Government coastal protection radio ad 'a waste of money,' 'ridiculous,' say opposition leaders

Nova Scotia's opposition leaders say a radio ad featuring Environment Minister Tim Halman promoting his government's approach to coastal protection amounts to a waste of money and old-style campaigning.

The ad has been running periodically on commercial stations around the province since March, with a cost to date of more than $76,000 for five weeks in total.

In it, Halman talks about how Nova Scotians love the coastline and "share the sense of personal responsibility and collective pride in doing what is right, whether it be protecting the coastline or supporting a neighbour.

"That's why government has made the decision to trust local communities and Nova Scotians when it comes to coastal protection."

The government's plan "empowers" property owners and municipalities with the tools they need to protect the coast, Halman says in the ad.

The government also spent $60,330 on digital marketing throughout March and $16,500 on newspaper ads for a week in March.

The Tory government's plan followed several years of promising to proclaim the Coastal Protection Act, legislation that was passed with all-party support in 2019 but never made law.

After missing multiple self-imposed deadlines since becoming minister in 2021 and a round of public consultation that failed to produce any demonstrable opposition to the legislation, Halman announced in February that his government was abandoning the act.

Rather than setting a standard to be followed across the province for protecting existing structures and future development from the threats of climate change and protecting the coastline, the province instead released several tools intended to help with education and deferred to municipalities to create their own laws and rules governing coastal development and protection.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the ad is an example of how the government's priority seems to be on shifting public opinion in its favour at the expense of doing the work of governing.

She called the ad "ridiculous" and "old-style campaigning."

"And I certainly hope that people aren't fooled by it," she told reporters in Halifax on Thursday.

Chender said that as she travels from one end of the province to the other, she continues to encounter people who want the Coastal Protection Act made law, particularly municipal leaders who are confronted with the threat of extreme weather in climate change in their respective communities.

"Many municipalities do not have the resources to do this work themselves," she said.