Fishermen take provincial government to court
diGBy Fishermen from the Bay of Fundy are taking the provincial government to court over tidal industry.
The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association filed a formal application July 25 asking the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to review and quash a decision by the provincial minister of environment.
In late June, Margaret Miller approved the environmental effects monitoring program for the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy and Cape Sharp Tidal Venture, effectively allowing the installation of two tidal turbines in the Minas Passage.
Colin Sproul, fisherman and spokesperson with BFIFA, says the association is confident the court will recognize the same problems he sees with minister’s decisions.
“There is a wealth of information that was overlooked by the minister in making her decision,” said Sproul. “We are in a situation now where the province of Nova Scotia is involved in legal action against fishermen. Fishermen are on the side of conservation and the government is on the side of industry – this is a dangerous precedent for the environment of Nova Scotia.”
Sproul said the association filed the application to keep their options open as the 25-day window to challenge the decision was about to close.
“We have met with Cape Sharp Tidal and I’m not at liberty to discuss those talks except to say our executive felt the outcomes from that meeting were positive,” said Sproul. “Cape Sharp is on an indefinite pause and I think this shows the irresponsibility of our government, when industry has chosen not to proceed even though they have been given permission.
“This shows the government’s total failure as regulator – all the problems cannot be put on the companies. Their job is make money for their investors and they do a good job of it. The job of government is to regulate industry and they have failed miserably to regulate tidal industry in Nova Scotia.”
Miller, in announcing her decision June 20, said turbines need to be in the water “if we are to advance our collective knowledge of the turbines impact on our fish and marine mammals.”
Sproul says that makes absolutely no sense.
He says under the fishery protection program, the Department of Fisheries Ocean is the recognized authority on that question and its report indicated the environmental effects monitoring program suffered from a deficiency of baseline data.