HALIFAX — A Halifax-based environmental group is calling on the Nova Scotia government to immediately bring into force a law that was passed in 2019 to protect the province’s coastlines.

The Ecology Action Centre says the Coastal Protection Act is urgently needed because of the damage being caused by an increasing number of intense storms.

Marla MacLeod, the centre’s director of programs, says the delay in proclaiming the act, which is now into its third set of public consultations, is “recklessly irresponsible” and represents a disregard for the safety of Nova Scotians.

Passed by the former Liberal government, the law is aimed at offering better protection for areas like dunes and salt marshes and to set out where people can build along the coastline in order to avoid the effects of erosion.

Provincial Environment Minister Tim Halman has not committed to proclaiming the act before the end of the Progressive Conservative government’s current mandate in 2025.

Halman has said it’s important for the government to get more direct input from coastal property owners, and last month he announced a new round of public consultations with a deadline for submissions by Nov. 7.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.

The Canadian Press