Nova Scotia's top court refuses to hear more Owls Head arguments

Nova Scotia's highest court is refusing to hear more arguments on the controversial proposal to build a golf course on land on the Eastern Shore that had been earmarked for a provincial park.

In a decision released Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled there was no point in hearing more arguments about the Owls Head proposal, because the golf course proposal was dead, and therefore the court case was moot.

That's because the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Tim Houston backed away from the golf course idea, which had been advanced by the previous Liberal government. The Houston government went further, completing the necessary steps to make the Crown land a provincial park.

The plan to develop a golf course was first reported by CBC News in 2019.

The news touched off a furor and prompted legal action by environmentalist Robert Bancroft and the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association. They asked for a judicial review of the government's decision to consider the land for a golf course development, saying it lacked procedural fairness. But last year, a judge of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court rejected the review request on the grounds the sale was not a done deal.

Bancroft and the association appealed Justice Christa Brothers's decision to the Court of Appeal, which has now turned them down.

The Houston government's decision to designate the land for a park came after Brothers's ruling, a fact government lawyers made in submissions to the Court of Appeal.

The court agreed to accept the fresh evidence from the province and said it meant there were no "live" issues left for the court to review.