Fiona exposes vulnerable Nova Scotia coastline

While the Coastal Protection Act passed by the Liberal government of Nova Scotia in April 2019 sits on the shelf awaiting regulations, post-tropical storm Fiona's ferocity exposed the province's vulnerable coastline.

Opposition MLAS said Thursday it's time to put the legislation into action, opposition MLAS but implementation is still months down the road.

“We are on target to have those regulations ready by early 2023 … the first half of the year,” Tim Halman, the provincial environment minister, told reporters Thursday after a cabinet meeting.

“We’re moving as quickly as we can,” he said. “Certainly Fiona highlights the urgency in terms of the impacts of climate change.

“The Coastal Protection Act will be one big component in us adapting to the realities of climate change. A lot of work has gone into this.”

Halman said in his year as minister he has received a lot of briefings regarding the legislation.

“We want to make sure we implement this correctly.”

The legislation was created to protect natural ecosystems and make sure new homes and businesses are safer from sea level rise, coastal flooding and coastal erosion by dictating that new construction is at a safer height and distance from coastal shorelines.

OPPOSITION: EXPEDITE LEGISLATION

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said implementation of the legislation has to be expedited.

“We are looking at this situation (Fiona) replicating itself more often now,” Churchill said. “We have lost that nice shield we had around our province, cold water.

“With waters warming here in Nova Scotia we are probably going to see more of these storms … and we have got to move on in preparing for those sooner more than later.”

Susan Leblanc, the New Democratic MLA for Dartmouth North, agreed that the legislation must be put in force as soon as possible.

“We’ve been talking about coastal protection for a long time, so I’m disappointed to hear that it’s going to take so long,” Leblanc said.

“This storm was very significant and we are going to have more and more storms like this. We need to be ready for the next one.”

Education is a big component of the legislation, Halman said when asked if he was concerned that Nova Scotians rebuilding in the wake of Fiona could potentially build in a location that will eventually be prohibited by the legislation, when it is enforced in mid-2023.

“Many are already aware of the short-term and longterm impacts of building too close to the coastline and that is why we are moving as quickly as we can to implement these very, very important regulations," Halman said.

Halman said the regulations will be very specific and there are several partners, including the province’s 49 municipalities.

“With the Coastal Protection Act, when we say it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach to adapting and mitigating climate change, that’s a classic example, where municipalities are a fundamental component in the implementation of this very important piece of climate change policy.”

Halman said a lot of work has been done to earn understanding and buy-in from municipalities.

Nova Scotia has 13,000 kilometres of coastline and much of that coast is vulnerable to the harmful impacts of climate change.

BOUNDARIES, SETBACKS TO BE SET

John Somers, the department’s lead in forging regulations for the legislation, said in a 2020 video seminar created for the Ecology Action Centre that vertical setbacks, in essence a minimum building elevation, will be established, along with a horizontal protection zone.

“The vertical setbacks will be different in different parts of the province and that is because it is measured from the mean sea level, not from the high-tide mark,” Somers said at the time.

“We have to adjust for tides around the province. It’s much different in downtown Halifax or downtown Sydney than it is in Burntcoat Head.”

He said a consistent horizontal boundary, or protection zone, would be established across the province

Inside the protection zone, property owners will require a site-specific assessment by a designated professional before they can be granted a building permit by the municipality in which they reside.

Designated professionals are members in good standing of an appropriate professional geology or engineering body and they will take into account the coastal erosion risk factor of a particular site before issuing an assessment.

The idea is that “municipal building permits will need a certificate from the designated professional to show that the proposed location of the structure is compliant with the Act,” Somers said in the video.

“Certainly, we’re not asking anyone to move a structure,” Somers said. “The nuance here is if someone wanted to significantly expand an existing structure, the Act may have something to say about that.

“The principle here is we are trying to avoid additional risk, so if someone takes an 800-square-foot structure and turns it into a 2,200-square-foot home, that’s clearly increasing risk. That’s kind of the lens (with which) we’re looking at it but if someone is just building a deck or a porch, we don’t want to over-regulate.”

The landowner will pay out of pocket for the erosion risk factor assessment and it will become part of the application to the municipality for a building permit.

Somers said the department was asked a lot in the early going if it was trying to protect the coast from people or people from the coast.

“The answer is we’re trying to do both,” he said.