The mayor of Port Hawkesbury says the replacement of the Port Hastings rotary is an important step toward developing Cape Breton as a destination.
The project was announced as part of the provincial five-year highway plan Jan. 27.
After February’s regular town council meeting Tuesday night, Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, the town’s mayor, told The Hawk it goes hand-in-hand with the Cape Breton Gateway project.
“First impressions are the longest lasting,” she said. “Cape Breton Island is a world-class destination, and I think that we deserve no less than a world-class gateway.”
Chisholm-Beaton has given presentations to her counterparts with several local municipalities and First Nations on the beautification, tourism and immigration potential that would come with a new Port Hastings rotary.
She said they all have an opportunity to work together to create something spectacular.
“(We want) to be able to welcome people to our island, and hopefully their forever home,” she said. “We want them to visit, but we also want them to come back again and again, until they decide they need to live here forever.”
Work on the Port Hastings rotary replacement is scheduled for the 2021-22 phase of the highway plan.
