Province to expand provincial park system

Nova Scotia’s announcement of a new list of protected areas comes up short, say conservation activists.

The Nova Scotia government announced on Nov. 5 the addition of 1,267 acres of land to their list of protected areas, including two new provincial parks in Halifax County.  

One of them, Mount William, encompasses just over 27 hectares, and Lower East Chezzetcook will be 182 hectares. Mount William is in the Musquodoboit Valley, just over an hour’s drive from Halifax, on the Musquodoboit River. Lower East Chezzetcook is closer, at about 45 minutes east of Halifax.

The province also announced expansions of previously existing wilderness areas. This is the first new batch of protected areas announced since February 2024.

Becky Parker, the executive director of Nature Nova Scotia, says the organization was not consulted in the decision-making process, despite their continued lobbying for the release of more protected areas.

She said that Nature Nova Scotia hadn’t heard from the government on protected areas in “quite a while.”

“We were kind of suspicious of that,” she said.

Lower East Chezzetcook and Mount William were included in the Parks and Protected Areas Plan in 2013.

Chris Miller, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), said his organization was likewise not consulted by the government on this decision. He emphasizes the importance of protected areas for rare and endangered species, like the Atlantic whitefish.  

He is also surprised at the time it has taken for more protected areas to be designated.

He notes that the federal government supplied Nova Scotia with $28.5 million in 2023, to fund greater conservation efforts. This recent announcement, he says, does not reflect this.

“It is just the most tiniest, minuscule commitment that they could have made,” Miller said. “Honestly, the Nova Scotia government needs to get its act together.”

The Ecology Action Centre has been lobbying for the government to expand protected areas. Lindsay Lee, their wilderness community outreach officer, said that this new list of protected areas is very small in size, representing less than one per cent of Nova Scotia’s landmass.

“We have a tremendous amount of work left to do,” said Lee.

In response to Premier Tim Houston’s election promise to protect at least 20 per cent of Nova Scotia by 2030, the province passed the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act in in 2021.

Lee said that while this announcement contributes toward the province’s goal, it is not nearly enough. 

“This does not seem like an earnest attempt from the government to work toward that legislated goal,” Lee said. 

The Signal reached out to the Department of Environment and Climate Change and Nova Scotia Provincial Parks for comment, but they did not provide a statement.