Given the essential role of municipal governments in coastal protection and management, East Coast Environmental Law sought to examine how municipalities in Nova Scotia deal with coastal issues by reviewing each municipal planning strategy (“MPS”) and land-use by-law (“LUB”). This report summarizes the scope and breadth of municipal rules and approaches to coastal protection and management.

In our view, the measures proposed in the Major Projects Discussion Paper go beyond effective coordination and reduction of genuine redundancies. In some cases, they go far beyond the scope of what is necessary to balance the competing priorities that the Government of Canada is facing today. Taken as a whole and taken to their limits, the reforms proposed in the Discussion Paper risk doing significant damage to federal reconciliation efforts, Indigenous rights recognition, environmental protections, protections for human health and the right to a healthy environment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, and democratic decision-making and accountability.