Political leaders gather to call for urgency on Isthmus fix, and build awareness for bill S-273
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.”
NS court hearing on Isthmus responsibility scheduled for March 2025
The legal question of who should pay to protect the roads, railways and wires running across the strip of land connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia won’t be settled until at least March of 2025, according to a timeline put forward by Nova Scotia court of appeal judge David Farrar on Wednesday.
Farrar met virtually with lawyers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, and the federal government on Wednesday afternoon to set dates for document filings and a hearing on the question.
Lawyers will have until July 5 this year to file the main evidence and documents in the case, and then the provinces will have until September 13 to file their arguments. The government of Canada will have until January 10 to come back with its argument, and the provinces will have until the end of that month to respond after that. Farrar has set aside two days for the hearing itself, on March 11 and 12, 2025.
Nova Scotia kickstarted the constitutional question in July of last year, asking the court of appeal to determine, “whether the infrastructure protecting the interprovincial transportation, trade and communications links across the Chignecto Isthmus is within the exclusive legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada.”
The governments of New Brunswick, PEI and Canada were all granted intervener status by Farrar in September, while Cumberland MLA Elizabeth Smith MCCrossin was denied.… Continue
‘Like a punch in the gut’: Mitton finds progress slow, contingency planning just started on Isthmus protection
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.”… Continue
Tantramar mayor Andrew Black talks calls for meeting on Chignecto isthmus, more federal funding, and insurance company interest
Tantramar mayor Andrew Black has been talking about the Chignecto Isthmus a lot lately. In the mayor’s report at last week’s committee of the whole meeting, Black mentioned conversations with his counterparts in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, with an insurance executive concerned about reducing risk, and with former Sackville councillor and ClimAtlantic director Sabine Dietz, about hosting a discussion on how to protect the corridor between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
CHMA called him up to find out more:
Closing the information gap on the isthmus
Black told council last week that he and Mayor David Kogon of Amherst had met with ClimAtlantic’s Dietz to talk about an information sharing gap when it comes to the isthmus protection project.
In 2019, the province commissioned Wood Canada to study the isthmus and come up with options to protect it from rising sea levels and increasing frequency of severe storm events. That study was finally released in 2022, and the cost estimates it put forward have already more than doubled. Black says there’s more information out there, and considering that actual work on the isthmus is still years away, there’s plenty to discuss. Dietz has proposed a session involving municipal, provincial and federal representatives and various experts on how to protect the isthmus, and has asked the councils in Tantramar and Amherst for letters of support.… Continue
Premiers agree to apply for 50% federal funding on Isthmus project, now estimated to cost $700 million
The provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will apply for federal funding to help pay for the protection of the Chignecto Isthmus, but they will also pursue court direction on whether or not the federal government should indeed be covering the entire cost of the project.
Premier Blaine Higgs shared the news in a conference Tuesday, along with a number of federal ministers and Atlantic premiers, marking the renewal of the federal-provincial Atlantic Growth Strategy.
“Yes, we will be applying for it to meet the deadlines that have been put forward,” Higgs told reporters. “At the same time, we will be seeking clarification and legal interpretation of the constitution.”
Higgs said that given the deadline of July 19 for the current round of the federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, “it would be prudent for us to go both avenues, one notwithstanding the other.”
Premier Tim Houston told reporters he would be seeking an opinion on the matter from provincial appeals court.
The cost estimate for the project has ballooned since the long awaited release of a 2019 engineering study on the project, according to comments Tuesday from Higgs and Houston. What was once estimated to cost between $190 million and $300 million is now expected to cost about $700 million, according to Houston. That means a federal contribution could run as high as $350 million, and the provinces could each be responsible for $175 million in costs.… Continue
Higgs and Houston argument is ‘hot air’ says prof, as federal funding deadline approaches for Chignecto Isthmus
Federal infrastructure minister Dominic LeBlanc has responded to a threat from premiers Blaine Higgs and Tim Houston, who have said they will take the federal government to court over its refusal to fund 100% of the Chignecto Isthmus protection project.
In a letter on July 4, Higgs asserted that the Constitution Act of 1867 outlines the responsibility of the federal government to “maintain and secure transportation links between provinces.” Previously, Higgs compared the Isthmus project to the Confederation Bridge, which was funded by the federal government in the 1990’s.
A spokesperson for LeBlanc says the constitutional argument is “inaccurate”, and a political science professor from Mount Allison agrees.
Here’s the full statement from LeBlanc’s spokesperson, Jean-Sébastien Comeau:
… Continue“Our position is and has always been clear – the protection of the Chignecto Isthmus is a shared responsibility between the Government of Canada, the Government of New Brunswick and the Government of Nova Scotia. It is inaccurate to pretend that the Government of Canada has a constitutional responsibility to maintain the provincially-owned highway that runs through the Isthmus, or to compare this situation to an article of Confederation negotiated by some other Province at the time they joined Canada. It is unfortunate that Premier Higgs is threatening a legal battle which would be a waste of time and public funds. Such a move does nothing to protect communities and critical supply lines along the Isthmus.
Higgs threatens court action over funding to protect Isthmus, Mitton calls out ‘politics being played’
Premier Blaine Higgs has threatened to take the federal government to court if it doesn’t agree to cover 100% of the cost of the Chignecto Isthmus protection project. The premier made the statement in a letter to federal infrastructure minister Dominic LeBlanc on July 4.
However in the same letter, the premier also reserves the right to agree to a hypothetical two-thirds federal funding formula.
Higgs’ letter is in response to one from LeBlanc on June 23, denying the assertion by Higgs and his Nova Scotia counterpart, Tim Houston, that the project should be fully funded by Canada, and setting a deadline of July 19 for the provinces to apply for 50% funding under a federal climate adaptation fund.
In his July 4 letter, Higgs writes that he was profoundly disappointed with LeBlanc’s letter. “Your government’s refusal to recognize and act upon its constitutional responsibility for this project will have negative ramifications for this vital transportation gateway and the Canadians it serves,” writes Higgs.
The premier goes on to say that the Constitution Act of 1867 outlines the responsibility of the federal government to “maintain and secure transportation links between provinces.” Because the Isthmus supports major transportation and communications infrastructure, Higgs argues that the protection of the land bridge also qualifies as a federal responsibility.
“If the federal government refuses to accept its constitutional responsibility in this manner, it will be up to the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to ask the courts to enforce our nation’s supreme law,” writes Higgs.… Continue
Chignecto Isthmus impasse: LeBlanc refuses full funding, gives Higgs and Houston July 19 deadline to apply for 50%
Federal and provincial ministers continue the impasse over who will fund the protection of the transportation corridor along the Chignecto Isthmus, which connects New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The corridor is at risk from sea level rise and storm surges which could wash out the rail line and highway which is estimated to transport between $35 million and $50 million worth of goods every day.
The latest official communication comes from federal infrastructure minister (and Beauséjour MP) Dominic LeBlanc, who wrote to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia premiers Blaine Higgs and Tim Houston on June 23, refusing their demand for the federal government to fully fund the project.
The premiers, along with their other Atlantic counterparts, made the request based on the idea that the corridor is of national importance, similar to the Confederation Bridge.
LeBlanc rejects that argument in his June letter, writing that “the federal government is not responsible for a complete funding of this project.”
Instead, Leblanc urged the premiers to apply for the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, which he says is the only program available to help pay for the project. That fund could cover up to 50% of the cost, leaving the provinces to make up the other half. The deadline to apply for the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund is just a few weeks away on July 19.… Continue
Premiers call for full federal funding of Chignecto Isthmus project, while feds offer half
It’s been 16 years since a UN climate change report highlighted the increasing risk to infrastructure on the Chignecto Isthmus due to rising sea levels, mentioning it alongside the city of New Orleans. But the provinces and the federal government have yet to agree on who will cover the cost to protect that infrastructure. The federal government is promising to cover up to 50% of the cost, but the four Atlantic premiers are calling on the federal government to cover the full cost of the project.
After a recent meeting in Mill River, PEI, the Council of Atlantic Premiers issued a statement acknowledging the isthmus as “a vital corridor at risk due to rising sea levels”, and saying the premiers, “reiterated that the federal government has a constitutional responsibility to maintain links between provinces and fully fund this project.”
A spokesperson for New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs confirmed via email that the premiers were asking for 100% federal funding of the infrastructure project, which was estimated to cost between $190 million and $300 million in a study released last year.
That’s a departure from recent statements by the provincial ministers from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.… Continue
Long awaited Isthmus study released with 10 year timeline, and $190-300 million price tag
It will cost between $190 and $300 million to protect the Transcanada Highway and CN Rail line between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from sea level rise, according to a government funded study released today.
New Brunswick’s transportation minister Jill Green and her Nova Scotia counterpart Kim Masland presented three options to protect the Chignecto Isthmus trade corridor in a news conference Friday afternoon.
The two cheapest options (estimated at $190 and $200 million) involve fortifying or rebuilding the current dykes to 10.6 metres elevation, and constructing a water control system across the mouth of the Tantramar River as it enters the Bay of Fundy. The new control structure would stretch from the Westcock marsh across the mouth of the river to the Fort Beausejour side.
A much more expensive third option (estimated at $300 million) would see a longer set of existing dykes topped up and fortified. Those dykes surround the Westcock marsh and continue along Carters Brook up to the intersection of the 106 and 935, and then return back to the Tantramar River.
Other options were considered but scored much lower in the study’s analysis. Those included raising the CN rail line to 10.6 metres and using it to protect the rest of the isthmus, building a bridge to carry the highway and rail line over 10.6 metres, and raising one or both lanes of the highway to 10.6 metres.… Continue