The provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have just started contingency planning for the possibility of flooding on the Chignecto Isthmus before permanent protections can be constructed.
Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) Deputy Minister Rob Taylor shared the news with Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is a recent legislative committee hearing in Fredericton.
“It’s a ten year timeframe to turn something around,” Taylor told the committee. “We definitely need a solution in the interim. So I apologize that nothing was done before… but honestly, yes, the past six months, we’ve made a push on it.”
CHMA checked in with Mitton to get her reaction to the news, and updates on her other recent activities. The MLA says the fact that contingency planning had not started sooner “felt like a punch in the gut.”
The Isthmus project only received a passing mention in one of the annual reports that DTI presented to the committee in February, and Taylor admitted that progress has been slow in the two years since an engineering consultant’s report was released outlining options for the project.
“I will say that I have the same mindset that not a lot of progress has happened on this,” said Taylor. “I mandated the team to come up with a critical path schedule, that we could actually identify what activities are slipping or what can we actually get done in the interim while we are waiting for this federal funding that we’re all hearing about.”
Taylor said New Brunswick DTI staff had been meeting in person with Nova Scotia staff at least once a month recently. “We’ve engaged more and more experts,” said Taylor. “I am pushing the team for definite dates on things.”
Taylor also told Mitton and the committee that DTI has brought in natural solutions advocates on their team, and were now considering a hybrid of natural and manmade solutions to protect the Isthmus. Dr. Danika van Proosdij, the director of TransCoastal Adaptations Centre for Nature-based Solutions based out of Saint Mary’s University, says she has been contacted for information by Nova Scotia officials. But Mount Allison-based expert, Dr. Jeff Ollerhead says he has never received a call from the province about the project.
“It’s kind of fitting that it was Groundhog Day,” said Mitton of the committee hearing on February 2, “because it felt like I keep hearing the same thing over and over.”
“I was pretty shocked that there weren’t more plans in place,” Mitton told CHMA. “And it feels like, whether it’s the Trudeau government, the Higgs government, or governments before them, that they clearly have not made this a priority.”
Taylor told Mitton during the committee hearing that he would schedule a meeting this month with the MLA, to update her on the details of planning to date. Mitton says she will be happy to share what she hears. “Our community deserves to know what’s happening in terms of progress,” says Mitton, “and what’s happening in terms of plans to keep us safe.”