An environmental group congratulated people from the Dartmouth community for their advocacy after Transport Canada said they would no longer approve the Dartmouth Cove infilling project.
As sea levels rise, it doesn’t make sense to infill in the ocean, or in this case the harbour, because people should instead adapt to climate change, said Mimi O’Handley, wetlands and water expert with the Ecology Action Centre.
“It’s a silly idea to be infilling in the oceans at all at this point,” said O’Handley.
Nova Scotia will have the most severe rate of sea level rise in the country, according to a report from CLIMAtlantic in collaboration with the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health.
O’Handley said Nova Scotia has it the worst because of “glacial activity,” which causes the land to sink while sea levels rise.
Two main community groups advocated against the infilling project, the Save Dartmouth Cove group, and the marine tech organization COVE.
“I think the community in Dartmouth did an amazing job to show why this area is important to them, culturally, ecologically socially. And it’s great to see a win like this,” she said.
Before Transport Canada rescinded support for the infilling, the project as pending approval from the Fisheries Department, who would evaluate the affect on marine life.
But O’Handley said any infilling would destroy some of the coastal habitats for terrestrial and aquatic life.
She added that coastal protection regulations outline rules for developing on the coast. She compared them to fire codes, saying they would help keep people—or buildings—safe from the complications of flooding and sea level rise if they built too close to the coast.
Right now, the onus falls on municipalities to create their own bylaws around coastal protection, which can be difficult to enforce, she said. That’s why she wants the province to adopt the Coastal Protection Act, which the current government scrapped after it was approved by all parties in the legislature under the former Liberal government.
Most recently, the Lunenberg Municipaltiy passed their own bylaws to protect coastlines.
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