Does it matter that Mike Keiser was 95% sure, five years ago,  that our government would build him an airport close to Cabot Links, as reported in Golf Digest?

“For the moment, getting to Cabot Links is every bit as tough -- if not tougher -- than Bandon Dunes. You fly into Halifax, then drive three and a half hours north. But Keiser is "95 percent confident" the government will build an airport nearer to the resort, with direct flights likely from Toronto if not New York and other U.S. cities eventually.”

Yes. 

Why? 

1. Build CapeBreton.ca has been trying to make the case that an airport in Inverness will benefit Cape Breton tourism as a whole, and so spending 18 million dollars of taxpayers money to build it is wise. 

      But if Mike Keiser was so sure that we would build him an airport in Inverness, he must’ve had good reasons for thinking so. The folks behind BuildCapeBreton.ca may or may not have known that Kaiser’s expectation was that an airport in Inverness would be built, but now they must make the case for it as an ask from a developer. 

2. The New York Time reported, on June 5, 2017, in an article called “Assisting the Good Life,” that Mike Kaiser’s lawyers succeeded in arguing that Keiser’s Bandon Dunes Golf Resort should receive a tax cut that was set up to attract new construction, retroactively. The golf resort was up and running when Kaiser requested the tax break meant to attract businesses, not support them. 

And other subsidies - yes, including an airport upgrade - were to follow. 

Government subsidies should be for the common good. 

Most people would agree that ordinary people should not be forced to pay for an airport so that wealthy golfers will arrive 2 hours earlier at Cabot Links, assuming an arrival at Sydney airport. 

What can we expect in return? It is unclear that we should expect anything. 

3. BuildCapeBreton.ca tells us that this airport will create more than 600 jobs, direct and related - full-time jobs. But they do not tell us how they have come up with number: We deserve to know how this number was calculated. 

Winter is coming. Every year. 

4. BuildCapeBreton.ca tells us that visitors using the new airport will spend 2.5 million dollars in the first year. Again, there is no explanation of how this number was calculated. Let’s ask questions. 

5. It is undeniable that Mike Kaiser is looking out for his business and wealthy clients; but who is looking out for us? The Sydney airport is essential to this island, how would it be affected by summer competition from another commercial airline? Has an analysis been done, and if so, what are the projections? 

Cape Breton has a 13.7 unemployment rate. Investments in job-creating developments should be done seriously, with the idea that public subsidies and funding will go to ideas that have the best chance of creating solid, well-paying, full-time jobs. 

I remember sitting in the CBRM Council chambers listening to Chris Skidmore promise that an RV park in Big Pond would create 30 full-time jobs and seasonal jobs too, and I imagined the bitterly cold winds from the Bras d’Or Lake, whipping up snow, and wondering what those 30 workers would be doing in the winter. 

Not one CBRM Councillor, or our Mayor, questioned this number. 

We have to do a lot better.

Some people who live on the Island consider asking sensible questions about developments to be “naysaying.” Asking that our politicians do their homework before championing an idea will help us all.