Premier asks fishermen to end blockade
Nova Scotia’s premier says he’s hoping fishermen end a blockade of survey boats hired to examine a route for an undersea effluent pipeline, but he has no plans to extend the company’s deadline.
Stephen McNeil said Thursday he’d advise fishermen to let the seismic research in the Northumberland Strait take place because it’s a lawful activity.
“My hope is that people will allow people to do their jobs. What (the company) is doing is seismic work .... Then the ongoing public consultation will have to take place as to what will be or wouldn’t be,’’ the premier said after a cabinet meeting.
However, he also said it’s up the Northern Pulp mill near Pictou to decide whether to call in the RCMP to end the blockade.
McNeil said opponents should recognize an environmental review would allow for public debate over a proposed pipeline that would end the use of a waste-water plant located at Boat Harbour.
Still, as fishermen continued a blockade of the harbour mouth they started earlier this week, the timeline for completing the pipeline before a provincially legislated deadline looked increasingly tight.
The province has a requirement of January 2020 for Northern Pulp to stop sending its waste to the First Nation territory.
The normal period of time for an environmental review is close to two months, and work on a potential pipeline would need to begin during construction seasons in 2019 to be complete by early the following year.
The Liberal government has vowed that after half a century of toxic waste — with 70 million litres of treated waste daily still flowing lagoons on the edge of the Pictou Landing First Nation reserve — Northern Pulp must find an alternative.
As the weeks slip by, McNeil said it’s up to the company and the community to figure out a way forward.
“The timeline is tight there’s no question . ... It’s up to the company. The company knew the deadline. The community knows the deadline,’’ said the premier.
“We’ll continue to go out and work with the community, communicate back to the community about public hearings ... There are three elected public officials in that area, they can tell me where they stand on the issue ... I’ve heard from none of them about it.’’
Tory leader Tim Houston, who is one of the three members of the legislature for the area, said that wasn’t true.
The new Progressive Conservative leader said McNeil has forgotten he sent his office a letter calling for a more intensive level of environmental review than has been approved.