New Brunswick wants Ottawa to fund 'lion's share' of Chignecto infrastructure upgrade

New Brunswick's infrastructure minister says he wants the federal government to pay "the majority, lion's share" of the cost of upgrading the main highway and rail links between the province and Nova Scotia. 

Jeff Carr says discussions are continuing between the two provinces on which option to pursue to protect the fragile, low-lying Chignecto Isthmus from increasingly frequent storm surges.

But there's no money in his budget for work this year, and Carr said Ottawa's suggestion that it would fund 50 per cent of the project isn't enough.

"We want the federal government to be a majority, lion's-share stakeholder in that funding, because neither province can afford to foot that bill," Carr said while debating his budget estimates at a legislative committee meeting Thursday.

"I'm not saying we won't, at the end of the day, add something to it but we want the federal government to be the lion's-share contributor to that because it is a piece of infrastructure of national interest."

Federal minister supported funding

An engineering study released more than a year ago presented three options for protecting the isthmus, ranging in cost from $189.2 million to $300.8 million.

Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose Beauséjour riding includes the New Brunswick side of the isthmus, said at the time that Ottawa would pay for up to half the cost, and he repeated that offer recently.

In a letter to his provincial counterparts, LeBlanc urged them to apply for funding under the federal disaster mitigation and adaptation fund before its July 19 deadline.

Green MLA Megan Mitton told Carr during Thursday's committee meeting that she was disappointed to see no funding in his budget for the project.

"It just has felt like there's not enough urgency on this to even get started, let alone how long it might take," she said. 

Dikes vulnerable

An estimated $35 billion in trade each year crosses the isthmus, which is protected from the Bay of Fundy tides by dikes and aboiteaux built centuries ago.

A 2018 report found that 70 per cent of the dikes in Nova Scotia are vulnerable to a one-in-50-year storm. Sea levels in that province are projected to increase by as much as a metre by 2100.

The Trans-Canada Highway and the main Canadian National rail line both cross the isthmus not far from the water's edge.

Mitton, who represents the area provincially, said it is one extreme storm away from a major disaster.

"The consequences of us being too late is thousands of people in my community being underwater," she said.

Carr said officials from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are meeting every week to sort out how the project will be managed between the two governments.

He agreed that "time is of the essence" on choosing one of the three options and getting work underway.

"I'm absolutely committed to seeing this go through as quickly as possible because I too see the urgency and the immediate need that that land crossing is to all of us." 

Last year's report said the choices were:

• Raising the existing dikes, at a cost of about $200.2 million.

• Building new dikes, at a cost of about $189.2 million.

• Raising the existing dikes and installing steel sheet pile walls at select locations, at a cost of about $300.8 million.

In a written statement, LeBlanc's spokesperson Jean-Sébastien Comeau repeated the federal minister's offer to fund up to 50 per cent of the cost of the project and urged the two provinces to apply to the disaster fund.

"We look forward to working with them to secure this supply link for future generations," he said, without responding directly to Carr's request to cover a higher share of the cost.

Carr told Mitton he couldn't commit to an agreement this year on the project. 

"I cannot give a specific date until we have a funding arrangement in place with the federal government," he said.

He added that if there were a federal election this spring, Ottawa would likely have anted up the money by now. 

Mitton said she was willing to work with Carr to lobby to get the project going.

"I do hope it doesn't become haggling over which percentage each party is going to put in," she said.