Louisbourg-Gabarus road reopening gets support from CBRM
Loss of the 7-km stretch in the 1960s still means a detour of nearly an hour
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has offered official support to efforts by people in the Louisbourg/Gabarus area to get a seven-kilometre stretch of road between the two communities reopened.
The highway once travelled by soldiers at the Fortress of Louisbourg was in use for centuries, but the federal government closed it in 1966 when restoration work began on the national historic site.
Regional Mayor Cecil Clarke said the road is important historically and would generate economic benefits by boosting tourism.
He said he supports "an integrated and co-ordinated approach to tourism development for roadway access and mobility for citizens.
"All those things are important."
Bill Fiander, who grew up in Louisbourg, has been been lobbying the provincial and federal governments.
Phone calls, emails, petition
"I, first of all, started a Facebook site and I started emailing various politicians," he said. "I started a petition last fall and we got 1,300 people on that petition."
Tim Menk, who lives in Gaburus at the other end of the road, said that there were long-standing commercial ties between the two communities but they ended when the road did, "because it took 15 minutes to get there in the past. It takes an hour now to get there."
Economic boon
Fiander said a survey a few years ago by the-then Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation concluded that the reopening of the road would be a big boost for Cape Breton tourism overall, by completing the Fleur-de-Lis Trail.
"The ECBC study indicated that of 1,700 surveyed, going around the Cabot Trail — and at that time there were 400,000 people going around the Trail — 60 per cent said they would take the Louisbourg-Gabarus road it if was opened," he said.
"So that would mean a lot of people — 150,000 people along that route — would be spending money in Louisbourg and Gabarus and Port Hawkesbury and Glace Bay. This would mean a big thing for the whole area. "
Fiander said having CBRM on-side is an important next step in presenting their case to government.
He said next year's 150th anniversary of Confederation should also help, as funding will be made available for special projects.
A 2008 estimate of the cost to completely rebuild the road was $20 million, but Fiander said fixing up the old road would be much cheaper.