Public pushes back against government bill that would lift N.S. ban on uranium mining, fracking

There was nothing lazy about a former government's decision to ban fracking in Nova Scotia, MLAs heard on Monday.

Multiple presenters to the legislature's committee on public bills said the Houston government's plan to lift the ban on uranium exploration and mining and the moratorium on fracking for onshore gas, as proposed in the omnibus legislation Bill 6, should not happen without robust public consultation — if it happens at all.

For several months, Premier Tim Houston has said blanket bans on resource development are the result of lazy government policy and pressure exerted by special interest groups that, to date, neither the premier nor anyone from his government has been willing to identify.

But a number of presenters took aim at that assertion on Monday, particularly when it comes to fracking.

Barbara Harris, a member of the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition, noted that the moratorium by a former Liberal government followed work by an independent expert panel that included extensive scientific review, public consultation and input that resulted in a majority of the public supporting the moratorium.

"The legislation this government wants to repeal grew out of these studies," Harris told the committee.

"It was not a lazy or cowardly public policy process."

The man who led that review, former Cape Breton University president David Wheeler, recently told CBC News that the previous Liberal government "badly mishandled" the file by not following through on his recommendations for further research and consultation.

Wheeler said the case for fracking could be made on the basis of smaller risks being managed by regulations, but since his report was published a decade ago the world has "woken up" to the threat of climate change, he said.

"So I think it's pretty well unthinkable that it would make sense for Nova Scotia to revisit the exploration and development of shale gas at this point."

Houston has said projects would not proceed unless it was demonstrated they could be achieved safely.

Tina Northrup, a lawyer with East Coast Environmental Law, told the committee it's been difficult to reconcile the "divisive rhetoric" the premier has used while advocating for greater natural resource extraction with his calls for the province and country to come together in the face of the threats posed by tariffs from the United States government.

As several other presenters did Monday, Badia Nehme with the Ecology Action Centre took aim at the lack of public consultation ahead of the tabling of Bill 6. Nehme noted the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs has also expressed concern about the process.

"It is not lazy policy-making to consult Nova Scotians on matters which affect our health and our environment. It is not immature to consider expert analysis commissioned on behalf of the government or to respect the Mi'kmaw people."