See related story, “A Show of Strength,”
Fishing boats converge on Nova Scotia harbour as part of effluent pipe protest
Dozens of fishing boats and hundreds of people converged on a small coastal town in northern Nova Scotia on Friday to protest a pulp mill’s plan to dump millions of litres of effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait.
Carrying placards that read, “No pulp waste in our water,” a long line of boisterous marchers streamed into a public shoreline marina directly across from the Northern Pulp mill near Pictou, banging cow bells and chanting “No pipe, no way.”
A fishermen’s group said about 200 boats also crowded into the harbour near the hulking mill, as white plumes of smoke billowed from at least three stacks on a humid, but breezy day.
Though the pulp mill provides much-needed jobs for the town of about 3,000 residents, its pipeline plan has raised concerns about the impact on the lobster fishery, other seafood businesses and protected areas along the coast.
“(It’s) our day to unite and tell our government that dumping 70-90 million litres of pulp waste a day into prime fishing grounds is not acceptable,” third-generation lobster fisherman Allan MacCarthy said in a statement before the rally.
After years of pumping 70 million litres of treated wastewater daily into lagoons on the edge of the nearby Pictou Landing First Nation reserve, Northern Pulp wants to dump it directly into the strait that separates Nova Scotia from P.E.I.
P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan restated his concerns about the plant’s plans for a new effluent treatment facility, saying Friday that he wrote to federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna and Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil.
“I continue to hold these concerns, including the direct impacts in our province and on the ecosystem of the Northumberland Strait,” he said in the letter. “Given the amount of time that has passed and fresh uncertainty about the Northern Pulp proposal, I believe there is now an opportunity to take a more fully collaborative approach.”
The mill’s parent company, Paper Excellence based in Richmond, B.C., has said the mill and its 300 employees will be out of work unless it can build a pipeline that would meet all federal environmental standards: “The bottom line is no pipe equals no mill.”
Earlier this year, company spokesman Kathy Cloutier said Paper Excellence was committed to “ending a legacy that is very negative and start anew with this new system.”
Karla MacFarlane, a Pictou resident who is the local member of the legislature and interim leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, has said the fate of the 50-year-old mill has created tension in the community, “and it’s split some families and friends.”
Under provincial legislation passed in 2015, the mill has until 2020 to replace its current treatment plant in nearby Boat Harbour, and McNeil confirmed Thursday he is sticking with that deadline.
He said he didn’t know much about the protest, adding that he wasn’t surprised by the reaction to the pipeline proposal.
“Any time there’s a development, there will be those who have opposing views, and they are polarizing at times,” McNeil said after he shuffled his cabinet Thursday, appointing a new environment minister in the process.
“Some want no development and others want development with no rules. Our job is to strike the balance to make sure we protect the environment (and) ... provide economic opportunity for those who are currently working in Nova Scotia.”
Before the march got underway, NDP Leader Gary Burrill said the province should abandon its plans to conduct a so-called Class 1 environmental assessment and instead order a more stringent Class 2 assessment.
If that doesn’t happen, then the federal government should be approached to conduct a comprehensive review, he said.
“Either of these would accomplish the goal of having entirely trustworthy information in front of everybody,” Burrill said at the local Tim Hortons.
“The provincial government’s environmental assessment record is not particularly good. It’s reasonable for the public to say, ‘We don’t feel a sense of confidence or trust in a short environmental review.”’
Burrill also called attention the mill’s spotty environmental record as its ownership has changed hands several times since it opened in 1967.
“We’re not comfortable accepting this company’s word on what is technically possible with effluent,” he said.
The lagoons contain nearly 50 years worth of toxic waste, which former Nova Scotia environment minister Iain Rankin has called one of the worst cases of environmental racism in Canada.
At the mill, which is believed to support about 1,500 spinoff jobs in the community, workers say Paper Excellence has invested in several upgrades that have improved air quality.