Letter by Guysborough County resident Alexander Bridge to his local MLA Lloyd Hines in response to a request by the municipality that the province lift the fracking moratorium.
Greetings Lloyd,
I am writing to you in your capacity as our MLA for Guysborough.
As I’m sure you’re aware, there has been considerable public and media discussion this week regarding the Municipality of the District of Guysborough’s (MODG) recent petition to the provincial government, requesting lifting the ban on fracking, in order for them to move forward to develop this industry here in Guysborough.
I wrote a detailed letter to The Guysborough Journal objecting to this action and expressing deep concerns given the many inherent environmental problems associated with fracking. In addition, there is the blatant fact the MODG approached your government without any discussion with the voters or any technical or scientific input. I am outraged by this council continued lack of transparency.
Since that letter was published I’ve been contacted by many people voicing similar concerns. One phone call came from an 87-year-old gentleman who lived for over 37 years at Halfway Cove. He understands the need to grow the local economy, but like me saw other (green) ways of doing it rather through fracking. The county of Guysborough needs a sustainable economy- fracking is not the answer.
A young woman from here, currently at school in Alberta, posted this on Facebook after my letter ran:
“Say NO to Fracking, Guysborough!! We do NOT need a boom and bust economy, we need jobs to sustain us for generations to come. In addition to this, extraction of shale gas is extremely invasive, destructive and has huge negative impacts on the environment – far more than the potential benefits to a few people for a short period of time. I’m extremely disappointed in the municipality’s request for the ban to be lifted, especially without consulting the town and county first. Please, leave it in the ground, and take time to write to your MLA, your Councilor, anyone who represents you, to keep advocating to keep it in the ground and keep demanding a sustainable economy.”
I urge you to share my letter with the premier and other members of the cabinet. The province should not change its position on fracking in order to accommodate the uninformed views of this misguided, local council.
I have copied Margaret Miller, Minister of Natural Resources on this.
Sincerely,
Alexander Bridge
You are making big mistake if you try to put this on the agenda to do this again
We the Province made it clear we do NOT WANT FRACKING’
Try IT and you will be voted out!
I think Nova Scotia is too small to have fracking. We need more respect for our land or in a few years it will not be good to do anything of value. Short term money destroys. Long term plans to use our limited resources in an environmentally manner is what we need