By John Moore, Columnist
It’s amazing what can happen when we put our collective minds together. Anything is possible! I remember back in June of 1984 HRM had a very undeveloped waterfront. It was full of mounds of earth and rough patches everywhere. We had a table set up to sell painter caps for the upcoming Parade of Sail, the first of its kind ever to take place in Halifax. The weather was summer like all week as thousands of people descended on the waterfront to party like there was no tomorrow. Our painter caps, which had a tall ship silk screened on the front, were selling like hot cakes because of the unusually hot weather that week. People were absolutely amazed at the beauty of the waterfront and kept asking why we aren’t utilizing this space as this would be a great place for residents and tourists to go if only there were board walks and places to eat. This is when Halifax discovered just how wonderful our waterfront was. Fortunately, those who could make things happen listened and today we have an amazing waterfront filled with great boardwalks and all kinds of wonderful restaurants. Thank you to our government and business leaders who made this happen.
For years we had the Halifax Commons, which was used as a nice large green space where in the summer baseball games were played. Somewhere along the way a pool was built, tennis courts were erected and then a skateboarding park happened. In 2011 along came the Canada Games and that’s when the Commons really came alive when an outdoor skating facility to host competitions was built. This was originally going to be a temporary facility until the public stood up and said it would be a great idea to have a permanent outdoor public facility for skating and so the Oval was born. What a great addition to HRM as some days there are as many as 2000 participants using it. Again, our leaders are to be congratulated for their wisdom and foresight for making this wonderful facility become a reality.
In recent years HRM has experienced unprecedented growth. High density developments are everywhere it seems and more are coming along all the time. It looks like HRM council will be approving at least 25 more residential apartment developments making traffic congestion and environmental concerns even more challenging. In this light there is now an even greater demand to have a huge nature space where the public can get away from it all and that is close by. The good news is there is. It’s called the Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness area, and it’s filled with many beautiful lakes and home to many kinds of wildlife. It is an amazing gem of nature and is patiently waiting to be fully harnessed so it can be all it was meant to be.
Dedicated community groups such as Friends of Blue Mountain have been working hard to get this wilderness area to achieve its true potential and that is to have it designated an Urban Nation Wilderness Park. Our elected representatives of all stripes have also been working hard to make this happen. Many other stakeholder groups have also been advocating for this to happen. There is, however, a major obstacle in all this. Unfortunately, there are some who believe a major 9.9 km highway is a far better way to go than a trail of similar length. This highway, if it were to proceed, would be filled with noise and pollution at all hours and greatly affect not only the integrity of this entire wilderness park but also the lives of many nearby residents. Is it worth it or is preservation of nature a better solution? I ‘m referring to the proposed highway project called 113. It makes no sense, and a recent article entitled” why Halifax must choose trails over highways” by retired environmental consultant Geoffrey Hurley eloquently proves the highway would be a huge waste of tax payors money. A campaign has been started to end this once and for all so that the way forward hopefully can be made for the Urban National Park to become a reality. It’s important for all levels of government to work collaboratively on this. The waterfront happened, the oval happened and now it’s time to make the Urban National Park happen. More than ever our great city, with all its growth, needs this. We have a golden opportunity to not only honor nature but to do something spectacular for our region, our province and indeed Canada. Let’s make this happen!
God bless and Happy Easter!
