Comments on Natural Resources Encouraged

Nova Scotians filled 2,000 seats in fire halls, community centres and other meeting places around the province for 27 meetings in May and June on the future of the province's biodiversity, forests, minerals and parks.

About 150 individuals and groups have also submitted written comments to the Voluntary Planning Natural Resources Citizen Engagement Committee. Nova Scotians still have until the end of the month to submit comments.

"Our committee is gathering Nova Scotians' values to help government develop a natural resources strategy for the province," said Candace Stevenson co-chair of the committee. "We've had excellent discussions about people's long-term vision in our community meetings. We thank everyone for their written and verbal comments so far, and we're eager to see more as written submissions continue to come in."

Written submissions will be accepted until July 31. They can be submitted on the Voluntary Planning website at http://vp.gov.ns.ca, by fax at 902-424-0580, or by mail to:

Voluntary Planning Suite 600, 1690 Hollis St. Halifax, N.S. B3J 3J9

Nova Scotians can also call Voluntary Planning at 902-424-8644 or toll-free at 1-866-858-5850 to give comments.

The website also has a document called The Future of Nova Scotia's Natural Resources. It explains the scope of the citizen engagement process and has questions to help people focus their written submissions. The document is also available at Access Nova Scotia centres and the Voluntary Planning office.

Nova Scotia aims to have one of the cleanest and most sustainable environments in the world by 2020. To help reach that goal, new strategies are being developed for water, natural resources, energy, climate change and coastal management. To learn more, or take part, see The New Nova Scotia: A Path to 2020 at www.gov.ns.ca/2020 .