Scenic Cape Breton mountain faces rising trash problem

Kelly’s Mountain in Cape Breton is facing a growing garbage problem.

Kellys Mountain along the Trans-Canada Highway in Cape Breton is postcard-pretty, but recently it looks more like a city dump.

“There’s really no excuse for trash to be dumped on Kellys Mountain. No excuse whatsoever,” Victoria County Councillor Tim Donovan said.

People have been dumping their trash off the two main lookoff sites – the Bras d’or Lookoff and St. Ann’s Bay Lookoff – for years.

The Nova Scotia government recently put up “no littering signs” in the area, but garbage continues to pile up.

Donovan said it’s not an easy problem to solve.

“The fines for violating the law could be made stiffer, but even then the only way you can impose those fines is if you catch somebody in the act,” Donovan said.

“It’s an eyesore, and a dangerous eyesore at that,” said Jeff McNeil, president of the Port Morien Wildlife Association.

McNeil pointed out that if anyone wants to clean up the mess, they have to make their way down a steep embankment.

That didn’t stop one man from finding his own way to haul plenty of trash up the slope from behind the safety of the guardrail, as shown in a social media video.

McNeil thinks some people have made dumping off Kellys Mountain a habit they don’t really think twice about.

“And a lot of them just say, ‘The heck with it,’ and dump,” McNeil said. “It’s a hard method to break, even with education, and we’ve learned that.”

Donovan also feels there is no need for the behaviour is because both Victoria County and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality offer weekly garbage pickup, along with annual heavy garbage collection.

He’s appealing to Cape Bretoners’ pride in the place they call home.

“We live in a beautiful area of the world, and it’s something we should all be proud of,” Donovan said. “Being proud of it, we should absolutely not deface what we have.”

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