N.S. government seeks consultant to craft sample bylaws for coastal protection

Province says team of climate-change experts will be available to municipalities

Haley Ryan · CBC News 

The Nova Scotia government is sharing more details about how it will help municipalities handle coastal protection, months after abandoning legislation that would have brought in provincewide rules.

The province will soon issue a tender for a consultant to speak with municipalities, and deliver templates for coastal protection bylaws that local governments can use to build their own.

Many municipalities have been vocal about the fact they don’t have extensive resources like planners, engineers or development experts in their own staff to create those rules, or the funds to hire expensive technical consultants.

Three municipal councillors from Halifax, Kentville and the Municipality of the County of Annapolis recently met with provincial representatives to give advice about how the tender should look.

“It just gave that extra visibility, that extra lens that isn’t totally provincially focused,” said Halifax Coun. Paul Russell, who attended that meeting.

Coun. Paul Russell, who represents the Lower Sackville area, says the province helping municipalities create their own coastal bylaws makes sense. (Andrew Lam/CBC)

The Coastal Protection Act, which passed with all-party support in 2019, was supposed to guide where people could build along the coast, outlining setbacks and other provisions.

But in February the province said they were scrapping the act in favour of releasing an online mapping tool showing future sea-level projections, and a plan with 15 actions that had responsibilities split among property owners, municipalities and the province.

Although that reversal drew criticism from opposition parties, the public, and environmental groups, Russell said it makes sense. Municipalities already manage their own unique structure of bylaws and it would be a waste of resources to have the province attempt to “impose” their own, he said.

“Putting it in the municipalities’ hands and saying ‘we will support you, but it’s really yours to own’ — I think that can be a more effective approach in this case,” Russell said.

Russell is president of the Sackville-Cobequid electoral district for the provincial PC Party.

The consultant will work with a coastal protection co-ordinator managed through the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, who is acting as a link between both levels of government. The province is paying the federation about $476,000, spread over three years, for the role.

Andrew Murphy, associate deputy minister of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, said the province is also spending $6.6 million for a Community Climate Capacity Program, run by the Clean Foundation.

He said the program includes climate experts who will be available to coastal municipalities as they craft their own bylaws over the next three years. A recent progress report on Nova Scotia’s climate-change action plan said the program will also support one Mi’kmaw community and two community organizations.

The report said those experts will be available to support all municipalities through the Municipal Climate Learning Group, which will be established later this year.

“One of the things that we’ve heard from municipalities is that many of them, especially the smaller ones, lack the expertise and capacity in climate change and climate-change adaptation,” Murphy said.

The province is not requiring coastal municipalities to bring in new rules, although some, like the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, have taken that step.

“The example bylaw text … we’re providing this as a tool and a resource to municipalities,” Murphy said. “It’s up to municipalities to make the decision in terms of how they adopt that.”

The province also offers a Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund that has $30 million for specific climate projects until 2028. The progress report said there were 102 fund applications from municipalities, non-profits organizations and other groups in 2022, and 105 applications in 2023.

Of those applications, only $7.8 million has been invested so far in 26 projects, 20 per cent of which were awarded directly to First Nations and African Nova Scotian communities.