Mother Canada – the proposed memorial for the war dead in Cape Breton Highlands National Park – apparently will have to be built without public funding. “The Never Forgotten National Memorial is a privately-funded initiative,” Parks Canada bluntly replied to a National Observer query on the status of the memorial project Thursday. In recent months, public concern had mounted over speculation that the Harper government was prepared to sink taxpayers’ money into the massive memorial.

However, the new Liberal government apparently isn’t prepared to help foot the bill for a statue that has been criticized as “embarrassing” in public consultations. Kassandra Daze, a communications officer with the Parks Canada Agency, told National Observer that the application for the project must consider many elements. They include the environmental impact assessment and related public consultation, along with an associated Mi’kMaq Ecological Study, “the success of the Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation’s private-funding raising campaign,” and adherence to the Canada National Parks Act, and other applicable legislation. Daze said Catherine McKenna, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, recently stated that she will “take the necessary time to review the project to date, including the environmental assessment and public consultation process.” As well, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his mandate letter to McKenna called upon her to “protect our National Parks by limiting development within them.”

Without government support and funding, it seems unlikely the massive memorial will move ahead. The project cost for the memorial – locally dubbed “Mother Zombie” because of its outstretched arms - is estimated to be between $25 to $60-million. The proposed memorial has been called tasteless. Photo courtesy of Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation Meg Stokes, the director of community and corporate engagement, remained upbeat. She told National Observer that the foundation is continuing to move forward with preparation for the memorial and is currently working with Parks Canada on the required environmental assessment. Stokes said that the foundation remains committed to working with Parks Canada and the Mi’Kmaq on the approvals so that fund-raising can begin for the construction and maintenance of the memorial. Sean Howard, spokesman for the Friends of Green Cove, said they’ve always maintained public funding is an important issue, but not the fundamental one. He called the memorial a completely inappropriate development for Green Cove specifically. Howard said the focus for the Friends of Green Cove remains on keeping the memorial out of the national park. “We now have a government that believes in the national parks’ traditional role and is not eager, to put it mildly, to encourage controversial private development that will destroy a place of very special meaning,” Howard said. The Liberal government’s stance comes in sharp contrast to that of the Harper government. The Never Forgotten Memorial National Memorial Foundation, led by president and CEO and Toronto businessman Tony Trigiani, received backing from the previous Harper government. During Harper’s time in office, Parks Canada provided the project with $100,000 toward a website and research.

As well, Parks Canada was “authorized by the Government of Canada” in November 2013 to “collaborate” with the foundation. A letter from then-Parks Canada CEO, Alan Latourelle, to Trigiani said the federal agency was authorized to allow the foundation the use of the land at Green Cove for the construction of the memorial. The letter detailed that upon completion of the memorial, the foundation would donate it to Parks Canada and the memorial would become part of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Summing up, Latourelle wrote: “Parks Canada is honoured to be involved in the Never Forgotten National Memorial project and looks forward to working with the Foundation on this meaningful endeavor.”

Memorial's location declared "bizarre and offensive" The proposed memorial includes a gateway, procession pathway and sentry columns, an interpretative centre and a recognition and gratitude pavilion. The statue on its base could stretch as high as 30 metres. The memorial has attracted considerable animosity, brought international scorn, and received scathing comment from former national park heads, who maintain that public consultation on the project was minimal and rushed. In the comments in the draft impact analysis done on the memorial, people called the statue “tasteless” and its location “bizarre and offensive.” The Guardian UK lambasted the statue as an “awkwardly remodeled, vastly upscaled version” of Canada Bereft, the statue commemorating the war dead near Vimy, France. However, in June, a municipal councillor for Guysborough, Nova Scotia, said Mother Canada might be welcomed in the former Town of Canso. Fin Armsworthy told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, “It would be a great thing for us to have in Canso.”