Ecology group says long delay in law to protect Nova Scotia's coast is 'recklessly irresponsible'

A Halifax-based environmental group wants provincial legislation passed in 2019 immediately brought into force of law to protect Nova Scotia's coastlines.

The Ecology Action Centre held a news conference Tuesday on a set of steps leading to the water in front of a Halifax waterfront development to make its point.

"These stairs leading into the ocean are a fitting metaphor for why we are here today," said Marla MacLeod, the centre's director of programs. "By continuing to delay the Coastal Protection Act this government is practically inviting the ocean into our homes."

MacLeod said the legislation and its regulations are urgently needed because of the damage being caused by an increasing number of intense storms due to climate change. The rules will not be in effect until the provincial government takes the final step to proclaim it.

"In the past year alone we've experienced increasingly severe hurricanes, unprecedented fires and devastating floods," said MacLeod. "During Hurricane Fiona we lost huge sections of our coastline on the northern shore of Nova Scotia and in Cape Breton and sea levels are set to rise by at least a metre by 2100."

MacLeod said the delay in proclaiming the act, which is now into its third set of public consultations, is "recklessly irresponsible" and represents a disregard for the safety of Nova Scotians.

Passed by the former Liberal government with all-party support in the legislature, the law is aimed at offering better protection for areas such as dunes and salt marshes and to set out where people can build along the coastline to avoid the effects of erosion.

Provincial Environment Minister Tim Halman has not committed to proclaiming the act before the end of the Progressive Conservative government's current mandate in 2025. Halman has said it's important for the government to get more direct input from coastal property owners. Last month he announced a new round of public consultations with a deadline for submissions by Nov. 7.

Halman repeated that line of reasoning Tuesday, saying property owners were not consulted during the previous rounds of consultations.

"Coastal protection is going to require an all-hands-on-deck approach," said Halman, adding it would take a "couple of months" for the government to analyze the public input.

Beyond that, he wouldn't commit to a new timeline or whether there would be amendments or new legislation.

"There's going to be coastal protection in this province, we just want to get it right," he said. "I'm not going to make any judgments because right now I want that key feedback."

Meanwhile, American actress and author Jane Alexander joined Tuesday's call for immediate action to regulate coastal development.

Alexander, whose family is from Boston, said she purchased a home with her late husband near the shore in Lockeport, N.S., in 1998. Within 10 years they had to build a breakwater to protect the property, which also has a barn, she said.

However, Alexander said she experienced damage to her property just last month when post-tropical storm Lee blew through southwestern Nova Scotia. She said the storm heaved up "cantaloupe-sized" rocks on a walkway and came dangerously near her home.

"I can't move my house," Alexander said. "I don't want other people to have to go through this. We have to manage this now and we have to manage this together."

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