HALIFAX - A New Democratic government would protect public access to land in communities across Nova Scotia, party leader Darrell Dexter pledged Sunday.
If elected on June 9, Dexter said his government would establish a community lands trust through new legislation that would maintain access by buying land or its development rights.
The trust ''will ensure that communities can retain land that is important for their traditional economic, tourism and recreational uses,'' Dexter said in a statement.
He said the trust would be independent from the government.
''It will be mandated by law to identify significant land and maintain accustomed community and public access,'' he said.
Dexter said the trust would be different from existing provincial legislation which protects land with ecological or heritage value.
He cited the sale of some 69,000 hectares of J.D. Irving-owned land in southwest Nova Scotia as an example of the need for such a trust.
The governing Conservatives recently submitted a bid to buy about 8,500 hectares of the land, noting that it has significant ecological, recreational and heritage value.
N.S. NDP vows to protect public access to community land by creating a trust
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Published on
June 1, 2009
- Published on January 3, 2010
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