By Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Guysborough Journal
CANSO: With news recently of the provincial and federal government’s designation of French Bank, Middle Bank, Sable Island Bank, and Sydney Bight as Canada’s first offshore wind areas, Nova Scotia set aloft what officials expect will become a powerful new industry – one they say will attract investment, create jobs, and secure the province’s position as a leader in renewable energy for years, even decades, to come.
But on parts of the Eastern Shore, where the fishery remains key to the survival of hundreds of tiny communities and thousands of people, the July 29 launch has gone over like a lead balloon.
“We already have leases for all those [wind areas],” Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association Manager Ginny Boudreau told The Journal from her Canso office following the Halifax press conference. “They’re called fishing licenses.”
Despite more than a year of public and industry consultations – and her repeated insistence that she is not opposed to offshore wind itself – Boudreau said her members remain deeply concerned about the speed with which this particular process has advanced and its ramifications.
Chief among these, she said, are the direct overlap between the new wind zones and existing fishing grounds, the sheer scale and cumulative impact of having multiple areas designated at once, and a serious lack of independent research on how offshore wind development could affect marine life and fish behaviour in the long run.
“None of these [wind areas], not one of them, surprises us,” she said. They’re pretty much what was identified … way back when [before the consultations]. The province hasn’t wavered … That’s the problem.”
What the province, Ottawa announced – and why
At the joint announcement, the provincial and federal governments said the move came after extensive technical assessment, public and fishing industry consultation, and adjustments – including shrinking the size of French Bank and Sydney Bight.
According to Premier Tim Houston, speaking at the press conference, the goal is to position Nova Scotia as a global leader.
“With some of the top wind speeds in the world, [we have] the potential to become a clean energy superpower,” he said.
To this end, the province’s plan calls for licensing up to five gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 – more than double Nova Scotia’s peak electricity demand – hoping to attract international investment that will transform Nova Scotia into a global exporter of renewable energy. The first call for project bids is expected later this year.
Federal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson called it “a significant step forward towards unlocking our renewable energy potential. We are moving quickly to deliver on our commitment to advance offshore wind, create clean jobs and support our long-term energy security.” Added Nova Scotia Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau: “This tells industry that it’s time to go, it’s time to get ready for the first call for bids, and it’s time to invest in Nova Scotia.”
But Boudreau argued that the move’s haste will cause serious, new problems as government’s drive to push wind forward comes at the expense of more thorough industry, environmental and community impact assessments.
“Everything about this has been on high speed,” she said. “The whole regional assessment process … usually that’s a four or five year process … [this one] developed in, like, 18 months.”
Overlap, cumulative impact
One consequence of this, she said, is the overlap between the newly designated wind zones and the areas where local fishers hold Department of Fisheries and Oceans licenses, which restrict local fishers to specific natural areas. Adding wind leases to those areas, she explained, introduces direct competition for space, resources, and, ultimately, revenue – and that’s a recipe for continuous conflict between a traditional marine industry and an emerging one.
“Look at this way: we’re already tenants there – now they’re giving a lease to a new one on top of us in the same place.”
Making matters worse, she said, the scope of the decision is not limited to a single site but to four vast areas simultaneously, which will affect “multi-species harvesters” immediately and sweepingly across the region. “We’re not just getting hit once. We’re getting hit by all of the leases. Those are all of our fishing areas.”
Lack of independent research
Boudreau is particularly critical of what she sees is the lack of independent data on the effects of large-scale wind energy projects on the region’s marine environment and fish populations.
“Where’s the research that shows what happens to that ocean space when massive amounts of energy are sucked out of a grid or an area? What does that do to that marine environment? How fast does it change? What are the short-term, immediate and long-term changes to that space?”
She also points to the practical constraints facing fishers if wind development changes where fish are found. “If the fish don’t like that space anymore and they go somewhere else, guess what? My license … doesn’t permit me to go where the fish [now] are.”
The “it’s a big ocean” argument, she said, doesn’t apply.
“The federal government of Canada dictates where I can fish, when I can fish, what I can fish, and how much I can fish. That hasn’t changed.”
For their part, government officials emphasize that environmental assessments will be required for all project-specific developments and that ongoing consultation with affected communities – including the fishing industry – will remain a key part of the process.
Boudreau, however, remains skeptical, insisting that the governments’ decision to shrink the wind area potential of the French Bank and Sydney Bight is no indication of their overriding objective of getting projects off the ground and in the water as quickly as possible.
“By announcing that these [wind areas are smaller] … doesn’t mean they took us [fishers] into consideration,” she said. “There was no intention out of the gate to use [the] big swaths of spaces that they initially announced for [wind development].”
Looking ahead
Despite these challenges, Boudreau said “we have been doing our work because we knew this was coming, and we knew where they were putting these wind turbines.”
GCIFA’s focus, she said, will now shift to engaging with environmental assessments on specific projects. “We will narrow our data collection to those areas, and then we’ll see what our actual footprint is and what, what will be the effects of that,” he said. “Now our work really gets started.”