In a message to the Premier in the fall of 2024, revealed in a FOIPOP, a senior executive with Clayton Developments Ltd contended that the Sandy Lake limnological observations are “pseudo-science” conducted “on behalf of the residents currently residing on Sandy Lake”. The pseudo-science includes, apparently, observations conducted under the direction of and according to the protocols of the Halifax’s LakeWatchers program (2022 onwards) and observations obtained entirely independently by Dalhousie University researchers in 2021. It is these observations that recorded very low deep water oxygen values (<2 mg/L); a Clayton rep. told me that they could not confirm the low oxygen values though their own, confidential observations. Coincidentally or not, the NS Gov/HRM sponsored Sandy Lake Watershed Study and Stormwater Management Plan released Jan 27, 2025 cites none of these limnological observations; the consultants’ limnological profiles, obtained in 2023 , extended to only 10 m depth, not sufficient to characterize this dimictic lake of max. depth 21 m. To date my efforts to discuss this matter in person at the provincial and municipal levels have been rejected, I am told only that the info would be passed on to the appropriate personnel/agencies for consideration in relation to the Sandy Lake Special Planning Area development.
Deep water oxygen levels in Sandy Lake towards the end of the summer stratification period. (Click on image for larger version.) These data, and other Water Quality data we collected or compiled were “ignored” in the NS Gov/HRM Background Studies for Sandy Lake. View Post of July 25, 2025 for details.
Early in 2026 I was informed of a FOIPOP posting* related to the Sandy Lake Special Planning Area which includes a letter of Oct 22, 2024 from Kevin Neatt, VP at Clayton Developments Ltd./The Shaw Group sent to “Premier; Minister, Env cc Jason Brunt, Subject: Response to David Patriquin”
*https://openinformation.novascotia.ca/FOI-Requests/2025-02385-PRE/723y-6g96/about_data. FOIPOP refers to The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) Act.
Mr Neatt’s letter includes the covering page of the letter (e-mail) I sent on Oct 1, 2024 to the Premier and others on the subject “The Precarious State of Sandy Lake (Special Planning Area)”.
*My letter was addressed to Premier Tim Houston & Mayor John Savage, Minister John Lohr (Municipal Affairs & Housing) and Minister Tim Halman (Environment and Climate Change) with cc’s, amongst others, to Kevin Neatt at Clayton Developments Ltd.
In his “Response to David Patriquin”, Mr. Neatt asserts that my letter was written “on behalf of the residents currently residing on Sandy Lake” and asks that it be reviewed “in the context of the inherent bias they have to maintain their current exclusive status residing directly on Sandy Lake“.
In the opening paragraph of his letter Mr.Neatt comments that “when opposition to projects extends beyond rational objections, and cites pseudo-science as fact, we feel the need to respond.”
As further evidence of my inherent bias, Mr. Neatt cites concerns I had expressed about the Southdale development.*
* Mr. Neatt is presumably referring to documents posted on the website of the NS Wild Flora Society, see https://nswildflora.ca/comment/eisners-cove-wetland/letter-24aug2022/
As a Trusted Partner of the Government in their housing efforts, I can understand that Mr.
Neatt’s comments would have been duly considered by the recipients.
Mr Neatt’s comments are clearly an attempt to smear my reputation with the provincial
government but I am not concerned on that count; I had a career as an academic scientist and have critiqued certain gov. docs or policies connected in some way or another to my research going back to the late 1970s when I expressed concerns about the possible impacts of the Annapolis River Tidal Power Station on a dykeland farm.
*For some of that story, see Demise of the garden of Acadia, an article I wrote for Rural Delivery in 1981; the NS Government ultimately made a settlement with the farmer concerned.
I have been very concerned, however, that Mr. Neatt’s comments are the reason that none of the existing limnological profile data on Sandy Lake were referenced or otherwise considered in the Stantec Watershed Report for Sandy Lake, not even those data obtained under the direction of and according to the protocols of the Halifax’s LakeWatchers program from 2022 onwards* or those obtained entirely independently by Dalhousie University limnologists in 2021.
* LakeWatcher Observations conducted by volunteers have been shown to be and have been accepted otherwise as fully equivalent to those obtained by consultants. View LakeWatchers Water Quality Monitoring Program Report 2022-2023. Also listen to remarks by Chris Kennedy in videoed HRM proceedings beginning at 4:42:00 min.; those are offered in response to a question from a Councillor about the use of volunteers in lake monitoring versus consultants.
It was these latter observations conducted over the period 2021 to 2025 and ongoing, not my observations of 2017 and 2019, which recorded very low deep water (hypolomnion) oxygen values, raising reasons for concern – I suggested, with reference to scientific literature – about the possible impacts of a major development proposed in an area where major headwaters for Sandy lake and associated wetlands are concentrated. At an open house event in Nov of 2025, a Clayton rep. told me they could not verify the low oxygen values through their own, confidential observations.
I addressed the Clayton allegations in a letter of Jan 12, 2026 sent to Vicki Elliott-Lopez, Associate Deputy Minister, Interim CEO, NS Provincial Housing Agency & Chair, Executive Panel on Housing in the HRM, cc’d to Premier Tim Houston; Kevin Neatt, Clayton Developments Ltd., the Environment and Sustainability Standing Committee (HRM); and to Walter Regan, and Karen Robinson, co-chairs Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park Coalition.
In the letter, I ask the Task Force* ” to consider my comments… on why the limnological observations that I compiled in various reports and shared with Stantec are not “pseudo-science” and should still be appropriately considered in relation to the Sandy Lake SPA”.
*“Task Force” refers to the Executive Panel on Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipality, a “A joint planning task force created to address housing challenges in the capital region”
To date my efforts to discuss this matter in person at the provincial and municipal levels have been rejected, I am told only that the info would be passed on to the appropriate personnel/agencies for consideration.
The Halifax LakeWatchers continue to support and publish our observations regardless of this issue, accordingly I have continued to volunteer in obtaining them; the latest observations occurred on April 23, 2026.
I am posting my letter of Jan 12, 2026 and links to related documents on this website “for the record”, and in keeping with my making all of my observations and comments related to “Sandy Lake & Environs” available publicly via this website.
View
– My Letter of Oct 1, 2024 to Premier & Others, Subject: The precarious state of Sandy Lake (Sandy Lake Special Planning Area).
– Letter of Oct 22, 2024 from Kevin Neatt, VP at Clayton Developments Ltd./The Shaw Group sent to Premier and others, Subject: Response to David Patriquin. The letter begins on the 9th page of the downloadable PDF document (identified as page 7 after the two initial pages from the Office of the Premier introducing the document).
– My Letter of Jan 12, 2026 to to Vicki Elliott-Lopez, Chair, Executive Panel on Housing in the HRM and others, Subject: Concerns about the precarious state of Sandy Lake should not be dismissed as “pseudo-science”
– david p
Page posted May 23, 2026