cape Breton Post - October 9, 2025 Originally published here

'It should be unheard of that anything like this would even be brought up'

Concerned residents hold up signs to save West Mabou Beach Provincial Park over the possibility of golf development company Cabot renewing interest in building an 18-hole golf course on what is considered a protected provincial park.

Opponents of a golf development company eyeing land belonging to a protected provincial park near Mabou are outraged that talks may be in the works again.

“To say this is extremely distressing is putting it mildly,” Nadine Hunt, a retired high school biology teacher and member of the West Mabou Beach Committee, told the Cape Breton Post. “I thought this was settled. People are so outraged that this community, having already gone through this twice with Cabot.”

A recent CBC report indicated that representatives from Cabot, the Toronto-based developer and operator of luxury residential, resort and golf destinations, spoke with Nova Scotia’s Natural Resources minister, Tory Rushton, and were planning on coming to this province with what was said to be “some ideas.”

Pressed to explain further, Rushton told reporters at Halifax’s Province House,

“We’ll have a conversation and see what takes place. … If a proponent comes to the province with an idea that can bring an economic benefit, good-paying jobs and something to Nova Scotians, then we’ll have a conversation. That’s where we’re at right now.”

... “In a world where there’s decency and honesty and integrity, it would be unheard of that a provincial natural environment park would have to defend itself for its own status,” Hunt said. “There is a Provincial Park Act; there are all kinds of other legislation that should be protecting what is already down there. It should be unheard of that anything like this would even be brought up.”

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