The Inverness County chapter of the Council of Canadians has been very active in their area on the issue of hydraulic fracturing, once they heard that PetroWorth, a German oil and gas outfit with land holdings in NS, NB and PEI, was coming to explore around Lake Ainslie. Lake Ainslie is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia and is surrounded by small rural communities in central Cape Breton.
Along with many others in the community, the Inverness County chapter started in the summer with educating themselves on the ins and outs of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, and then started organizing events in various communities within the county. A petition was started in September, with both a paper and online base, and these were delivered to Inverness MLA Allan MacMaster in late October 2010.
Thom Oommen and I were then present at the NS Legislature when Mr. MacMaster presented this petition to his colleagues. Along with a meeting with Mr. MacMaster, we also secured a meeting with Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks and two members of his staff just after the petition was presented.
Thom did a great job of describing the situation, and community’s concerns, to the minister.
Although we weren’t able to bring this large bottle of Lake Ainslie water into Province House, we did get the nice folks at security to let us stand on the steps with the water, and to take our photo!
