N.S. premier surprise guest at heated Whitney Pier Pallet shelter meeting

Premier Tim Houston was a surprise guest at Monday night's public meeting about the controversial Pallet shelter village proposed for Whitney Pier, N.S.

"These are serious issues. They have concerns, and for me I wanted to hear those concerns firsthand,” Houston told CTV News Atlantic on Tuesday morning.

Houston said he learned a lot at the meeting, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours and at times grew heated with people in the crowd shouting down those making presentations.

Much of the allotted time was spent on questions from the floor that grilled the premier, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality mayor and project proponents.

"I think they raised legitimate concerns about the site selection process,” Houston said. “There's information that needs to be exchanged back and forth on that and just people are concerned about the impact on their family."

Michelle Dockrill, who retired in 2017 after a 32-year career in Addictions Services, was among those in attendance. She commended the Premier for coming to the meeting and feels his participation might make a difference.

"That in speaking to him after the meeting, as he did with a number of people privately, there were things that he was not aware of,” Dockrill said. “And we gave him the documentation that supported (our concerns)."

Houston said the next step is to take what he learned back to Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services, along with project planners.

He added alternative locations that were suggested during the meeting are not necessarily out of consideration.

"I think we'll look at what other sites had been assessed and why they were deemed inappropriate and kind of have an assessment over that,” Houston said.

Unless there is a change in plan, the Pallet shelters are expected to go by the end of February and in to March.

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