The original Coast Coalition of Nova Scotia was founded in 2004 by groups of concerned citizens worried about the disappearance of coastal habitats. The background and mission statement can be found here.

This PowerPoint presentation was delivered by the Coastal Coalition NS to the provincial deputy ministers in March 2007. This presentation is a good indication of the enourmous amunt of work that went into the effort to protect Nova Scotia’s coast.

“Our Coast” Coastal Technical Report was submitted by the consulting group CBCL Limited to the Nova Scotia government in November 2009.

The press release announcing the release of the technical report in 2009  was full of enthusiasm and hope that the strategy would lead to the proclaimation of the Act and the enforcment of its Regulations.

The NS Draft Coastal Strategy  was developed in 2011, six years after the Coaltion was formed. The strategy  attempted to integrate the complex interdepartmental policies, coastal useage including recreation, tourism, the fishery and industry and the complexities of a changing and dynamic coastline. The authors identified 7 strategy areas. Only 3 of these made it to the Coastal Protection Act that was passed in 2019.

East Coast Environmental Law was involved in the devlopment of a coastal strategy for Nova Scotia from pretty much the beginning of the process. In 2018, EceLaw produced this  judicial overview.

The Overview of the proposed regulations for the Coastal Protection Act (Part 1) was published in 2021.

In July 2021, the province published a short overview of the proposed regulations. Once these Regulations were completed, the Act would then be “proclaimed”. Or least that was the plan.

This presentation was given to the Association NS Land Surveyers  in 2022.

In 2021, the government released the public consultation report. Three years later on February 26, 2024, Tim Halman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change in NS distributed 40,000 questionaires to coastal property owners. He decided that the 39,000 who did not respond to his survey opposed the Coastal Protection Act. It was partly under those assumptions that the Act was not proclaimed.

Published April 11, 2024 Mike Kofahl staff lawyer at East Coast Envronmental Law (who has been working on coastal protection since 2018) wrote this  blog: “Five-year anniversary of the Coastal Protection Act: Comparing the Coastal Protection Act to the Future of Nova Scotia’s Coastline: A plan to protect people, homes, and nature from climate change”