Said Rankin “Nova Scotia has protected more provincial Crown land than other jurisdictions in Canada”. According to federal 2020 stats, we trail Alberta, British Columbia, NWT and Quebec.
Screen capture from the News Release
According to Premier Rankin,
Nova Scotia has protected more provincial Crown land than other jurisdictions in Canada
– NS Government News Release announcing the government’s intention to “designate 61 more wilderness areas, nature reserves and provincial parks”, Apr 22, 2021.
Here is a screen capture of latest numbers from the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database:
So by these stats, we are trailing Alberta, British Columbia, NWT and Quebec.
It seems Premier Rankin as candidate Rankin was aware of that as on Jan 5, 2020 he stated “we are among the top provinces for land protection percentage” (italics inserted).
So I am wondering if the current wording – “more provincial Crown land than other jurisdictions in Canada” was purposely ambiguous, i.e. he could always say he meant “more provincial Crown land than some other jurisdictions in Canada”. I hope not.
The Premier might have mentioned that Canada has been committed to 17% land protection since 2010, recently upped to 30% by 2030.
I have estimated that if we were to protect the additional land required to reach 30% all on Crown land, 74% of Crown lands not now protected would have to be protected.
Candidate Rankin considered 30% protected land “currently out of reach for Nova Scotia given our history of settlement and relatively high proportion of private lands (approx 65%)”. As Minister of Lands and Forestry and now as Premier he has shown us that we do have enough Crown land, apparently, to continue to subsidize Big Forestry and enough prospective Protected Areas to sell some at a bargain basement price to make a golf course.
Some Related Posts
– A question to the Nova Scotia Liberal Leadership Candidates: How do you plan to align Nova Scotia with the federal Liberal Government’s commitment to 30% Protected Area by 2030? 2Jan 2021. And the Responses
– Plourde urges Premier to reset the agenda on nature for Nova Scotia 13Oct2020