Coastal Protection

March 23rd, 2023

Crescent Beach is a place I visit every week, sometimes more than once per week. It is a great place to just walk with the breeze in your face. I almost always take my dog because she enjoys it more than my wife and I. It was on March 18th that someone asked me “what did I think of the Seawall”. I didn’t really have an answer because I was unaware of the construction project. I hiked the 2 kilometers across the beach to see what they were talking about and found nothing, so I returned to my car. What I did not realize is that they were talking about what is sometimes referred to as Little Crescent Beach on George Island.

On the 19th of March I drove over to George Island and walked down to Little Crescent Beach and was shocked with what I saw. I took several pictures and went home. And then started making a few phone calls, doing a little research to find out how this progressed to this stage and that I am now just hearing about it. Within a day, I shared some of my pictures and shared what knowledge I did have with some other devoted community coastal advocates. In the next three days I made a daily visit to the beach, taking a few more pictures at different tide levels and talking to many other people visiting the beach. I do point out that this community is in District 1 of the Municipality, which falls outside the jurisdiction of my District, which may have accounted for why I did not receive any phone calls up to this point. I can assure you that this situation changed after I made a posting on social media.

It was on March 21st at a MODL Policy and Strategy Committee meeting that I had my first opportunity to discuss this situation with my Councillor colleagues. It was at that meeting that I was able to share my concern about this construction project and was able to introduce a motion that would be forwarded to Council, having a letter directed to the Province asking them to immediately to implement the Coastal Protection Act regulations. {Bill # 106, March 2019} After all, this Bill was processed through the Legislature 3 years previously, but never proclaimed. I view this as a download of responsibility that would lead to a possible patchwork of various regulations, depending on where you live in the province.

When it comes to building a rock-wall, normally if it is built above any tidal waters, it is considered private land and the owner, in most cases, does not require a Building Permit unless it falls in a Municipality that may have zoning or land-use Bylaws for that community. If the rock wall were to be located at high-tide mark, or on the shoreline, permits to have machinery work on the beach, or build a rock-retaining wall/seawall fall to the Province. This would require a permit from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (this would not require any consultation with the Municipal Unit).

Back-filling the wall on the shore-side, would need to be done in consultation under the authority of the Nova Scotia Department of Environment (Provincial jurisdiction does not require consultation with the Municipality). At this point, if a developer wants to build on the property, they will require a Building Permit and would discuss their proposals with the Municipal Building Official. If the Developer already has approval from the Provincial Department of Environment then the Municipality routinely issues a Building Permit unless it was against some guidelines within a Municipal Zoned area. Crescent Beach does not have a Planning Advisory Committee and is not a zoned area. The option was always there for the community, but MODL have never pushed Communities into Zoning, unless they asked for it. A good example of this is the small inland community of Hemford Forest.

After doing research, I took it upon myself on March 27th, to write a letter the Honourable Tory Rushton, Minister of Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, just as a private citizen. I expressed my concern on the recent construction of the seawall located on Little Crescent Beach. I expressed that I did not see anything in the current Coastal Protection Act as it pertains to Seawalls. It does mention if such a wall is constructed on Crown Land, it does require a permit. I pointed out a 2020 dispute originating in James Beach, Black Point, Pictou County. In this particular situation, the matter ended up in the Supreme Count on Nova Scotia for resolution. At that time, the then Environment Minister; Ian Rankin, was asked to determine if that Seawall was above the ordinary high-water mark, and not on Crown Land. In that letter I asked Minister Rushton to exercise his statutory authority under the Crown’s Land Act to review the placement of the Rock Wall at Crescent Beach and make a determination on whether the Rock -Wall was constructed on Crown Lands. I feel that the citizens in this area deserve nothing less than a Ministerial Decision on this matter, just as the Pictou County residents were granted.

This development on Crescent Beach, points out the gap that currently exists between Municipal By-Laws and Provincial Legislation, with respect to the protection of our Sensitive Coastal Shorelines.

Back in 2019, the province passed the Coastline Protection Act, with the stated goal of protecting the Natural ecosystem and to make sure new homes are safer from sea-level rise, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion. At the same time, the Provincial Government passed Legislation that requires Municipalities to adopt Municipal-wide planning by the end of 2022. MODL started the process and wanted to have the process include public consultation, but soon realized the process was unachievable under the current timelines.

The Protection of our shorelines and sensitive coastal eco-systems, is a responsibility of both the Province and the Municipality. I believe it is time for both levels of Government to take immediate action.

On March 29, I brought a motion forward to Council (While I made the motion, credit can be shared with other Council Members for input).

“That Municipal Council direct the mayor to write the province, requesting that the Provincial Government permit MODL to pass a Moratorium on Coastal Development, until the earlier of a) the adoption of our Municipal Coastal Protection Land Use Bylaw, or b) the Adoption of the Coastal Protection Act and Regulations.” The majority of Council passed this Motion.

The use of Moratoriums as a means to limit Coastal Development, while Policy is being created, is not new to the Maritimes. The Province of PEI has recently issued a Moratorium on coastal Development through Ministerial Order which is intended to be in place until formal policy can be developed.

I have quickly heard that there are those who are against such a moratorium and have said to me you have no right to tell me what I can do with my land. So, it has become evident to me that the road ahead is going to have lots of bumps and potholes. I hope we can work towards an agreement and regulations that will be acceptable to the majority of the constituents and serve towards the protection of our sensitive coastal eco-systems.

Coastal Protection / Part 2

February 4th, 2024

No matter the topic, perfection is never in place. In a democracy we aim to meet the views of the majority even if many of those we are working for have concerns. We have taken action to change direction to address short falls in coastal protection. There was no need for us to do anything at this time, we could have taken the stand to allow the province to bring in their legislation in a year or two or just use a universal set back. I am not a one issue councillor as some of my colleagues may be. I look at the overall picture of what might lead to issues in other council district jurisdictions and try to weigh the facts.

Meanwhile, we can see that individuals are building all kinds of structures in areas where they would probably not be building if Bill #106 of March 2019 had been proclaimed and had been implemented by now. As you know, many community members are very passionate about this whole issue, and I too am disappointed that the Provincial Government keeps delaying the implementation of this Bill #106. Some will say we need more feedback and I appreciate that the government needs to listen to its residents, to a point. I don’t agree that we should wait any longer. Hopefully, our coastline won’t be destroyed already by the time we start to try to protect it.

I truly understand the fact that not all constituents share the same concerns. This whole consideration started over a simple rock wall. I need to point out to you that many individuals have commented to me that they like the rock wall located at Little Cresent Beach, said it looks very professional and some even said had we had such a wall on Risser’s Beach we would not have had major damage from recent storms. I sometimes struggle to balance the needs of the greater community or to satisfy the wants of a few outspoken individuals. Together we need to make stronger communities by understanding that we all have needs and wants. Our planning department said they based their findings on climate science using tables seventy years in the future. A small vocal group made their wishes based upon climate politics. I need to assess what most affects my residents right now, today and into the next twenty years. I do understand we need to make changes, but I am not willing to force residents off their land, I am not willing to make many properties worthless, and I am willing to listen to the silent majority. I don’t want to be part of a government overreach being responsible of putting policies or by-laws in place that have a broad brush instead of looking at properties case by case. Sometimes you don’t need to say a lot to be heard. I will support reasonable rules and policies that we can build on over the years through reviews.

I truly believe we could’ve dealt with this much quicker if we had not tried to cover every single point of view discussed to us and trying to make everyone happy with their point of view. Whatever happened to keep it simple so that it works. If it doesn’t work, we find something here or there to correct the situation in the review process. We need to move forward with this. The council gave their views to staff, they were very clear on what we would accept, what we wanted reflected in the proposed policy. We did not ask for options as we are past that point. We don’t have to make everything complicated and we don’t have to have the municipality act as the parents of every person who purchases a piece of land or owns a piece of land or who wants to develop a piece of land The owner, the purchaser, the developer has to use some common sense and we don’t have to be the parent of everybody telling them what they can do with their property. I hate red tape. I don’t want to expose citizens to additional costs. Housing is already beginning to become out of reach for many. We need to ask ourselves are we impacting the rights of coastal property owners more than is necessary to achieve our goal of coastal protection.

However, if we are going to try to bring in policies based upon predictions of 70 years in the future I will vote against any changes.

UPDATE: On February 26 th , one day before MODL planned to present our final draft policy on the MODL coastal protection policy Nova Scotia’s environment minister says the provincial government will not put into force legislation passed in 2019 to protect the province’s coastline. Tim Halman says the province will instead shift much of the responsibility for coastal protection to individual property owners and municipalities. In the goodness of their heart, they will provide $3M in funding to support their view. More downloading from the province to the municipal units. In the meantime, MODL spent about $100K trying to fix this lack of legislation by listening to residents’ ideas and seeking solutions. Now we need to start all over.

UPDATE: On February 27th the Province of Nova Scotia wanted MODL to enter into a funding agreement with them where they provided us with a $500,000.oo grant to conduct a gap analysis on the municipality’s last flood risk study; install a water level, river flow and rainfall measurement equipment; collect bathymetric data; do surveying culvert locations, elevations and sizing as well as bridge dimensions; and produce watercourse cross-sections. This offer was presented to MODL Council on the 27 th of February. I voted against accepting this money from the province to do their work. Councillors Greek, Hubley, and Whynot also voted against the offer but there were enough other councillors willing to accept this money that the motion passed. After seeing the mess the province put us in with the last flood risk project and the coastal protection plan why would we ever want to partner with them to put in controls that tell people how they can use their own land.