Abandoning the coastal protection legislation
Province puts responsibility on municipalities, property owners
The provincial government has left Nova Scotia property owners to rely on their own instincts when it comes to protecting coastal property.
“We’ve been listening to coastal property owners for the past two and a half years and they’ve told us they want to be empowered and entrusted to enjoy the land they own in a way that has a climate-resiliency lens,” Environment Minister Tim Halman recently said in introducing the government’s plan for coastal resiliency, The Future of Nova Scotia’s Coastline.
The Progressive Conservative government says the plan will protect people, homes and nature from climate change along Nova Scotia’s 13,000 kilometres of coastline by introducing 15 actions for property owners, municipalities and the province to take to make coastal homes, communities and natural areas safer.
“I believe Nova Scotians want to be trusted and empowered and it’s government’s responsibility to make sure they have the information so that they can make the most informed decision about their properties,” Halman said.
The plan supplants the Coastal Protection Act that passed with full support of all Nova Scotia political parties in 2019 but was never proclaimed.
The majority PC government, which came to power in August 2021, had promised to implement the regulations by the end of 2023 but announced last August regulations would be delayed until at least July 2025.
Halman said in October 2023 that the government was listening, not stalling, adding two previous consultations had involved municipalities and experts and further consultation was needed with property residents.
WILL NOT SHARE SURVEY DETAILS
A survey was sent out to 40,000 property owners but only 1,070 replied by the late fall 2023 deadline. Halman said he would not share details about the replies to the $100,000 survey but said they showed a diversity of opinion.
“The Coastal Protection Act won’t be proclaimed, however, what you have today is coastal action,” Halman said.
“A lot has changed since 2019. The people that I’ve heard from, they want the same thing, to protect the coastline which preserves our way of life and our ability to live close by the ocean. As a government we believe we can do both and legislation is just one way to achieve this goal. There are other ways and we feel this plan delivers and will drive the change that is needed to better plan, zone, design and build coastal communities that are strong and resilient.”
Halman said the Coastal Protection Act only focused on new builds, not existing homes.
“This plan is meant to help all coastal property owners,” he said.
COASTAL HAZARD MAP PROVIDED
The minister said municipalities have jurisdiction over how communities are planned and zoned and for building permits in those communities. The provincial plan asks municipalities to integrate new data and tools into how coastal communities are planned, zoned and built, he said.
The plan includes an online coastal hazard map that shows the worst-case scenario of what sea level rise and storm surge could look like for individual properties at a high tide in the year 2100. The map shows the impact as far inland as 100 metres.
The minister also announced a new navigator service, with four navigators province-wide, to help coastal property owners understand potential risks and hazards on their properties and how to mitigate them.
Halman said the government is investing $1.6 million in municipal flood-line maps so people and municipalities have more information on flooding risks and to support municipalities to better zone land and to reduce coastal and inland flood hazards.
The mapping, conducted by consultants, will be 33 per cent complete by March and is expected to be finished by 2027.
The province is also providing a $1.6-million top-up for the Community Climate Capacity Program, administered on behalf of the province by the Clean Foundation.
'TRULY ABSURD'
The announcement was met with some strong headwinds.
“This is truly absurd,” said Marla Macleod, director of programs with the Ecology Action Centre, one of the many organizations that has been pushing for proclamation of the coastal protection legislation.
“We’re in a climate emergency and the Houston government’s inaction is putting homes, ecosystems and lives at risk,” Macleod said in a EAC statement.
The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities expressed disappointment in the shift away from a comprehensive and uniform provincial strategy enshrined by legislation.
“NSFM is committed to seeking clarity for its members and other stakeholders regarding the implications of this decision,” the federation said in a release.
The NSFM commended the provincial government for furnishing resources such as the interactive mapping tool, which will serve as a valuable asset in assisting residents and communities with coastal protection initiatives, and welcomed a government commitment to establishing communication channels for residents through a navigator role.
“The government has abandoned the Coastal Protection Act, an act that many members of the government voted in favour off in 2019 and they’ve also abdicated their responsibility to Nova Scotians on the issue of coastal protection,” said Braedon Clark, the Liberal MLA for Bedford South.
“They’ve downloaded this responsibility to municipalities absolutely and they’ve given them very little resources to actually come up with their own bylaws and enforce them.”
Lisa Lachance, the New Democratic MLA for Halifax Citadel-sable Island, said the announcement was deeply disturbing.
“They’re (government) abandoning Nova Scotians, they’re abandoning the municipalities, we have really no plan on how we are going to protect our coastline,” Lachance said.
“It’s clear that they were listening to a select group of people. I’ve received hundreds of emails since I’ve been elected asking for the proclamation of the Coastal Protection Act. Hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotians have said they want this act and the government has clearly walked away from that.”
‘DIVERSE COASTLINE’
Some politicians took umbrage with a suggestion that government is simply downloading its responsibility to the 49 municipalities, many of whom do not have the scarce resources needed to provide coastal community zoning, development and building plans.
“Part of the complexity is that we have such a diverse coastline,” Housing Minister John Lohr said. “Think about going from highly erodible soils to rocky coastline to very little tidal range to incredible highs. The reality is it’s very complicated for us at the provincial level to put in a set of regulations that deal with all of those various circumstances.”
The provincial government is creating a template coastal protection bylaw to be shared by the municipalities, most of which have already completed land-use planning strategies. Ten municipalities are still in various stages of completing land-use policy.