Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston has announced “shovels in the ground” on the Chignecto Isthmus. On Wednesday, Houston issued a statement announcing a four-metre high, 500-metre-long berm will be constructed behind a section of dyke that runs along the La Planche river outside of Amherst.
A map of the project shows plans to build a one-kilometre-long access road extending from existing roads that access the windmills visible from the Trans Canada Highway, and the aboiteau that allows freshwater in the La Planche river to flow out when the tide is low.
According to Nova Scotia Public Works project lead Kevin Bekkers speaking on CBC’s Maritime Noon, the work will cost $2 million to complete, and is not considered part of the Chignecto Isthmus Resiliency Project being managed by a cross-border working group.
Local MLA Elizabeth Smith McCrossin didn’t get advance notice of the major project in her constituency, but says her initial reaction to the news on Tuesday was positive.
“I was really pleased to see something finally happening and actually getting shovels in the ground,” said Smith-McCrossin on Wednesday. However, says McCrossin, “I was surprised at how little is actually going to get done.”
According to an engineering study on how to protect the Isthmus released in 2022, there’s approximately 35 kilometres of dykes currently holding tidal waters at bay.
Smith-McCrossin says that while she “certainly would have liked to see more than this… it is something to get us started.”
“There are definitely areas that are more vulnerable than others,” says Smith-McCrossin, “and we can’t wait 10 years to get those areas of most vulnerability started.”
Communications Nova Scotia spokesperson Blaise Theriault says by email that the berm will help “back up” a section of dyke that “was identified as being vulnerable”, and that the project will “help prevent possible storm damage to the town of Amherst, Trans-Canada Highway, and rail line.“
Smith-McCrossin says “this is an area that local farmers have been asking to have work done on for quite a few years.”
The berm will sit about 100 metres inland from the dyke, in agricultural land.
CHMA has reached out for further clarification on how the 500-metre berm will protect against tidal waters from the La Planche river in the event of a dyke breach.
Click here to see the full pdf map from Nova Scotia public works.
No public tender and impending election call
Smith-Mcrossin says she’s pleased that the work has been contracted to a local company, but has also heard complaints on Wednesday that the $2 million contract did not go out to public tender. “It was awarded through an alternative procurement process,” says Smith-McCrossin, “so there was no public tender and no ability for other companies to bid or to try to get the work. So there’s been some disappointment expressed to me from other local contractors.”
Theriault confirms the project “did not go to public tender and was awarded through the alternative procurement process on an emergency basis.”
Smith-McCrossin thinks the rush to award the contract could be related to an expected election call by Premier Tim Houston in Nova Scotia. “We’re sort of predicting he’s going to drop the writ in the next week or two,” says Smith-McCrossin. “He’s got to quite a few sort of campaign announcements this week, and I look at the one that was done [Tuesday] with the Isthmus, that’s probably the motivation.”
In his statement on Tuesday, Houston doesn’t explain the lack of public procurement, but does say, “this work needs to be done now. We know Nova Scotians are worried, and we are taking action to protect them.”
He also calls again on Liberal MPs to “show leadership on this crucial issue, fully fund the project and do what is right for Nova Scotians.”
The provincial and federal governments have been squabbling over who will pay for the estimated $650 million project.
Last month Houston sent a letter to Nova Scotia’s Liberal MPs asking them to support full federal funding, which raised the ire of federal ministers Dominic Leblanc and Sean Fraser. The ministers responded with letters to their respective premiers, threatening to reallocate $325 million in federal contributions that had already been announced to go towards the project.
And yet, some progress has been made on the file. In late September the working group established by the provinces to oversee what is now called the Chignecto Isthmus Resiliency Project hired Colliers Canada as project managers. Although neither provincial government would say who would cover the estimated $500,000 contract.
Smith-McCrossin says she hopes the Isthmus project will proceed as soon as possible, but also under normal procurement rules. “I really think that the Chignecto Isthmus is more important than political games,” says Smith-McCrossin, “and it needs proper planning and proper procurement processes.”
Work on the 500 meter berm is expected to start this week.
