This report updates East Coast Environmental Law’s Protecting the Coast: A Multi-Jurisdictional Legislative Review, which was created in 2018 to inform the development of Nova Scotia’s Coastal Protection Act – the first dedicated coastal protection and management law in Canada. The purpose of the original report was to learn what a coastal law could look like and how it could work by understanding how other jurisdictions protect and manage the coast.

East Coast Environmental Law participated in the Regional Assessment as one of many public stakeholder groups. While participating in the assessment, we also contributed to federal and provincial law reform initiatives that were establishing new regulatory regimes for offshore wind development in Atlantic Canada.

East Coast Environmental Law participated in the Regional Assessment as one of many public stakeholder groups. While participating in the assessment, we also contributed to federal and provincial law reform initiatives that were establishing new regulatory regimes for offshore wind development in Atlantic Canada.

In January 2025, the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia (“Regional Assessment”) concluded. This backgrounder offers an overview of the Regional Assessment, explaining its origins and purpose as well as the role it is expected to play in the future regulation of offshore wind developments in Nova Scotia.

Submission to the Canada-Nova Scotia Energy Regulator on the Petroleum-related Call for Bids NS25-1P.

As we near the end of yet another summer of heatwaves, drought and wildfires that have ravaged our forests and led to the evacuations of thousands of people, we urgently need to build projects that will help decarbonize our economy. At the same time, designating and prioritizing projects in the national interest should not put our communities or nature at risk.

Submission on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 Proposed Plan of Priorities and Proposed Watch List Approach

Submission on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 Right to a Healthy Environment Draft Implementation Framework.

An environmental rights advocacy toolkit prepared by East Coast Environmental Law to support public engagement in a campaign to win a right to a healthy environment in Nova Scotia.

A model bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities for Nova Scotia, drafted by East Coast Environmental Law to support a campaign to win a right to a healthy environment in Nova Scotia.

East Coast Environmental Law Submission on the Draft Terms of Reference for the Regional Assessment in the Ring of Fire Area

Brief submitted to the Nova Scotia Law Amendments Committee on Bill No. 471, the proposed Advancing Nova Scotia Opportunities Act.

Under the Fisheries Act, one of Canada’s oldest laws enacted over 150 years ago, the federal government is charged with protecting our oceans, clean water and fish habitat. When changes were made five years ago, all political parties supported the updated law, and enabled the regulatory and policy framework to protect, restore and sustain Canada’s fisheries – and the waters that support them – for the benefit of generations to come. The modernization of the Act was widely viewed as long overdue.

East Coast Environmental Law is a regional charity that provides public-interest environmental law services throughout Atlantic Canada. We advocate for progressive environmental law and policy, provide public legal education, and share our legal skills to support others working to prevent or redress environmental harms.

Letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada seeking clarification of and requesting amendments to the agreements setting out terms of reference for the committees conducting regional assessments of offshore wind in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia

Joint Federal-Provincial Regulation of Marine Wind Energy Development in Offshore Nova Scotia: Understanding Anticipated Amendments to the Accord Acts Regime