Next cohort of Antigonish County councillors to tackle coastal protection
Antigonish County is in the early stages of drafting rules for building along shoreline
The outgoing warden in the Municipality of the County of Antigonish hopes the next cohort of councillors will shore up rules around coastal construction as the threat of climate change grows.
"We have a big coastline in Antigonish County and there's lots of development happening," said warden Owen McCarron, who is not seeking re-election when municipal elections are held across the province on Saturday.
"But at the same time, we need to find ways to protect people from getting too close. Because five years out, 10 years out, 20 years out, if things continue to go the way they are, we don't want people saying, 'Well, you gave us the opportunity to build right at the edge of the bluff and now the bluffs no longer there.'"
McCarron said the municipality supported the provincial Coastal Protection Act, which was passed with all-party support in 2019.
However, the province announced earlier this year the act, which would have regulated development in proximity to the shoreline, would not be proclaimed. Instead, the province created a coastal protection action plan with guidelines for landowners and municipalities.
"Some people still feel they own the property right up to the water's edge, they should have the opportunity to do with it what they wish, you know, and that's fine to a certain degree," said McCarron.
"We've heard both sides, but I think generally people were hoping that there was sort of a uniform approach to it and not sort of ... a little bit different in every area."
While some municipalities haven't started to draft rules, others are just beginning.
The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg passed its own coastal protection rules in June. In that municipality, construction is not permitted within 30 metres of banks, habitable spaces in new residential structures must be almost four metres above sea level, and 30 metres of vegetation must be left around coastal wetlands.
The province is providing sample bylaws to all municipalities and has also contracted a consultant, Upland Planning and Design, to help municipalities develop them.
But it will be up to the next council in Antigonish County to continue the work and eventually vote to approve the bylaws once they're drafted.
While the north shore of Nova Scotia has borne the brunt of storms like Fiona, candidates running to represent coastal communities in the County of Antigonish said concern about the issue has been limited.
"These disasters don't actually follow any borders. And so this is why it's important to have provincial leadership on this issue," said Renée Curry, a candidate in District 5.
She said the cost of living, particularly the need for housing, was a key concern for residents.
"And so it ties into that issue as well. We need to have a plan in place that allows us to have more affordable housing in the area, but also protect our coastline for generations to come," Curry said.
Chris Demers, a candidate in District 2, said the issue has come up just on a few occasions. Fellow District 2 candidate Andrea Pumphrey said coastal protection wasn't raised at all while she was going door to door to speak with residents.
Most support coastal protection
While it may not be the top issue on the doorstep, 86 per cent of 400 Nova Scotians surveyed see coastal protection as important, according to a survey commissioned by the Ecology Action Centre.
About 60 per cent supported mandatory rules, while a third of respondents preferred optional guidelines.
"This government said they would trust Nova Scotians to make the right decisions, but we don't, we're not seeing that happening in real time. People are building within feet of the coast, within metres of the coast," said Nicolas Winkler with the Ecology Action Centre, an advocacy group based in Halifax.
Winkler said some municipalities may never implement rules around coastal development due to lack of capacity or political will to do so.
But focusing on climate change matters to voters like Janet Stark who's watched the shoreline erode at her cottage in Malignant Cove over the past 50 years. She would have liked to see the province implement the act.
"I'd like to see the province lead the pack on this," she said.
"I don't know how the county can address this, not in the short term anyway. And we have such a huge amount of coast, things are happening all over."
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