This page is referenced under In the News – Democracy Issues
Writes Celes Davar in a FB post:
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Share,… tell your friends and ask them to tell all their friends… ✍️Write your MLA and ask for this budget to be voted down. If you or someone you know would like to speak at Public Bills, ☎️call the Nova Scotia Legislature office at 902 424 8941 to be added to the list of presenters. Don’t want to speak but have your say? Write ✍️ the Legislative office to have your letter distributed to the Public Bills committee, cc your MLA and the cabinet minister responsible. ✍️Legc.office@novascotia.ca Check the NS Legislature website for Public Bills updates. ___________________________________ 1. The false narrative for a fiscal crisis does not warrant the systematic dismantling of the Wildlife Branch and Environment and Climate Change staff. This is a deliberate act to remove science and evidence and environmental monitoring input into resource development activities that the Premier and Cabinet are proposing in mining for critical minerals, uranium, fracking, oil and gas exploration, and accelerated logging of our forests. 2. This budget is very limited in its scope for identifying other investments into other sectors that could provide new revenues, sustainable growth, and involve rural and small businesses in a creative way. 3. Targeting conservation zones to tax on private lands is over-reach of my rights as a landowner, and woodlot manager. 4. Tourism as a high performing Sector deserves more investment. This is where I spent a fair bit of time analyzing data and sharing it within my email because this is the sector that is my area of expertise. One of the interesting things I learned from my research is that Tourism has become Nova Scotia’s largest employer among these four sectors by a wide margin. With approximately 54,000 estimated employees in 2024 — compared to roughly 6,400 in forestry, 3,028 in mining, and fewer than 400 in oil and gas — tourism provides employment for approximately 5.5 times as many workers as the other three sectors combined. This employment is distributed across the province, benefiting coastal communities, the Annapolis Valley, Cape Breton, and Halifax Metro equally. Revenue-wise, the comparison is even more striking. Tourism’s $3.5B in revenues (2024) exceeds the combined GDP impact of forestry (~$1.8B), mining (~$435M), and oil & gas (~negligible) by nearly 75%. The tourism sector also generates substantially more government tax revenue than the resource sectors, both because tourism is a high-volume consumer-facing activity subject to HST, and because it employs a large workforce that pays income and payroll taxes. This table compares all four sectors across revenue/GDP impact, employment, and provincial tax contribution over the study period. Note that ‘Revenue’ for tourism represents total tourism spending (a broader measure than GDP), while Forestry, Mining, and Oil & Gas figures represent GDP impact or value-add.
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NSFM: A little bit about Celes Davar
On January 26, 2025, Celes was given the IMPACT Sustainable Tourism award in Victoria, which celebrates individuals and organizations who inspire and lead in creating positive impacts for communities, the economy, and the environment.
From the Award Statement:
“Celes Davar, an experiential tourism operator, is recognized for his outstanding contributions to sustainable tourism.
“As the President of Earth Rhythms, he offers creative, immersive experiences in remote locations along the Bay of Fundy and in the Annapolis Valley region.
“Working with Mi’kmaw, Acadian, and local communities, Celes provides enriching storytelling and a deep sense of place through tours enriched with nutritious food, cultural traditions, and themes of climate change, art, live music, and nature. His work is a testament to tourism as a force for good, communicated through well-crafted visitor experiences.”