Halls Harbour road washout follows unheeded calls for climate adaptation money

Proponents who unsuccessfully pushed for government funding to shore up a picturesque Nova Scotia fishing village against climate change say the costly washout of a section of road during Thursday’s flash floods was both predictable and preventable.

Waters from torrential rain rushed down a river into Halls Harbour, a popular tourist destination in the province’s Annapolis Valley, and around midnight smashed through the small causeway and sluice gates that divide the waterway from the Bay of Fundy.

“It appeared like Niagara Falls down there, it was coming in from everywhere,” Dick Killam, a municipal councillor in the area, told CBC’s Maritime Noon. “It was very violent.”

Heavy rain hit four counties in the province, taking the life of a youth in Wolfville, N.S., who was swept into a ditch while playing at a park, and damaging roads and culverts and flooding basements.

In Halls Harbour, Killam said locals have worried for two decades that the U-shaped road and sluice gates were vulnerable, and three years ago a community group hired an engineer who outlined a broader $24-million plan to protect the harbour against climate change.

But since 2023, aspects of the project have been denied funding three times, according to engineer Daniel Houghton, who said Thursday’s destruction is tough to see given this “didn’t really sneak up on anybody.”

The provincial government’s Sustainable Community Challenge Fund has twice rejected a request for $1 million to help with the overall project’s engineering and design, Houghton said, and the federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund in May refused an application for $11.9 million for work on a wharf and breakwater.

Part of the proposed overall plan also includes replacing the sluice gates with more modern models and raising the causeway higher to prevent floodwaters from overrunning the road.

Houghton urged both levels of government to work to make sure money that will go toward repairs is well spent. The causeway should not simply be rebuilt, he said, but adapted to take on the challenges of climate change, as should the surrounding infrastructure.

“Largely our society has become one of more of a reactive nature,” he said. “Although I hate having to say I told you so, when I’m wearing my engineering hat it usually means something awful has happened — often it’s the catalyst that moves a lot of these major projects forward.”

CBC has sought comment on the funding from the provincial and federal governments.

The causeway connects the two sides of the harbour, although there is a longer way to get around. It could be weeks or months before the road is repaired.

Halls Harbour is a well-known draw for tourists, who can watch the massive tides of the Bay of Fundy lift and drop fishing vessels docked in the harbour. The harbour also has a restaurant and lobster pound.

Premier Tim Houston told reporters that crews are out repairing spots in the Annapolis Valley that were damaged during the flooding.

“The efforts around mitigating risk and prevention as well, when you know more you do better,” he said. “And I think that’s the same for infrastructure construction methods or the way we repair things.”