HALIFAX: The provincial government is responding to concerns about an emergency response plan for the Canso Causeway.
In his annual report issued on November 30, Auditor General Michael Pickup noted the province has yet to identify “critical infrastructure, or its owners, that could impact Nova Scotians and has not assigned responsibility to a specific department.” The report also stated the Emergency Measures office accepted the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure but has yet to implement a plan to meet the commitment.
Once such piece of infrastructure mentioned was the Canso Causeway.
When asked about the Causeway, Municipal Affairs Minister Zach Churchill said his department will meet with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and “trust our officials to decide which department will take the lead on that.”
Churchill said EMO provides a function among different levels of government to make sure emergency responses are coordinated but his department still wants to meet with DITR to “make sure where the expertise is [and] who is best able to take the lead on that.”
Churchill said he isn’t sure about a timeline as to when such discussion might take place, adding the government wants to make sure all the recommendations coming from the Auditor General receive full consideration and analysis.
“We have an all hazards approach to emergency measures planning so we are prepared for whichever event happens, and that would dictate the specific responses to any damage that’s done,” he said.
“That is a focus of ours, to make sure that we’re planning for all contingencies.”
Churchill said government wants to make sure which department is responsible for infrastructure so they are prepared.
“The central concern of the report was ensuring there was a centralized documented map of our critical infrastructure but that’s not to say government and our departments and our private partners haven’t demonstrated an ability to respond to issues that arise when our infrastructure is damaged,” added Churchill.