Nova Scotia leads the country in preserving natural habitat for future generations with more land in parks and protected areas than any other province or territory.
The challenge in finding the balance between responsible conservation and sound economic development could mean keeping more of our children working at home.
Thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars annually are at stake in mining, a traditional industry throughout the province.
A viable solution would be to allow swaps of land in protected areas that currently overlap potential mining sites for land of comparable ecological importance nearby.
Swapping works well in other provinces and could work in Nova Scotia.