Two mayors, two MLAs, and representatives from Acadian and Mi’kmaq groups gathered in person and virtually in Amherst on Tuesday afternoon to get an update from Canadian senator Jim Quinn about the future of Bill S-273, “An Act to declare the Chignecto Isthmus Dykeland System and related works to be for the general advantage of Canada.”
Quinn sponsored the bill, which would claim the Isthmus dykeland system under federal jurisdiction, but not commit specific funding to the project. It passed the Canadian senate in June and is expected to make it to the floor of the House of Commons this fall, with Conservative MP Stephen Ellis from Cumberland-Colchester as a sponsor.
Quinn says he believes S-273 has a shot to make it through the House of Commons if enough MPs are aware of it. He’s hoping the bill will at least make it past first and second reading and into committee, where witnesses can be called to talk about the risks.
“Now’s the time to start educating,” says Quinn, “because that’s what it was like in the Senate process. [It] was educating my colleagues on this area. We’re often forgotten, and a lot of people don’t know where the Chignecto Isthmus is.”
“People in Tantramar have an understanding that the Chignecto Isthmus will breach at some point,” says Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black, who attended Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s top of mind for a lot of people.” But, says Black, “for somebody in Alberta, for example, it’s a country away.”
Black says he plans to work towards creating awareness with the country’s MPs. “For my part, representing Tantramar, I would gladly do anything I can to reach out to MPs to support that endeavor,” says Black.
Quinn has said repeatedly that S-273 does not commit federal funds to the project, but instead puts the project in the hands of the federal cabinet, who would then be able to make funding decisions. But he doesn’t deny that invoking the declaratory power over the Isthmus would put pressure on the federal government to take on more of a role.
“I look at across across the country where this type of declaratory power has been used in other instances,” says Quinn, “where the government has paid a bigger share.”
Currently, the federal government has committed 50% of the current project estimate of around $650 million. Quinn says some other projects have been 100% federally funded, but he doesn’t expect the federal government will take on the full cost.
“You’ve heard premiers talk about 100%. I don’t think the federal government will go there,” says Quinn. “But I think they will, for the first time, have that focussed discussion about leadership.”
MLAs Megan Mitton and Elizabeth Smith McCrossin were both at Tuesday’s meeting, and both criticized the long timeline so far on the project. Mitton pointed out that the New Brunswick government has committed $750,000 in its current budget to go towards the project, and the two provinces have signed a memorandum of understanding to begin preparatory work.
But Nova Scotia, says Smith-McCrossin, has not ponied up financially to the cause.
“People that I represent are not happy at all with the government’s approach,” says Smith-McCrossin. “The idea that it’s going to be another 10 years, and the continued delays, is not acceptable. We need the work to get started.”
Amherst mayor David Kogon says he’s heard from project leads appointed by the provinces to start “pre-construction activities” on the project. “Unfortunately, they can only plan to a certain point,” says Kogon. “They can’t go beyond a very beginning nature in the planning until the financial agreements are in place on how it will be paid for.”
So far, Kogon says he’s been told planning is focussed on the “number one option” presented by Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions in their 2021 study. “It’s a huge increase in the height and width of the dykes with structural support from steel,” says Kogon. According to the Wood study, the first two options also include the construction of a large water control structure at the mouth of the Tantramar River.
Once started, the project is expected to take 10 years to complete, including five years in studies and preparatory work, and five years in construction.
“That’s a problem,” says Kogon, “because we now see increasing frequency and severity of weather systems. And if we were to have a hurricane hit this area at a high tide with a full moon, we’d have a repeat of the Saxby Gale of 1869, and that would be a serious flood and loss of life.”
“We’re trying to avoid that,” says the Amherst mayor. “And there’s an urgency there. But we have to live with the realities of the technical side of the work of a project of this nature.”