NEWS

Victoria Standard - December 2005

Stewards participating in ecological study

St. Ann's Bay

On November 12th and 13th, sixteen local residents of St. Ann s Harbour participated in a beach survey as part of an ecological study of St. Ann’s Harbour to study the effects of the mussel aquaculture farm now in operation.

The study has been initiated by the Stewards of St. Ann’s Harbour Association who have obtained the services of Dr. Lise Chapman (Ocean Edge Ecological Consulting and Education). Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) is providing partial funding for the project.

The study includes two main components: One is an expert ecological assessment of the benthic marine fauna of St Ann s Harbour - the environmental component most likely to suffer any potential impacts of the mussel farm. The other component is the development of a monitoring tool (data base) that can ultimately be used by local community members, i.e. non-experts, who will, however, become skilled contributors to the program.

Under the direction of Dr. Chapman local resident’s learn to identify and quantify various vegetation, types of seaweed, bivalves, gastropoda, crustacea etc. The information gained from this kind of study will be useful in many different ways, starting from gaining insights in ‘what lives on the bottom of St Ann’s Harbour, to detecting and evaluating environmental changes, both as a consequence and independent of the mussel farm.

This kind of independent ecological study, especially with its focus on community involvement, should enable the community to take independent responsibility for the monitoring of biological and environmental changes in the harbour, beyond the time when regulators and scientists have left. The program should provide the community with a clear sense of ownership and stewardship - including the involvement and pride associated with living in the area.

Victoria Standard - August 15 to 28, 2005

Annual meeting of harbour watchdogs

Ecological study by Stewards of St. Ann's. South Haven

The Stewards of St. Ann s Harbour Association held their fifth Annual Meeting on August 6th at South Haven Community Hall. The meeting was well attended and Chairperson Donna Montgomery-Frizzell welcomed Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

Ms. Montgomery-Frizze1l presented a summary of the group’s activities over the past year. A major accomplishment has been obtaining the services of Dr. Lise Chapman to conduct a study of the ecological effects of the mussel farm on the benthic community, intertidal habitats and other ecological parameters of St. Ann s Harbour. Particular attention will be paid to documenting alien species already present and the detection and identification of any newly arriving invasive species. Benthic species communities will be compared from samples collected from sites close by, and those collected from sites located some distance from the mussel lines in St.Ann’s Harbour. They will also be compared to samples collected from reference Sites in the Great Bras’d Or Inlet, which is similar to St. Ann s Harbour but is not impacted by mussel aquaculture.

The regulatory agencies require that the operators follow an environmental monitoring plan (EMP) to identify major changes in the benthic habitat. This study does not duplicate the studies required by the EMP and the Association hopes to work cooperatively with the farm operators to ensure that any changes are detected at an early stage.

The Chairperson was pleased to announce that partial funding for this project has been obtained from Mountain Equipment Co-Operative (MEC). The MEC Environment Fund has provided the Association with a grant of $7,900.00 to complete the first year of this study. Having MEC as a sponsor of this project is much appreciated.

Election of a new executive was conducted and the recommendations of the nominating committee were confirmed as follows: Chairman -Don Tower, Vice Chairperson - Dan Coffin, Secretary - Barb Tower, Treasurer - Dan MacAulay.

The group reaffirmed their commitment to ensure that the Environmental Monitoring Plan is being followed and that it is providing the safeguards for the harbour that the regulatory agencies (DFO and DFA) have promised.

Sierra Club of Canada News Release

Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Bounty Bay Retreats... Drops Challenge to Sierra Club Court Victory

The mussel aqua-culture companies, Bounty Bay Shellfish of Prince Edward Island and 5-M Aqua Farm of Cape Breton, have abandoned their appeal to the Federal Court Appeal Division. On March 4, 2003 the decision of Mr. Justice Blais of the Federal Court Trial Division was handed down in the case of Sierra Club of Canada v. The Minister of Fisheries and Bounty Bay. Mr. Justice Blais ruled that the federal Minister of Fisheries had violated rules of fairness in environmental assessment and that the permit to Bounty Bay was quashed.Bounty Bay appealed. Interestingly, by summer of 2003, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, through the Federal Attorney General, switched sides on the legal points and supported the Sierra Club of Canada and Mr. Justice Blais's original decision.

"Sadly, even when you win a judicial review of a government decision, the government gets to start over again and try to make its decision without violating the public's rights." said Elizabeth May, Executive Director of Sierra Club of Canada, "In this case, the Minister of Fisheries re-did the environmental assessment screenings and granted permits to Bounty Bay. But still Bounty Bay persisted in its appeal against the March 2003 decision. We could only conclude they were trying to punish us by driving up legal costs."

Recently, Bounty Bay lawyers contacted the Sierra Club of Canada and offered to drop the appeal. "After all the legal skirmishes, we accomplished two important things. Firstly, we won an important precedent for the rights of public participation. DFO is less likely to cave in to a company like Bounty Bay that wants them to reduce public access," said Ms. May, "Secondly, the re-issued permit is more limited and DFO has pledged to monitor environmental impacts at every stage to keep the Bounty Bay facility from automatically expanding."

"The Sierra Club of Canada has won a huge victory not only for public participation, but, it is forcing DFO to be more vigilant in their monitoring and reporting of the impacts of aquaculture operation on the environment," says Inka Milewski, science advisor with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. According to Ms. Milewski, DFO has a long way to go yet. "The whole process of aquaculture site allocation, assessment and monitoring has been closed to public scrutiny and input for decades. Now what we need to see is DFO and the provinces making room for public participation on committees set up to oversee environmental monitoring of these operations and we need to see strict enforcement when pollution thresholds are exceeded," says Ms. Milewski."Our concern has always been the health of St. Ann's Harbour, " said Donna Montgomery-Frizzell, chair, the Stewards of St. Ann's Harbour Association, "It is now up to the people of the area to be vigilant watch-dogs over Bounty Bay operations. We have asked for a seat on the Site Remediation Committee that has been set up by DFO and the province to monitor the operation."

Sierra Club of Canada News Release

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

"Federal Department of Justice switches sides: Supports Sierra Club of Canada against Bounty Bay."

Ottawa – A surprising development was revealed today in the on-going dispute over a proposed industrial scale mussel farm in St. Ann's Harbour, Nova Scotia. The 1,400 acre aquaculture operation proposed by Bounty Bay Shellfish and 5M Aqua Farms Ltd, the largest mussel farm ever proposed in North America, has been subject to a court challenge launched by Sierra Club of Canada. The permit granted by federal minister of Fisheries Robert Thibault was quashed by the Federal Court Trial Division in March, 2003.

Subsequently, Bounty Bay and 5M appealed the judge's decision, with the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans joining in the appeal just after Bounty Bay.

"We had expected the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to file a brief attacking the decision at the Trial Division that cancelled Bounty Bay's permit," said Sierra Club of Canada Campaigner, Bruno Marcocchio. "Instead, the Attorney General of Canada, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, now supports Sierra Club of Canada in the appeal."

The brief from the federal government supports the decision of Mr. Justice Blais of the Trial Division and urges the Appeal Division of the Federal Court to dismiss the Bounty Bay-5M appeal. Mr. Justice Blais had quashed the permit due to violations in the process that amounted to breaches of natural justice. The judge also reviewed the lack of information relating to navigation and pondered how the Minister could grant a permit under the Navigable Waters Protection Act with no information before him on that question. A major argument in Bounty Bay's appeal was that Sierra Club of Canada had concerns about "environmental effects" and not argued issues about navigation so the trial judge should not have even raised the question. The federal Attorney General's brief supports the Sierra Club of Canada argument that "environmental effects" as defined in environmental assessment law includes navigation and other socio-economic factors.

"With the federal government now supporting Sierra Club of Canada, the question of why this matter is even going to an appeal is very real. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has re-initiated the public review of the screening, and the appeal has absolutely no bearing on whether Bounty Bay-5M can proceed with their plans," noted Donna Montgomery-Frizzell, chair of the Stewards of St. Ann's Harbour Association.

Sierra Club of Canada News Release

Friday, May 16, 2003

Bounty Bay Court Battle: Sierra Club of Canada Responds to Screening Report

Ottawa – Sierra Club of Canada (SCC) Executive Director Elizabeth May today issued an update on the legal case and released all the documentation filed with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the issue of the threat to St. Ann’s Harbour, in Victoria County, Cape Breton Island.

“We have been dealing with the issue on two fronts,” explained Ms. May. “We have filed comments with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans last month in response to the Screening Report, and at the same time, have had to respond to an appeal by the proponent, Bounty Bay, and the Department in appealing the decision at the Trial Division of Federal Court.”

The proponent, Bounty Bay, currently is without a permit to proceed with its plans to intensively develop over 35% of the harbour’s surface area, due to the decision in Sierra Club of Canada’s favour in Federal Court.

“We were astonished by the reports on the Public Registry, establishing that Bounty Bay has already ignored its legal obligations to protect the harbour,” said Ms. May.

In documentation to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the SCC quoted the following passage from the minutes of an interdepartmental meeting: (“Notes from the Meeting to Discuss the Court Decision Regarding the Shellfish Aquaculture Sites in St. Ann’s Harbour, Held March 5, 2003” ):

“The proponent is trying to say that they don’t need an NWPA approval to place the anchors. This is not the case. The proponent did not comply with two conditions associated with the NWPA approval. They were supposed to contact the traffic centre before putting anything in the water and they were supposed to provide a marking plan to NWPP. NWPP only found out through the rumour mill that the structures had been placed in the water.

“The Mitigation and Monitoring Agreement has not been finalized yet with Habitat Management Division.

“In summary, the NWPA approval was issued under subsection 5(1) but two of the conditions were not met. Also conditions of the EA were not met.”(Emphasis added.)

The SCC brief to DFO demands that the structures placed illegally must be removed, and no further permits issued:

“Re-issuing the permit, especially in light of the proponent’s disregard for conditions and requirements in the past, is not a lawful exercise of the Minister’s discretion….. The Minister has an opportunity to send a message to developers across Canada that the sensitive bays and harbours of this country are only open to development that is sustainable, conducted in ways that respect the role of the regulator and the local community,” the SCC brief concludes.

The Stewards of St. Ann’s Harbour are pleased with the lead taken by the SCC in pushing this matter through the court system. “This project is just too massive to be treated in such a cavalier manner by DFO and should be subject to very strict environmental guidelines before being allowed to proceed”, said Donna Montgomery-Frizzel of The Stewards of St. Ann’s Harbour.