Nova Scotia election: Liberals promise to establish inquiry into illegal fishing

HALIFAX -

Nova Scotia's Liberal party is promising to establish a public inquiry into illegal fishing if the party is elected to govern on Nov. 26.

 Liberal Leader Zach Churchill issued a statement Friday saying the party would also introduce a minimum-fine policy for those caught buying illegally caught lobster.

There is already a maximum fine of $1 million for illegal fishing, but Churchill said more needs to be done. "We will establish a minimum fine to ensure that everybody who is buying illegal lobsters pays for putting the industry at risk," he said.

Churchill, whose Liberals are trying to unseat the incumbent Progressive Conservatives led by Tim Houston, also committed to creating a dedicated fisheries enforcement unit and a separate commercial fisheries office.

"The lobster industry is a major economic driver in Nova Scotia," Churchill said. "We're ready to act with a zero-tolerance policy that will revoke licences for repeat offenders and guarantee penalties for those who break the law."

Illegal lobster fishing is a hot-button issue in southwestern Nova Scotia, where Churchill was campaigning Friday in his home riding of Yarmouth. The region is also home to the most lucrative lobster fishery in Canada, where the fishing season will open later this month amid widespread concern about illegal fishing.

Last month, a labour investigator agreed with federal fisheries officers who claimed that heavily armed criminals were posing a threat to their lives. The investigator determined the officers' protective equipment wasn't up to the task. The report was in response to Fisheries Department enforcement officers who filed refusal-to-work applications under provisions of the Canada Labour Code.

The investigator found fisheries officers in the Maritime region are having to regularly confront armed people, those with ties to outlaw motorcycle gangs, and fishers convicted of violent crimes. Some officers have been threatened and others have "come under fire" while inspecting fishing gear, the report said.

It remains unclear how many officers refused to work because of unsafe conditions, but they have since returned to active duty.

Responding to Churchill's plan, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kent Smith accused the Liberal leader of shielding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from criticism.

"We know Zach Churchill defends his federal cousins at every turn," said Smith, who is running for the Tories in the riding of Eastern Shore. "Once again, when Zach Churchill had the choice to stand up for Nova Scotians or stand with Justin Trudeau, he chose Trudeau."

Smith said he had repeatedly asked Ottawa to do something about illegal fishing, but he said his requests were ignored.

While Churchill was on the hustings in southwestern Nova Scotia, NDP Leader Claudia Chender was in the Halifax area, where she promised to help protect the province's coastline from the impact of climate change by reintroducing the shelved Coastal Protection Act.

When it was first introduced in 2019, the act received all-party support -- but previous Liberal and Conservative governments chose not to make it law.

The act would have offered protection to coastal areas, dunes and salt marshes, as well as restricted development along parts of the 13,000-kilometre coastline at risk of heavy erosion.

Chender said the Progressive Conservatives' decision to have property owners and municipalities oversee coastal protection will be ineffective. Without provincial legislation, private developers and wealthy landowners will continue to build stone seawalls too close to the ocean, which will only shift erosion to neighbouring properties, she said.

"Versions of this are happening in communities right across this province, where people's beloved trailheads, coves and beaches ... have disappeared due to erosion caused by landowners with deep pockets," the NDP leader said during a campaign stop next to Dartmouth Cove.

Chender went on to say the Tory government had relied on a small circle of its "donors and friends who own coastal properties" to decide against passing the legislation.

Later in the day, the Tories issued a statement insisting that the most effective way to protect the coastline is to work with property owners and municipalities.

"There was a diversity of opinion (when proclaiming the act), and we feel we've struck the right balance supporting informed decision-making and empowering municipalities," the statement said. "It's unfortunate that Ms. Chender is playing politics."

Churchill's Liberals issued a statement saying that if elected they would enact the Coastal Protection Act on their first day in office.

"Nova Scotians cherish our coastlines, and the Coastal Protection Act is essential for defending our communities and natural environments against climate change," former Liberal premier Iain Rankin said in a statement.

Rankin, who has represented a Halifax-area riding since 2013, said his government was unable to proclaim the act before Houston's Tories ousted the Liberals in 2021 because the process of establishing regulations had yet to be completed.

The Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre has said the Tory government's approach has left municipalities "holding the bag" while Nova Scotians face an "incomprehensible patchwork" of municipal rules.

The government's alternative to the Coastal Protection Act -- the Coastal Protection Action Plan -- has 15 measures, including one offering homeowners and municipalities access to an online hazard map that shows the worst-case scenario for sea level rise along the coast in the year 2100.

The province is also providing financial support for a coastal protection co-ordinator within the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.