Where Has Our Active Transportation Trail Gone?

I have to make this statement so it is clear that I am not harassing our elected officials: The following is political commentary related to community damaging policies that need to be reversed for the betterment of "all CBRM". The battle against hypocrisy must go on :-)  

We have already seen Nova Scotia communities like Port Hawkesbury (See Port Hawkesbury residents to benefit) and now Kentville ( See Kentville active transportation or Kentville residents to benefit) benefit from a national trend towards Active Transportation supported by new $400million federal funding. Note an Active Transportation Trail is 100% opposite of an ATV Trail.

CBRM has 13km of trail that was promised, for over 10 years, to be Active Transportation in an effort to bring CBRM up to par with the rest of Canada and make our communities better places to live. What a great opportunity we had here. This project was perverted into an ATV Trail without a public mandate or permission. This means that a couple CBRM councilors (Pre-2020) have locked us out of the national initiative to improve Canadian health/lifestyles and the $400million funding. I say pre-2020 because the current cohort has significant amount of new entrants that hopefully can see the direction Canada is moving and the mess that the other two remaining councilors made here ("The two councillors mentioned here: CB Post) and will fix it. A land use agreement is needed (legally via NS Off-Road vehicle Act) to allow off-road vehicles to use our public trails. We need our new council to revoke the land use agreement (if it actually exists) and put up "No Motors" signs in residential areas like other modern communities in Canada. That's how easy it is to fix this mess.

We have seen here (Physical & Social Damage Related to ATV Trails in CBRM), prominent community members speaking out against the negative effects of off-road vehicles in our community and considering revoking the land use agreements allowing them on their property. Why is CBRM council not listening?

At the beginning of those 10 years Council asked for ~$6.6million budget for Active Transportation, to which this trail was part of.  At this point, it looks very much like this ATV trail deal was done in a backroom out of public view, to accommodate a special interest group and I say this because of the following

  • The rail trail committee and participating members (including 3 councillors) were still preaching "Active Transportation" up until at least November 2017. See this video in this public Facebook group
  • Council was still speaking of this Active Transportation corridor up to 2019, publicly ("bring the beds to an active transportation trails specification" from here:CB Post). This was just before the Covid-19 pandemic and yes we have heard: "We can't have public meetings on this (my addition; mess) because of covid-19". Maybe next year, eh? They since tried to switch to the term "multi-use trail" thinking we would forget but "multi-use" does not mean ATV Trail at all (as seen HERE). So now they are using some other term but an ATV trail is an ATV trail and they provide no value to any of our residential areas...period!
  • The Memorandum of Understanding between PSCP (Public Works Canada) for the acquisition of land specifically identified the land for use as an Active Transportation trail was ratified in council. (See this image  private Facebook group   A major deviation to convert a decade long AT project to an ATV trail was never brought to council to be voted on. I asked  but they could only provide evidence (council video) of the former.

For some reason (more to come on this) CBRM councillors (Pre-2020) were speaking of an Active Transportation trail publicly and also to PSPC but behind the scenes there was active planning going on to actually make an ATV trail.  

Residents all over CBRM should be upset with this type of behaviour and demand transparency and accountability in this matter because some great community leaders (like Rick McCready and Jacques Coté) from the recent past put a lot of work into Active Transportation in CBRM and we committed our taxpayer dollars to supporting these great leaders, only to have the rug pulled out from beneath us by a unilateral decision that benefits one organization and hurts many others in CBRM.

I say this because putting an ATV Trail in a residential area

  • Destroys residential property value
  • Creates excessive air pollution as ATVs are not designed or meant to be used for transportation (13km trail). Big polluters.
  • Destroys and/or negatively affects sensitive ecological systems along the trail.
  • Creates excessive noise pollution
  • Deters use of trail for Active Transportation
  • Violate resident's right to enjoyment of property
  • Increases police activity and legal infractions
  • Increases injury, death or visits to the our local emergency room

While not creating an ATV trail in residential areas affects nobody in the community. What!?!?

Lots more to come on this but for now you can read more about this mess in this private Facebook group 

Note: it is illegal for any off-road vehicle to be on any street or sidewalk in Nova Scotia (except to cross at designated areas to stay on a designated trail). So make sure to call police services at 902-563-5151 every time you witness this, anywhere. They need to know in order to be able to act on it. It is not important if they catch that particular one, just that they log the issue so this can be fixed in council and that they know when and where to patrol. It is quick and easy and tell them you want to be anonymous if you wish.

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Rod Thompson Follow Me
I fully support the author on this front, I too fought with the previous council over the use of powered vehicles within Glace Bay particularly. The road we live on was regularly utilized by ATVs accessing the shoreline in Glace Bay, I did contact the police and voila, the use of the road has ended but I made no progress then nor lately on trying to save our coast from the tearing up of the landscape by powered vehicles between the Miner's Museum and South Street. Many of us use this area for walking ourselves including with pets and family groups. Powered vehicles have torn the landscape up badly as well as party goers who drive their trucks etc. down to a spot where they can hide when they park, just so happens that where they park is right where there used to be a great cranberry patch which was harvested by locals every year, no longer there due to the vehicles tearing it up. Many of us are trying to stay or become fit and walking is one of the best exercises especially for those of us who are aging (personally I turn 74 this year and still hike and walk regularly even in the winter). Let's reserve some good lands for the use of those of us who use our quads (muscles not motors) and enjoy clean air and nice walks.
Joseph Campbell My Post Follow Me
Thank you Rod. Keep calling police services if you see them where they are not supposed to be. The call itself is valuable believe it or not. Calls will make the difference when Councillors won't. Councillors should be actively listening to residents in their district about this. They should be reporting the issues into council and they should be encouraging residents to speak out instead of deterring them from speaking out. The issues you speak of are all throughout CBRM and increasing year over year. We have a whole new group of Councillors that we can only hope they are willing to listen and fix this mess and make CBRM a better place to live and work. Police Services track and report these types calls so get as many people as you can to call in and keep calling in, it matters.
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