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.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia recently signed a memorandum of understanding to proceed with planning work on the Isthmus, and New Brunswick has set aside $750,000 in its current year budget to go towards that work. The actual protection of the Isthmus is expected to cost more than $600 million dollars.
