The Inverness airport project deserves support for a number of reasons.
The transformation of Inverness, spurred by the creation of the Cabot golf courses, is stunning. More importantly, the reversal of the decline of one of our rural communities is unprecedented in this province. That sort of transformation should not only be supported; it should be viewed as a model for how we strengthen the economic ecosystem of rural Nova Scotia going forward. The Ivany report identifies strong growth in tourism as fundamental to the economic survival of rural Nova Scotia. The creation and growth of world-class tourism assets is a cornerstone of that growth.
One of the primary roles of government is to provide robust transportation infrastructure that supports the growth of our economy. An airport in western Cape Breton is exactly that: it falls into a category that is one of the primary mandates of government.
Governments have for too long used our financial resources to try to help failing parts of our economy. This is the opposite of that. How often have we witnessed the success of provincial financial support being repaid early?
Supporting success is a much better and, in fact, safer way to use our scarce resources to positively influence our economy.
Western Cape Breton is one of the most beautiful parts of the world. It holds great potential to build upon the stunning success story we have witnessed in Inverness over the past few years. Let’s do something that helps surface more of the opportunity that we are seeing emerge there, to build an economy in that part of Nova Scotia that helps make the communities there sustainable over the long term.
Jim Spatz, Halifax