Premier Says Feds Will Support the Isthmus
The Premier of Nova Scotia is confident the federal government will play a major role in restoring security from rising tides on the Isthmus of Chignecto.
A recent report offered three solutions to shore up the isthmus against a breach that would isolate the province from the rest of Canada. The options ranged in price from 189 million to 300 million dollars, a price tag beyond the reach of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined.
Tim Houston offered his assurance today during an interview on Six Rivers Radio’s Morning Talk.
The premier said, “The project has to go forward. We have to find a way, it’s obviously too important.”
While the two provinces are committed to the project, they both said it is also a matter for the federal government which has remained silent for years as a succession of leaders tried to get the issue on the front burner of government.
Houston says, “I have great confidence that the feds will be there, as will New Brunswick, as will Nova Scotia. We’re all on the common understanding that this is not something to be ignored.” He added, “Everybody knows what needs to be done, we just need to do it.”
A meeting of Atlantic premiers and federal minister Dominic LeBlanc, earlier this week, discussed the matter and Houston said, “Minister LeBlanc was pretty blunt that the federal government has a role to play.”
Should the federal government offer fifty percent, a number quite common for interprovincial projects, most agree that it will certainly happen.
The three parties will continue to work at a sharing agreement while detailed work will determine which of three options is most appropriate, including:
- building new dikes at $189.2 million
- raising the existing dikes at $200.2 million
- raising the existing dikes and installing steel sheet pile walls at select locations at $300.8 million
Work would start five years from now and construction would take another five years.
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