Another dose of sarcasm
I guess I am feeling sarcastic today but I couldn't help a little laugh when someone sent me the link to the progress on the $300 million resort being built in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. This is a foreign investor led project very similar to the one that was being planned for Elgin, New Brunswick but pulled off the table due to a) the negative crap published in the media about killing old growth forests and huge environmental damage, b) the Conservation Council actively campaigned against it - petition and all and c) the goverment's tepid support and foot dragging.
If you get a chance, check out the all smiles photo of Peter Mackay, Rodney Macdonald and the developer.
If you read my previous blog, what do you think the chances of either 2) or 3) being the more likely scenario?
posted by David Campbell @ 10:52 AM
8 Comments:
Hey, check your email. OK, I'll post it here, two new developments in economic development.
1. The number two guy from RIM invests 1 million dollars for a canadian version of the Council on Foreign Relations, to be centred around Waterloo's CIGI (canadian international governance institute) and Torontos' Munk Centre.
2. The feds are looking at investing in a Cape Breton project of a near orbit space launching station which nominally has the support of three levels of government and even NASA (of course not all taxpayers). This seems like a good way to combine economic development and tourism advances (flights will be $250,000).
Again, to new readers, all of the above is OPINION, NOT fact. We don't know why the deal was scuttled, and again, the petition was to ensure that all the environmental regulations were to be followed, not a petition against the proposal itself.
Plus, you could at least be nominally objective. What you fail to mention is that the NB model was NOT a 'resort', it was a 'community', which is very differnet. So again, the deal could have been scuttled because nobody was interested in purchasing.
A resort and golf club is different, but seeing as how the Algonquin isn't even making any money anymore, I can see why people would be reluctant to jump on board a resort in Elgin.
You can hang your hat on that if it makes you feel better. The developer said the reason he was pulling out (and doing the exact same deal in another location) was the hostility towards the project and the lackluster government. You can choose to believe what you want but let's make sure the facts are on the table. The Conservation Council wanted it scuttled and it was scuttled.
Again, we don't know that, developers are like politicians, they SAY all kinds of things. It may be true that they were expecting the government to roll out the red carpet and hand them all kinds of crown land and subsidies, we don't know that.
While the government was definitely not rolling out the carpet (that we know of-politics is very different behind closed doors), it was far from the case that it was actively opposing it, they even made the preliminary move of allowing a clearcut for the development long before any studies were made-which was the conservations council's cheif complaint.
Unless you have inside information then 'we' have no idea what killed the deal. However, we do know the conservations councils position, I posted it before.
PS there is NO 'old growth forest' in southern NB.
We've had this discussion before, developers are looking for deals like in Cape Breton where the government quickly gets on side and probably throws money at it and relaxes regulations. Its true that that MAY have been the case here, but once again there is no way of knowing, and judging by the fact that Algonquin, one of the nicest and most visited places in NB loses 50 grand a year, then there is another whole question about whether governments should be throwing money and perks at developers (see NBT's blog for that)
They shouldn't do it for Bennett or Irving, and they shouldn't do it for developers. Just take a look at all the development that is going on all over the province, it certainly is not true that the government has EVER been 'anti development'. Hell, most of northern NB is already resort space for all kinds of famous moneyed people, in fact they go further than any province in Canada and actually offer leases ON the water.
If they are against development they have a funny way of showing it.
Following on the heels of the 'sarcasm' theme, I see all the clout that the conservation council has showing up in the paper all the time with their petition to get a federal environmental impact review on another refinery. Just look what they do with soooo much power.
It doesn't make me feel better, but I always try hanging my hat in the real world-it makes it a lot easier to find again:)
Mikel, I had a long disertation ready to send you but I wont. To add to the petition that David refered to earlier in this blog i would mlike to add this one at www.cuttheclearcut/eye-on-goshen/
and read the whole page.
I have great respet for your views and expertise but you are totally wrong in this one on every level.
Anon the web address you gave was a little bit off. It should read www.cuttheclearcut.ca/eye-on-goshen/ the You Tube clip it holds is sad as are some of the letters and the verbiage used in them. When compared with current construction pics on the Louisburg site I think it shows all of this clearcutting nonsense up for what it is - sensationalist garbage. There is a lot of heavy irony in this.
Excellent link, I hadn't seen that before, and I don't understand the above (although its nice to have views and 'expertise' respected, although I don't have much of the latter). It actually supports everything I was saying, and I read the page to the bottom and watched the video.
In fact, in opposition to what David says, it is CLEAR that the government was MORE than 'onboard', that they were really pushing this and going out of their way to make this happen in defiance of what any reasonable person can consider 'good governance'.
As for the conservation council, once again, it is, dare I say, ludicrous to think that any 'power' they had scuttled the deal. It's beyond absurd, sorry, but there it is. This group has been marginalized and an 'online petition' does nothing. As said previously, Irving went in and clearcut and got all those benefits from the land-hell, maybe there wasn't even an Irish company and the whole thing was set up just so they could clearcut what DNR says is pristine land. Just set up an online company with a 'spokesperson' (remember, one of them was supposedly an ex New Brunswicker I believe..hmmmm-ok, that maybe a bit of a stretch)
But again, it's hard to be 'proven wrong' when I didn't even state a thesis. The real point to this is WE DONT KNOW, and watch that video, it is very telling about all the things 'we' don't know.
As for the conservation council, quite obviously they do not support clearcuts, even a growing number of forestry companies realize that's a horrible way to harvest. However, I'll recommend people actually do as the above says and actually read the page, at NO point does the CCNB actually state they are in opposition to the deal. At NO point. And that would be a pretty fundamental and easy thing to say.
What they DO say is near the bottom, which is that the taxpayers of NB should be allowed to not only have a voice, but should be able to decide what is done with what is essentially their land.
That's a far cry from opposition. HAD this deal been done like Nova Scotia's, then no doubt there were be no problems. New Brunswickers are VERY pro development, and VERY pro-anything that creates some jobs. Again, the CCNB KNOWS New Brunswickers and knows full well that openly opposing a development that will create jobs are bad tactics.
But clearly the govenrment was out and out lying with virtually everything they said. In fact, by keeping people in the dark THEY could have scared off the developers. Most people are very prodevelopment, and in Ireland the process is very transparant. Imagine now thinking of setting up a development where the government basically says "don't worry about hte population, we've got them hoodwinked". Companies don't like doing business in that kind of environment, they want handouts, but they want them above board.
Again, thats an excellent link above, I think EVERYBODY should check it out and watch the video, it is VERY informative, and once again it is quite ironic because somebody who David is outrightly chastising is 'on record' with the exact same complaint as one of David's pet peeves-government secrecy. Thats just an example of how media distorts reality and makes enemies out of people with many of the same concerns.
I've said it before, but the CCNB has 'economic policies' that I bet you David would have no problem with. This post is too long already, maybe the topic will come up again.
Just one more point, its interesting reading to check out the company that they were working with. The company has virtually NO other developments of the scale they were thinking of for New Brunswick. That's interesting, considering their five other developments range from Dubai to St. Lucia to Chicago.
However, look at those developments, NONE were on the scale of NB's, essentially building a town in the middle of nowhere-that is a HUGE undertaking.
In Chicago they are 'pre selling' basically three condo buildings, thats it. In other locations they are not even selling their own developments, but ones owned by other companies.
And to be blunt and honest, take a look at the proposed development that supposedly 'changed their minds'. Algarve is a year round resort area, with summer being busiest where population can double. It's a historic area with cultural roots back to the 1200's.
While it is true that that area of New Brunswick is beautiful, it is only 'summer' for four months of the year, when it is crowded. Again, since the Algonquin loses money, its FAR more likely that they simply couldn't find buyers. However, from their website it very much looks like the company is VERY suspicious-not crooked, simply not up to the project they were proposing. They have no track record of a successful project, and seem to just throw ideas onto a pdf and see if one of them gets lots of people to buy, so that they can then build.
That isn't to badmouth resort developments. Some of the richest cities in the US are places in the middle of nowhere who just figured out, or got lucky, and built something up and got the crowds.
I highly doubt their governments acted in the way the NB government did, and I doubt the developers were as green as this one seems to be.
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