GAIL LETHBRIDGE:
Golf airstrip strikes me as a bit rich
The Chronicle Herald
Published: Jul 05 at 7:35 p.m. Updated: Jul 07 at 1:53 p.m.
Something smells funny with that airport they are talking about in Cape Breton. And I don’t mean “ha-ha” funny. It’s the sort of funny you get in Nova Scotia and Canada when there is an election in the offing.
But before we go there, let’s consider the facts.
There is a proposal on the table to build an airport in Inverness, Cape Breton, to service two of the finest golf courses in North America, if not the world.
The idea is to get taxpayers to fund the project to the tune of $18 million in order to fly well-to-do golfers into Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs.
On the surface of things, you could say this is a good investment in high-value tourism to the province. The golfers using this airport will be coming from places like Toronto and the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. to spend their time and money at the Links and Cliffs.
These operations have already been a boon to the economy of Inverness, providing jobs to an area that has long been in the economic caboose of Nova Scotia and Canada.
An airport would create jobs in construction and then jobs to operate it. It will also give a boost to Nova Scotia’s goal to grow tourism into a $4-billion-per-year industry by the year 2024.
That is certainly a noble goal.
Needless to say, many locals near the proposed airport are supportive. More golfers will mean more jobs and prosperity for the area.
Local MP Roger Cuzner is also supportive of the idea. He argues that this airport will provide regularly scheduled flights, which will draw tourists to the entire island.
He also says not all golfers can always afford to take private jets to the nearby airport at Port Hawkesbury and are forced to fly into Halifax and make the four-hour journey to Inverness.
Can’t afford private jets. It almost makes you want to cry for these poor wretches and take up a collection to help them out. Or build an airport closer to those golf courses.
This might be funny if they weren’t proposing to use millions of taxpayers’ dollars, with no contribution from the private golf courses that will have the most to gain from such an investment.
It’s worth noting that another elite golf course in Nova Scotia — Fox Harb’r — paid for its own landing strip, with no contribution from taxpayers, to land its out-of-town golfers.
It gets even less funny when you consider that this government-supported airport will threaten the future of the Allan J. MacEachern Airport, which is one hour away in Port Hawkesbury.
Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton is fighting the new airport tooth and nail, saying it could put the existing one out of business.
And then there are the optics.
This thing has the look of taxpayers coughing up their cash to shepherd the One Percenters to and from golf courses that cost up to $320 for 18 holes.
Arguments that this airport is being built to support tourism across the island strike me as a bit rich. If tourism across the island of Cape Breton were the goal, why not invest that money in the airports in Sydney or Port Hawkesbury?
They can dress up this airport any way they wish, but they will fool no one. This is about supporting those golf courses and their rich clientele.
This week, Premier Stephen McNeil confirmed that the feds told him to put the project forward for infrastructure funding, even though he says it is not a priority for Nova Scotia.
There has been no official announcement, but it sounds like a fait accompli. On the eve of a federal election, the timing probably isn’t surprising. But given high-priority needs like health care in Nova Scotia and the fact that this airport is not a priority for our premier, it seems ill-considered.