Prime Minister says emergency order to keep Lake Pisiquid filled will continue indefinitely

Lake Pisiquid near Windsor, NS, which filled with water last month following a county emergency order, won’t be drained anytime soon, according to Prime Minister Tim Houston.

“The lake will stay full because it’s in the interest of public safety and that’s the way it is,” Houston told reporters Thursday after a cabinet meeting in Halifax.

“We’re not going to allow that to drain anymore.”

Man-made Lake Pisiquid dried up following a 2021 Fisheries and Oceans Canada order requiring the gates of an aboiteau – a type of water channel – at the end of the lake to remain open for 10 minutes every day at the tide change to allow fishing to let through.

But last month the province issued an order to keep the gates of the aboiteau in the Windsor Causeway closed so that the lake would fill up and provide a potential source of water to fight wildfires that have ravaged the province. Houston said the Nova Scotia order would be renewed every two weeks, and DFO has since stopped extending the opposing order.

The issue of the lake is contentious in the community. Many people were outraged when the lake drained, including farmers and a nearby ski hill who used it as a water source. However, other people, including some fishermen and First Nations, argued that the federal order allowed for better fish passage and was the right thing to do for the environment.

On Thursday, Houston said his administration should have stepped in to fill the lake once the Tories won the 2021 provincial election. Although Houston made a video in May with local MLA Melissa Sheehy-Richard calling for the lake to be refilled, the prime minister told reporters on Thursday that he only recently heard concerns that the dry lake could pose a challenge to firefighters if there were any. a big fire would break out.

Water supply was a concern during a major fire in 2016, he said.

“Imagine the discussion we would have if we drained that lake now after all we’ve been through – especially in the last few weeks – and a fire breaks out in that area and there’s no water. Imagine the questions the media would ask me about how I let that happen.”

John Lohr, Nova Scotia’s minister responsible for emergency management, said Thursday Windsor’s water supply alone is not enough to fight major fires. That’s where access to lake water becomes vital, he said.

Houston suggested that the local council and fire department should have been more outspoken on the issue in the past, but West Hants Regional Municipality mayor Abraham Zebian said in an interview that the council has previously raised concerns about the water supply to the area. provincial and federal governments.

Zebian said he is “grateful it only took the prime minister two years to finally pay attention” to the situation.

“It has been very well documented on numerous occasions about the struggles and frustrations the council and my residents have had with Mr. Houston and his colleagues over the years.”

Zebian said that battle is directly related to the much-delayed Highway 101 twinning project near Windsor. The provincial government has so far not received approval from the federal government for a way to allow the passage of fish under a bridge over the River Avon. That brought the bridge construction to a standstill.

The mayor said his bigger concern right now is the “death trap” the reconfigured temporary highway has created for drivers.

“Early this morning there was another accident on that stretch of highway,” he said.

Liberal leader Zach Churchill said he knows some people in the community want the lake stocked and others don’t, but said the county needs to address the issue in a way “that is fair to the public.”

Lohr initially said the emergency order followed a request from firefighters. But local fisherman Darren Porter, who is suing the county over the order, has a signed statement from the local fire chief saying no such request was made.

The minister has subsequently said his first order came after firefighters identified the issue of water availability.

“It wasn’t a real request, but it was a note to notify us,” he said on Thursday.

NDP leader Claudia Chender told reporters that Houston’s actions are “political opportunism at its worst.”

“I think what we’ve heard is a prime minister trying to keep an electoral seat,” she said.

There are many people who want the lake refilled, Chender said, but others — including local First Nations — take a different view. Chender said it would be more appropriate for the province to mediate talks on the matter rather than abusing emergency orders.

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