Chéticamp to Discuss Contentious Zoning Question + More News

News for Chéticamp and surrounding areas from February 7 to 14, 2021:

- Municipal council will be holding a public consultation on Thursday February 18th about the proposal to ban new campgrounds from the residential zone in Chéticamp only. The question comes after Point Cross residents complained about a campground project large enough to accommodate over 100 RVs being built near their homes. Defenders of the project argued it would bring economic development to the community.

The Eastern District Planning Commission is putting forward the recommendation following a public consultation back in October. The ban on new campgrounds in the RR-1 zone would be a temporary measure while staff reviews other zoning possibilities for commercial projects. But this is not going to be discussed at the Feb 18th meeting. When that recommendation comes forward, there will be another public consultation.

- Inverness County prepares to register its dog control by-law with the Department of Justice and the Department of Municipal Affairs so it can be enforced. At the moment, the only way the municipality can deal with dog complaints is to ask owners to change their behaviour, but it can take no legal action. In fact, it would be the first bylaw the municipality will register with the province. “It hasn’t been really an issue,” said Warden Laurie Cranton. “There are all kinds of bylaws but, up to this point, we basically speak to the people involved and work it out that way and we don’t have to go to these means to solve the issue, usually. But should that happen, we want to be prepared for it,” he continued. “It’s something that just needed to be cleaned up, I think, and dealt with and it hadn’t been in the past. So, I guess that’s my role now and warden and council, is seeing that it’s taken care of so in the future we can utilize our bylaws even in a more effective way.”

- The Société Saint-Pierre is asking the community to send them ideas for names for a new campground and performance centre being built by Parks Canada at Cape Rouge. The area is of historical significance for the Acadian community. “[Around] 1864, up until the park’s construction in 1936 and a few years after that, there was a vibrant community that lived within the national park, the Highlands,” said Société Saint-Pierre director Lisette Aucoin-Bourgeois. “We wanted to bring Acadian names back on display. We wanted interpretation panels. For example, if we walk the Buttereau trail, there are signs near the foundation where we can identify the families who lived there. So, these are the different things the Société Saint-Pierre has done over the years. More recently, we worked on a research project on our Acadians in the national park. From the research came a book on Cape Rouge, which we published in 2019. This is to ensure that future generations will have access to relevant information on their ancestors, and even if they’re not their ancestors, on the Acadians who lived inside the park. So, this project brought us today to the campground.”