My thoughts are with the victim's loved ones. I truly hope this doesn't happen in our community again. It is tragic for the family and community.

RCMP News Release HERE

FACT: The number of deaths in CBRM related to OHV (Off-Highway vehicles) is on the increase since the day Mayor McDougall took to Facebook to promote the use of OHVs in dense residential areas from the Mayor's office.

QUESTION: Should we expect a resignation when a public official uses their public office to promote an activity that is well known to kill residents and then data shows that there is indeed an increase in deaths after that day of that promotional activity and/or after a public policy that promotes an increase use of OHVs in residential areas is put in place?

Keep in mind when asking yourself this question that there was a heap of data presented to CBRM elected officials that predicted that this would happen and a constant flow of logged data that shows clearly that criminal activity has increased since the day of mayor's public promotion of Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) use in dense residential areas of CBRM.

Someone should be held responsible for an increase in crime and deaths if it can be correlated to public policy, correct? Proving correlation can be tough but in this case the hypothesis that deaths and injuries would increase because of current public policy around the promotion of OHV use in dense residential areas, was made long in advance and warnings were provided by many knowledgeable people and respectable organizations.

For those that haven't been following this unfortunate saga:

• An Engineering firm paid for by taxpayers made a clear recommendation that CBRM should not run an ATV Trail through Districts 9 and 10. See HERE
• CBRM Police Services recommended that CBRM do not run an ATV Trail through Districts 9 and 10.  See HERE
• Residents of Districts 9 and 10 did not want CBRM to run an ATV Trail through Districts 9 and 10.  See HERE
• Changing a decade long Active Transportation Trail to an ATV trail (Major Deviation) was not approved in council by representatives of the public.
• No Public Participation Process (PPP) was implemented to change the decade long Active Transportation Trail project to an ATV Trail
• No land use evaluation is available to identify proper off-loading and on-loading locations for OHVs to access the trail.  

So you can understand why I would be asking whether or not a resignation should be expected when public policy seems to be causing an increase in death and crime in our community. Four years of warnings and credible data and not a peep from the Mayor. Do we need to wait for more of our young adults (or anyone else for that matter) to die before making a change? It's statistically inevitable. Why wait for more?

Recent deaths and dates and dates of the Mayor's facebook comments are posted in the Private Facebook Group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1684345541713254/

Our Mayor and her family want to be able to drive their ATVs through our backyards. Oh well then!  FYI: You are not welcome to drive your ATVs through our backyards. You are very welcome in our community otherwise!

Official statement from the current mayor of CBRM (2023), in the Mayor's office, promoting the increased use of ATVs in residential areas. This is fact and public. ATVs are killing Cape Bretoners and destroying our beautiful seaside community but....

Let's get the RATs (Residential ATV Trails) out of our community :-) 

I have to make this statement so it is clear that I am not seen as harassing our elected officials or any groups of people: The preceding is political commentary related to community damaging and people harming policies that need to be reversed for the betterment of "all CBRM". This article is about recent unsanctioned decisions and actions in CBRM that are causing real community issues and can most likely be correlated to deaths and injuries, that's all.