Page 35 - The Pulp Mill Comes to the Strait

ISSUE : Issue 25

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1980/6/1

pointment of Henry Hicks as premier of Nova Scotia (1954). And that stopped things there. I've always thought and al? ways said, if Angus L. Macdonald had stayed in, that we wouldn't have run into the same problems and made faster progress to the pulp mill. Anyhow, wood. That was something we had that was natural to us. And we had the water. We felt that we had water.. We had a meeting in Antigonish--people came from all over, I was in the garage business. Anyone came in the garage to buy a car, I talked pulp mill with them. It gets in , your blood. I knew the possibilities were there, and I don't know what was driving me on. All the time. I'd go up there 5 o'clock in the morning and look over the area. You become possessed with the idea till you can't let go. I wouldn't let go regardless of what happened. Once the Causeway opened, the business that I had went down to nothing because there was no traffic by here. People were all out of work. I had the old sheriff here more than once at the door. Eva: Even came to turn our lights out, take out our phone--that's how hard we had it. (This place got hit....) Boy, did it ever. You don't know the half of it. Leon? ard had to go to Halifax to work finally. I was here alone with the kids, he'd come home on the weekends. He worked 13 years away. I brought the kids up alone. Leonard: Back to the water again. At the big meeting in Antigonish, two of the cab? inet ministers--one represented us here and the other was Minister of Lands and Forests • during the meeting one got up and said they had had a private firm come in and look the site over here, that there was a company interested in building a pulp mill, but that the company needed 12 million gallons of water--but that we here had'only 9 million gallons of water, so there was no possibility of getting a pulp mill. The other cabinet minister stood up and put his shoulders back and said, "La? dies and gentlemen, 12 million gallons is a lot of water," and he sat down. That's all he said. So I got up--the auditorium in Antigonish was full • and I said, "La? dies and gentlemen"--maybe I wasn't that polite--bju'I said, "we_have'got the water, and I can prove it." Cripes, there was damn near a riot in the auditorium. People seemed to believe me and thought someone was trying to sell us down the river. Cripes, some of the women were crying, everyone was just madder than a hatter, Eva: You see, that meeting in Antigonish 'condemned the site. They said we didn't 36 Modern Units Swimming Pool Air Conditioning Tour Buses Welcome Seal Island A Moteland ''' Dining Room ''''L (Licensed) '''B Seafood ''V our specialty ''' 674-2418 '[''''r Loc at ed ''''m Overlooki] Country Living at the Seal Island Bridge Located between Baddeck and Sydney Overlooking the Bras d*Qr Lakes Tour of Actual Mine Miners' Village Replica Miners' Homes Restaurant Company Store Handcraft Gift Shop MINERS' MUSEUM A Must for Every Visitor to Cape Breton GROUP TOURS ARE WELCOME: 849-4522 QUARRY POINT, GLACE BAY, NOVA SCOTIA (35)

Cape Breton's Magazine