The text below was sent to 55 gov't officials across all levels of gov't including the Prime Minister and the Premier of NS by Friends of Gabarus to attend a public forum regarding the reopening of the closed portion of road between Oceanview and Kennington Cove.

Greetings-

Friends of Gabarus Society invites you to an important Public Forum. In collaboration with the Louisbourg non-profit group Gateways to Opportunity, it will focus on the issues surrounding reopening the long-closed road link between the 300-hundred-year-old villages of Louisbourg and Gabarus, Nova Scotia.

The forum will be held on Saturday, February 17 at 2 p.m. at the Highland Arts Theatre, located at 40 Bentinck Street in downtown Sydney. (In the event of bad weather, the meeting will be held on Sunday the 18th.)

The present route requires a 57-kilometre inland detour to travel between communities that are only 25-kilometres from one another.

A portion of the original coastal road was closed in 1967 following the expropriation of homes and properties first by the Province of Nova Scotia and later by the Federal Government. These expropriations took place In connection with the reconstruction of the Fortress Louisbourg. As far as we can determine, there were no public informational meetings held prior to the waves of expropriations. The issue still stirs controversy,

The road between Louisbourg and Gabarus is one of the oldest of European construction in Nova Scotia, if not in Canada. The importance of reestablishing this link between these two historic communities will be discussed in some detail at this meeting, including economic and social impacts, with a question and answer period to follow.

To date, our group has also been informed that relevant federal departments have reacted favorably to our initiative. These results have come in part due to our ongoing effort to secure inter-governmental collaboration to resolve this longstanding and vexing issue.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these matters.

Sincerely,

Tim Menk, Heather Hayes, Gene Kersey, directors
Friends Of Gabarus Society, (FOG)
Gabarus, NS B1K 3R9