A public campaign is heating up to persuade the provincial government to buy back thousands of hectares of land to prevent it from falling into the hands of a foreign forestry company. The land includes three plots that comprise 220-thousand hectares in Annapolis, Halifax, Hants, Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne counties. The land once belonged to the Bowater Mersey paper mill, which shut down in June. The province's PC leader, Jamie Baillie, is calling upon the Dexter government to work toward protecting the lands.
The province already bought 10-thousand hectares for 24 million dollars as part of the deal to keep Bowater up and running. However, the mill closed anyway within a few months.