Thought I’d share these musings on the blog. Parks Canada is looking for feedback, or so they say. I have good reasons to be skeptical about “public consultation” which many times is done for appearance’s sake after all the decisions have actually been made. I hope that’s not the case here.
This image is from the May 26th article about the issue published in the Chronicle-Herald (still the best NS daily newspaper by a long margin)
Here is my submission to Parks Canada:
To Whom it May Concern:
My comments on the proposed Never Forgotten memorial to be built in the Highlands National Park.
This proposal has been of great interest to me and I have given it a lot of thought. It is fresh on my mind having just hosted a group of 20 people here from Ontario for the Cabot Trail Relay run, and having driven around the Cabot Trail with them.
Here are my thoughts:
-The mandate of national parks is not to commemorate our war dead, but to preserve and display the natural beauty of our land. This proposed memorial would dramatically alter the coastline in the immediate area, dramatically alter the beautiful, natural view from many miles away, and pave a large area, causing significant changes in drainage and runoff, and impact wetland.
-Being from Ontario, I don’t think Mr. Trigliani has ANY sweet clue of just how dramatically isolated the proposed site is for up to 8 months each year. Other than a very sparse local population, there is no other traffic from late October to late May, and even June and part of Sept-Oct are sparse for tourists. Even in peak season, tourist traffic in Cape Breton is greatly reduced from 10-20 years ago. As such, if the intention of the memorial is to stimulate public consciousness of the sacrifices of a certain generation, it should be put in an area with more traffic on a more consistent basis. (perhaps in the Glace Bay area for instance?)
-When visitors that I speak with (such as our large group this weekend) are told of the proposal, they are almost universally shocked and appalled. They talk about it “ruiining” the park, “wrecking” the view, and the question from everyone is “why would they pick here??”
– What support I have heard locally is based on “jobs” that people somehow believe would be created from this project. I do not believe that there would be any extra traffic to the area generated by people coming specifically to see the monument, and therefore don’t see it having a beneficial effect on our local economy on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, as far as I understand it, we don’t have a lot of unemployed mega-statue builders based in northern Cape Breton, so much of the brief employment that would be created during construction would require workers to come from far away from Cape Breton. I think that if an honest reckoning of both short and long-term job prospects was presented to the local community, what support there is for this project would go away very, very quickly.
I do hope sober second thought prevails and that this project finds a more suitable location. As a born-and-raised Cape Bretoner, it pains me to see this being seriously considered. Sadly, from the vibes I get through the media and through local contacts, I believe that this is already a “done-deal” and that this “public consultation” is merely an 11th-hour attempt to quell controversy by giving the appearance of true public consultation, without doing real public consultation (which would require door-to-door surveys rather than internet calls for input, which solicit a hugely biased sampling of the population). I hope that I’m wrong and this is a true attempt to solicit feedback that will be meaningful to an eventual decision.
I’m happy to talk in more detail about this if you’d like to contact me.
Sincerely
Chris Milburn
Musings of a medical heretic 