A total of 19 Nova Scotia fishing associations have come together to form the Nova Scotia Fisheries Alliance for Energy Engagement in the wake of a regional assessment process starting to provide an analysis for wind development offshore of Nova Scotia.
“What we’re trying to do is to find the best way to provide input into the regional assessment process which is ongoing, as well as to help inform the province what they should be thinking about when looking at coastal areas,” said Chris Vascotto, who is managing the group.
The Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia held a series of public open house sessions throughout the province last fall. The focus was to provide information about the regional assessment process and to gather feedback from stakeholders on potential future licencing location(s) for offshore wind in the study area, which basically includes all waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence around to the Bay of Fundy.
“All these areas are important to coastal communities in Nova Scotia,” said Tommy Amirault, president of the Coldwater Lobster Association, who attended four of the sessions.
“I think the regional assessment board is doing a good job. They’re doing the best job they can,” said Amirault. “I do think they’ve got a hard job because in Nova Scotia we have such a good fishery, the most productive fishing areas in the world in my opinion, it’s going to be really hard for them to find somewhere suitable to put that many windmills, an industrial wind farm.”
The province has set a goal to offer leases for five gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
“They need to slow it down,” says Amirault. “They can’t destroy our fishery or change our fishery for a wind farm that might only last 20 years that might not be that beneficial to Nova Scotians. The fishery, money goes back into small communities all around Nova Scotia. We’re not saying it can’t be done or never be done. We want government to slow down and take a look at what they might be hurting or changing for the sake of a multinational company that comes here and promises this and that… the fishery has been the backbone of the economy for 400 years.”
Vascotto said the Nova Scotia Fisheries Alliance for Energy Engagement is communicating with all the harvester groups and asking if there is anywhere they can see themselves not wanting to fish over the next 20 to 30 years, what areas are not being fished, what impact is climate change having on the fish stocks and what areas they think are still going to be available for fishing.
“By doing that we can hopefully help form some of those decisions being made by the regional assessment committee, as well as the proponents themselves, so that we kind of have a low concept approach to put these things on the landscape,” said Vascotto. “We’re trying to make sure the two can coexist.”
Vascotto said the assessment process is moving quickly. “We’re trying to make sure the fishing industry are meaningfully engaged on the front end and will help guide where these things (wind turbines) might be. If they don’t have a voice, they might get dropped somewhere where somebody thinks it’s a good idea without knowing the implications. If we can do this right on the front end, it will be a situation where once they get put on the water, they will be in places fishermen are okay with,” he said.
Vascotto said part of the reason it was important for industry stakeholders to attend last fall’s information sessions “is to make sure the regional assessment team knows the questions they have to ask in order to make recommendations.”
The regional assessment committee is set to release an interim report in March 2024, which will likely include areas that should be considered for offshore wind development, said Vascotto.
“Once those areas are identified, it gives us a little bit more of a bullseye for our focus. Right now, they’re talking from the Gulf of St. Lawrence all the way down around to the Bay of Fundy. That’s a huge area. It’s pretty hard to have a meaningful conversation,” said Vascotto.
“We’re not trying to block any kind of offshore wind development. We realize it’s a priority of the provincial government. What we’re trying to do is find a way for both industries to survive and do well… we’re trying to produce a win-win on both sides for Nova Scotia.”
The Nova Scotia Fisheries Alliance for Energy Engagement can be contacted by email at manager@nsfaee.ca.
