Written in May 2024:
Me and Rae Steeves on Global news discussing the issue of the scrapped bill
The name “Coastal Protection Act” may not mean a whole lot to the average Nova Scotian, but the fact that it’s been scrapped after five years of attempted implementation should mean a great deal to all of us. This act matters to anyone who will live, or loves someone who will live, in Nova Scotia, in 30 years. The government’s failure to go through with it proves that they cannot be trusted to protect the future of Nova Scotians from climate change.
The Environment Minister, Tim Halman, has missed multiple self-imposed deadlines around the implementation of the Coastal Protection Act, which was passed with all party support, five years ago. Hallman claims things have changed since 2019. He’s right, they have. Since 2019, Nova Scotia has experienced several, destructive hurricanes. We also experienced deadly flooding. According to The Weather Network, “an entire summer’s worth of rain fell in just a couple of hours on Friday, July 21”, where 4 people died, all after a record setting fire season. What’s changed in the last five years is that climate change has marched in and planted itself on our doorstep. Everyone in Nova Scotia has felt the impact of environmental destruction. It is in all our interest for the government to work to prevent further degradation of the land we live on. We should all be very concerned that the government does sees what is happening and decides to implement less environmental protection, not more. Especially considering that this is not even a climate change prevention bill and will only mitigate the effects of rising temperatures, not attempt to prevent them from further rising.
The government’s reasoning for scrapping the bill is murky at best. They scrapped it after consultation with coastal landowners, but the majority of coastal landowners actually supported the bill. The half-hearted bridge of logic provided by the government was that those who did not complete the survey could be assumed to be against it. As a government representative, Halman must act in the interest of Nova Scotians and guessing at what Nova Scotians want rather than listening to them is wrong to the point of being undemocratic. The act was designed to safeguard our future on this land by the coast and is one of the measures we must take as a coastal community to fight climate change on a global scale. How can you presume that most people would oppose it? Its effects are entirely neutral if not positive to the average person and the majority of landowners, more directly affected by it, support it. The explanation many have raised for this complete lack of clarity on why the bill was cancelled is that the land owners who oppose the bill are on the wealthier spectrum. If this is the case, the government is choosing to protect wealthy landowners’ rights to choose damaging types of stone to landscape their properties over our collective rights to a future.
Back in October, members of School Strike 4 Climate Halifax, including myself, met with the minister and expressed our disappointment with the delay in implementation. We also expressed distrust in his ability to protect our futures if he cannot make this one bill, with all-party support, work. He seemed hopeful in this meeting that the bill could finally be made useful. But evidently our worst fears were realized. We have all felt immense distrust in the government, but this bill gave us hope. It’s scrapping effectively loses them the confidence of climate conscious people, especially youth everywhere and they should be very aware of that.
Nova Scotians are going to have to start standing up for ourselves and our environment as the government we elected to serve us is clearly not fighting for our best interest. The Coastal Protections act was not only about restricting what can be landscaped on the coast, but had measures to increase signage and implement other basic safety measure in the case of flooding and other natural disasters. It is basic public safety for us and the next generation who will be living in a world of more and more extreme condition due to climate change, which the government has not even begun to implement adequate action on preventing. If they cannot implement the Coastal Protection Act, what hope is there they will accomplish the intense levels of climate and environmental action needed in the coming years? They fail to meet their own targets and allow legislation passed with all party support to sit around and eventually be cancelled. They are not protecting us or our futures.
