No timeline for removal of P.E.I.'s shoreline development restrictions, says environment minister
Coastal protections have been in place since December 2022 while province works on a new policy
Restrictions around building on Prince Edward Island's shorelines have been in place for almost two years, and a Progressive Conservative MLA wants to know when that will change.
The province signed an order prohibiting new development in certain areas on the Island, including buffer zones, until a formal policy could be put in place. Those restrictions have been in place since December 2022.
"I'm really pushing toward this. This can't continue to drag on. There's got to be a solution," backbench PC MLA Matthew MacKay said in the legislature Thursday.
MacKay said some residents in his district, Kensington-Malpeque, are waiting to build and have been at a standstill.
"They're frustrated that it's dragging on so long because after every year they're seeing their bank diminish or their property line diminishing."
Since the order in 2022, permits related to new development in the coastal buffer zone were stopped.
Some development is still allowed with a permit, including:
- Critical infrastructure repair and protection.
- Repair to existing erosion control structures damaged by post-tropical storm Fiona.
- Provincial or federal erosion control structures required for the protection of public infrastructure.
- Projects that receive a provincial environmental impact assessment approval.
The province is working with UPEI's School of Climate Change and Adaptation to develop a new coastal zone policy.
In late 2023, the centre released a report outlining 16 recommendations to inform the government's future decisions about coastal development.
In response to MacKay's question, Environment Minister Gilles Arsenault said Thursday his department is working on those recommendations, but he stopped short of offering a timeline for when a new policy would be complete.
"We're working on prioritizing nine of the recommendations. Our staff have been very engaged in this process and we're going to continue to do that," Arsenault said.
"This is a very complicated file. It's not an easy task to move this forward."
