The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board finished in-person hearings Friday into Kelly Cove Salmon’s application to expand its operation in Queens County. (Rick Conrad)

There could be a decision on a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay by the end of the year.

The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board wrapped up a week of hearings Friday afternoon in Bridgewater into Kelly Cove Salmon’s application to add to its Atlantic salmon operation near Coffin Island, off Beach Meadows Beach.

Kelly Cove, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, originally wanted to expand the Coffin Island site and add two new farms in Brooklyn and Mersey Point. But it decided to pursue only the expansion for now.

That will add another six pens for a 20-cage farm, with up to 660,000 fish.

Lawyers for four intervenors were at the hearings this week: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay, and Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which includes the Wasoqopa’q First Nation.

Experts from the Region of Queens and the lobster fishermen were cross-examined on Friday morning, with a panel of three fishermen testifying in the afternoon.

The intervenors have various concerns with the expansion. 

Community group Protect Liverpool Bay says it will harm an ecologically sensitive area and risk the lucrative lobster industry. 

The Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn objection concerns the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture not properly consulting local Mi’kmaq communities on areas affecting their treaty rights.

The Region of Queens is concerned about how the operation could affect fish habitats and local tourism.

And the lobster fishermen are worried about how an expanded fish farm would affect sensitive lobster fishing grounds and populations.

Peter Stewart, a retired lobster fisherman near Moose Harbour, and two other fishermen were cross-examined on Friday by Kelly Cove’s lawyer.

The fishermen were asked how much of the lobster grounds usually fished would be affected by the Coffin Island expansion. She also challenged Stewart on underwater video taken by one of the company’s experts that appeared to show lobster living unharmed under the current fish farm.

Stewart told QCCR after the hearing that Kelly Cove’s scientific studies aren’t telling the whole story about the lobster grounds and aquaculture’s impact on juvenile and baby lobsters.

“I have concerns about the whole process,” Stewart said. “I think they try to do science-based studies and they’ve missed a mark there where there’s a lot of science that’s lacking of what’s going on in these bays. … So the board’s not getting the full story as far as us speaking. Hopefully through the submissions that we’ve put in and the ones that we’re going to put in, they’ll understand exactly how we feel and our thoughts on the matter.”

Much of the evidence for the hearing was collected based on Kelly Cove’s much larger original application. The board didn’t allow the parties to amend their evidence to account for only the Coffin Island expansion.

The fishermen’s lawyer Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law said it’s challenging to argue the case given that restriction.

“I mean, we thought that the process should have been restarted, given the significant change in scope of the application. … But anyway, the board didn’t allow that, so we just have to work with that challenge.”

James Gunvaldsen Klaassen is with Ecojustice, which is representing Protect Liverpool Bay at the hearings. He said his clients were pleased they finally got a chance to air their concerns about Kelly Cove’s plans.

“It’s obviously a huge concern of our clients that, you know, the issues with aquaculture and the impacts on Liverpool Bay are well understood by the board, and we feel we did a good job in explaining things as best we could, given the structure of this hearing. and I have every confidence that the board will make a good decision.”

The last session of the hearings will be virtual on Oct. 31 as the intervenors will get a chance to cross-examine Kelly Cove’s experts conclusions on lobster habitat in the area. After all the groups file their final written submissions with the three-member panel, the board has 30 days to release its decision.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Queens MLA Kim Masland and Premier Tim Houston take questions at a business luncheon in Liverpool in February 2024. (Rick Conrad file photo)

As hearings continue this week into a proposed expanded fish farm in Queens County, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has softened his stance against aquaculture in Liverpool Bay.

During a question-and-answer session at a business luncheon in Liverpool in February 2024, Houston said he was personally opposed to Kelly Cove Salmon’s plan to expand its operations near Coffin Island, off Beach Meadows Beach, and to add two new sites in Brooklyn and Mersey Point. That would have added 46 more open-net pens and 1.4 million more farmed salmon in Liverpool Bay. 

Kelly Cove is a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture.

 “I think some areas are great for aquaculture and I think that some others are maybe not the best place for it,” Houston said last year. “On this specific question on Liverpool Bay, … I personally don’t think Liverpool Bay is a suitable place for it.” 

But this week, Houston told QCCR that he’s more comfortable with the company’s application to add six cages for a 20-pen farm at its Coffin Island site.

“I think at the time the initial proposals were much larger than what is before the board now,” he said in an interview.

“I think there was some acknowledgement of the concerns that I and others had, certainly residents had, and modification, really bringing things down to size. So the board will make their decision now, but I was happy to see some kind of more appropriate sizing being put before the board.”

Queens MLA Kim Masland, however, told QCCR that she is still opposed to the expansion.

“My position’s never changed,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “And I think if you check the record, there is not another MLA that has said that in this province.”

A three-member panel of the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board began hearings on Tuesday in Bridgewater. 

Panel chairman Damien Barry told the hearing that on July 18, the board granted Kelly Cove’s request to split the three applications. The company asked the board to proceed with the Coffin Island boundary amendment and leave the applications for two new farms “in abeyance”.

Lawyers are representing six groups at the tribunal, including Kelly Cove Salmon, the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Region of Queens, community group Protect Liverpool Bay, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay and the Wasoqopa’q First Nation.

Queens County residents opposed to the application were upset that the board didn’t hold hearings in Liverpool.

As the hearing began, Barry said the board tried to find a suitable location in Liverpool for the dates that were set aside. But nothing was available.

When asked on Wednesday, Masland said she was also upset when she found out the hearings were going to be held in Bridgewater.

“I immediately went and met with the minister of fisheries and aquaculture in person, expressed my displeasure and asked for the reasons why and asked him to investigate it. Again, ARB is independent from government, but he did look into it.

“Do I feel that they should have changed the date? Absolutely. It should have been held here in the community and where the fish farm expansion is going, and the minister knows that.”

The hearings are expected to continue until Friday afternoon at the Days Inn in Bridgewater. People can register here to watch a livestream of the proceedings.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Lawyers listen to Stacy Bruce, clerk with the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board, on Tuesday in Bridgewater as hearings began into Kelly Cove Salmon’s application to expand its operation in Queens County. (Rick Conrad)

Hearings opened Tuesday into a proposed bigger fish farm in Liverpool Bay, with community members and others getting a chance to say what they think of the idea.

A three-member panel of the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board is hearing an application from Kelly Cove Salmon, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, to expand its operation near Coffin Island off Beach Meadows Beach.

Kelly Cove wants to add six more cages for a 20-pen farm, with an extra 260,000 Atlantic salmon. 

Lawyers are representing six groups at the tribunal, including Kelly Cove Salmon, the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, community group Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay and the Wasoqopa’q First Nation.

Six members of the public were given time at the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing to make statements about Kelly Cove’s application.

Jeff Bishop, executive director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia, urged panel members to allow the expansion. He said ocean-based aquaculture takes up less than half of one per cent of the coastline, creating jobs and pumping millions into local economies.

He warned them not to listen to groups opposing the application.

“They will tell you they are grassroots, community groups that represent the voice of most Nova Scotians, while they talk about potential hazards and not evidence of any actual risks. In fact, by looking at the members of these networks and coalitions publicly available annual reports to Canada Revenue Agency, we know that they take in millions of dollars of unreceipted foreign revenue from outside of Canada every year, and hundreds of thousands of dollars or more annually from other charities. That hardly sounds like grassroots local support to me. … These groups do not speak for most Nova Scotians, but simply their echo chambers.”

Bishop did not name any organizations and provided few other details. Protect Liverpool Bay has been the most prominent to oppose Cooke’s operation off Coffin Island. It’s a volunteer-run organization that began in 2018 and relies on local donations. 

He added that the review board should not allow “the hollow cry of ‘not in my backyard’ to have its way” and to “support growth by approving Kelly Cove Salmon’s application”.

Bob Iuliucci of Bear Cove Resources in East Berlin, who worked as a researcher in applied ocean sciences and marine geology for 50 years, said he was worried about how climate change and the ever-strengthening tides in Liverpool Bay would affect the expanded farm, and the resulting damage it could do to the coastal environment.

“Expansion multiplies risk on every front — ecological, biological, economic loss to wild fisheries and tourism.”

Elizabeth Hartt of Bear Cove Resources said she was concerned that an expanded operation could risk development of other industries that could set up in the area, such as sustainable seaweed, oyster or mussel farms.

She said those types of aquaculture exist lower in the ocean and are not in fixed structures at the surface.

“You can sail over a lot of those things. They’re not fixed structures that in storms are going to be trashed and then thrown on shore. They’re not heavily loaded with fish that are going to land up on the shores of Liverpool.”

Instead of more fish farms, she said the province should be encouraging more exploration and ocean research in Liverpool Bay.

Liverpool resident Andrew Tyler said he and his family moved to the area two years ago because of the natural beauty and the beaches.

He said when they first moved to the area, he didn’t know what the cages were off Beach Meadows Beach. But he said in noticing the signs peppered around the community protesting open-pen fish farms, he realized most residents are against it.

“This is a hearing, and I hope you’re listening, that the Liverpool community, by and large, doesn’t want this expansion,” Tyler said.

“The jobs that fish farming bring are very few. The investment is very little, and it doesn’t add to the draw that bring people like me, who want to move their families to the area, who want to invest in the area, who want to put down roots in the area. So in my view, fish farming takes. 
It doesn’t give back.

“There’s a way to do it that doesn’t risk one of our greatest natural assets at Beach Meadows. This isn’t it.” 

Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster, said he’s concerned how an expanded operation would affect the area’s lobster fishermen and their contribution to Nova Scotia’s $1.5-billion lobster export industry.

He said that up to 1,000 metric tonnes of fecal and food waste is deposited every year on the ocean floor below fish farms operations in Nova Scotia. In an era of foreign markets sensitive to where their food comes from, Lamont said “if any jurisdiction in Europe saw a viral video of our Nova Scotia lobster grazing on bottom below or near an open net pen, our lobster sector would be finished overnight.”

He said climate change will also only add to the problems as waters warm and storms become more intense.

“The greatest piece missing in this business model is the lack of community support referred to already this morning,” he said. “Academics call it social license. What is taking place now is effectively the privatization of public waters, and that is by so many standards, clearly wrong and absolutely unwanted. 
… The more citizens learn about fish farms and open-net pen fish farming, the less they want any part of them.”

For the rest of the day, a nine-member witness panel from Kelly Cove answered questions from lawyers about the company’s extensive application to the board.

Lawyers cross-examined the panel on its consultations with the local Indigenous community, the company’s various studies of impacts on the ocean and surrounding environment and the effects on lobster populations. 

Michael Szemerda, Cooke’s global chief sustainability officer, admitted under cross-examination from Region of Queens lawyer Natasha Puka that the company has been operating outside its lease boundaries since it took over the farm.

He also confirmed that there have been only two “mortality events” at the Coffin Island site, with an unknown number of fish dying in 2018 from insufficient oxygen and 2019 from storm damage. In 2012, Cooke reported an infectious salmon anemia, which led to the destruction of two pens of fish, and a bacterial kidney disease among its salmon.

About 20 community members travelled to Bridgewater to take in the proceedings. 

Beach Meadows resident Tim Nickerson said that he wanted to make the trip, though he was upset the review board didn’t hold the hearings in Liverpool.

“I’m really disappointed with the idea that the hearing’s being held in Bridgewater,” he said in an interview. “We heard the chair say that they made a big effort to be in Liverpool, based on the dates, but I’m like change the dates. I just think that’s such a big issue, and should be really concerning about a public exercise not really being done in the area that has the greatest impact.”

He said he was also disappointed in comments made by Jeff Bishop from the aquaculture association.

“I just didn’t think his comments were very respectful. I think people can have contrary views. 
I don’t think we need rhetoric about foreign investment and that kind of just silliness. … I didn’t appreciate that.”

The three-member panel is made up of Roger Percy, Bruce Morrison and chaired by Damien Barry.

Proceedings continue Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Days Inn in Bridgewater. It’s open to the public. People can also register to watch a livestream of the hearings.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Artist Jane Stevenson traces a mandala design on Beach Meadows Beach on Tuesday as part of a celebration for Disability Pride Month. (Rick Conrad)

It was a great beach day on Tuesday in Queens County.

And about 50 clients and staff from the Queens Association for Supported Living took full advantage of it to celebrate Disability Pride Month.

QASL asked Liverpool artist Jane Stevenson to help them create some sand art on Beach Meadows Beach to commemorate the month.

Stevenson has created memorable sand art installations before like her tribute to Olympic shot putter Sarah Mitton for the 2024 Paris games.

QCCR spoke to some people on the beach on Tuesday to find out what it was all about. Listen to it below.

Michael Moreau gets some help creating sand art on Tuesday at Beach Meadows Beach to celebrate Disability Pride Month. (Rick Conrad)

One of the designs at Beach Meadows Beach created by the clients and staff of the Queens Association for Supported Living. (Rick Conrad)

The Queens Association for Supported Living celebrated Disability Pride Month at Beach Meadows Beach on Tuesday. (Rick Conrad)

Crepes by the Coast will be operating a small canteen at Beach Meadows Beach. (Katharina Seitz-Cochrane via Facebook)

A young Queens County entrepreneur will be the first vendor to set up in the small canteen facility at Beach Meadows Beach.

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said this week the successful applicant is Crepes by the Coast, which is owned by Liverpool’s Sammy Cochrane, who will be entering university this fall.

The region will will be entering negotiations with Cochrane soon on a rental agreement for the space and spend up to $10,000 to make the space suitable for food service, by installing handwashing facilities and buying a fridge and freezer.

“Sammy is going to be going to university in September so we’re going to try to move quick on it and get it open. We’re hoping at least for the month of August. … They’re planning on ice cream and crepes and soft drinks.”

The region posted a request for proposals on July 4 for the small room attached to the washroom facilities at the beach. It’s a very basic space with a large serving window.

Christian wouldn’t say how many proposals they received. Councillors discussed them in a closed session on Wednesday. 

“We received interest from a limited number of parties and it was a quick turnaround realizing that we only had so much runway for this season and so it was just trying to do something rather than nothing. And a little bit of a test case, and then to get the facility ready to go so that we can do something whatever that looks like, whether we do something in-house with some summer students or again contract it out to a third party vendor for next season.”

The region opened the new washroom facilities and outdoor showers in 2024. Workers are also putting the finishing touches on six picnic shelters at the municipally owned beach.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Road crews were working on the Mount Pleasant Road repaving on Thursday in Brooklyn. (Rick Conrad)

It’s that time of year again. The sounds of trucks and heavy machinery along with the smells of freshly laid asphalt will be popping up around Queens County as road work season gets underway.

Public Works Minister and Queens MLA Kim Masland said Thursday that more than $20 million is being spent this summer and fall on sprucing up roads and bridges around the county.

It’s part of the $583 million the government is setting aside for road and bridge work around the province this year.

“We have been very successful in advocating for some roads. But also, we have some very poor quality roads here,” Masland said.

“We are certainly getting our fair share (of work) this year. It seems like there’s never enough money to do all of the road work. But I certainly feel as MLA and certainly as minister that we’re playing catchup on some of these roads.”

Masland said that many roads in Queens County appeared to have been neglected when the Tim Houston government took over in 2021.

“I’m really happy with the work we’ve been able to do since becoming government.”

Some of that work has already begun. The 1.6-kilometre stretch of Mount Pleasant Road in Brooklyn is being repaved. That counts for about $1 million.

“That’s needed some work for a while. That’s one of the roads I really advocated for,” Masland says.

Queens MLA Kim Masland. (Rick Conrad photo)

About $8 million will be spent on ongoing work to replace the Pleasant River Bridge in North Queens.

And the long-rumoured repaving project for the Brooklyn Shore Road is slated to begin this summer, Masland says. That’s 5.5 kilometres at a cost of about $3 million from Brooklyn Wharf Road to Eastern Shore Road. 

Known locally as the “shore road”, it’s the scenic route to the popular Beach Meadows Beach.

“That will be done this summer. Very, very bad road. When you drive that, you’re literally having to go over on the opposite side of the road.

“With the Brooklyn Shore Road, it has deteriorated very badly and it’s a safety issue now, so that’s why they have brought that forward as a candidate to be repaved.”

Masland says officials from her department are always driving and inspecting roads and bridges in their areas. She says that as MLA and as minister, she also nominates projects after hearing from constituents.

“The public are the ones that really drive concerns. I actually go drive many of these roads myself. If somebody calls me with a complaint about a road, I go and drive that road myself.”

The province released its five-year highway improvement plan last December. 

Masland said the gravel road work budget this year is about $55 million, more than double what it was in 2021. And the province has also increased the bridge rehabilitation budget to $60 million. And her department is devoting $22 million toward the rural impact mitigation fund, which handles things like pavement patching and brush cutting.

“So it shows you the costs of doing these projects. They are not cheap. So to try to manage people’s expectations is certainly very difficult. Everybody’s road that they travel on is the most important. And that’s what makes it very difficult. … If I could pave everyone’s road, I would certainly pave everyone’s road because i understand that the road you travel on is the one that’s important to you.

“But there’s just not enough money to pave every road.”

She said she’s also happy to see the ongoing Highway 103 twinning project, which now reaches from Halifax to Hubbards. 

“Many people from Queens certainly travel the 103 to Halifax for medical appointments, school. It just blows my mind the amount of close collisions that almost happen every day. Twinning does save lives. It is costly but you can’t put a price on a life. “

Masland says that although maintaining roads and bridges is expensive, she’s proud of the work her department is doing. 

“I’m just really glad where we are now. The team’s doing great work. Our maintenance supervisor is out there talking to people, thinking outside the box on how to resolve issues and to try to get work elevated, and Queens County should be very proud of that.”

List of road and bridge projects in Queens County this summer and fall:

• Brooklyn Shore Road, from Brooklyn Wharf Road to Eastern Shore Road
• Mount Pleasant Road, from Trunk 3 to Brooklyn Shore Road
• Reinstating two segments of retaining wall along Shore Road
• Old Port Mouton Road: from Highway 103 Exit 20A to end of service
• Old Westfield Road: from Trunk 8 easterly
• Carters Beach Road and parking lot upgrades
• East Port L’Hebert road repaving
• Albany New Road, rebuilding gravel road
• Trunk 3: from Broad River Road easterly to White Point Road
• New Grafton Road: from Trunk 8 southerly
• Pleasant River Bridge, Route 208

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

The Region of Queens approved its 2024/25 budgets on Monday. (Rick Conrad)

Region of Queens council approved a balanced budget on Monday with no tax rate increases and almost $30 million in spending.

At a special meeting, councillors also approved a $21.5-million capital budget, which includes the start of big projects like the water and sewer extension to the Mount Pleasant area and the new outdoor community pool at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Spending is up about $4 million from last year, to $29,848,303. The region’s water utility reported a $442,122 deficit.

Mayor Darlene Norman said in an interview that it was important to councillors not to increase the tax rate.

“We live in a great county and the budget reflects the fact that we are moving ahead,” she said.

“Many things in the budget remain the same. We’ve increased funding for fire departments for their truck purchases. The cost of those trucks is astronomical and we know how as volunteers how hard they work.

“It’s a good budget, it recognizes some requests from all parts of our county.”

Council committed an extra $126,772 in 2024/25 to help the county’s five fire departments with the rising costs of replacing fire trucks.

It also raised the household income threshold for the low-income tax exemption by $5,000. Property owners with a total income of $35,000 or less can qualify for up to $400 off their tax bill. The tiered structure gives the highest break for the lowest income.

“We understand that people financially struggle,” Norman said, “which is why … we increased the amount of money that people can make in order to claim a reduction on their taxes, … which is very generous, I believe, for a municipality of our size.”

The region reported a $644,000 surplus from last year, largely from rising property assessments, higher deed transfer tax revenue and unintended savings from unfilled staff positions. 

The region’s capital plan is packed.

CAO Cody Joudry said in an interview that it addresses a lot of concerns around the municipality.

“In terms of capital budget, it’s expansion of water, wastewater, there’s a lot of safety improvements and upgrades and a lot of investment in infrastructure and community assets, so I think that’s pretty significant.”

A little more than $7.8 million of the $21.5-million capital budget for 24/25 is provincial funding. Almost $2.5 million is from federal sources. About $3.8 million is from long-term borrowing, while $3.53 million is from a combination of municipal reserves and municipal surplus.

In addition to the new pool and the water and sewer extension, some other capital projects include:

• more work at Beach Meadows Beach to expand the parking lot, install sheltered picnic areas and improve environmental protections;
• much-needed repairs and upgrades at the Old Burial Ground in Liverpool;
• continued work on the Liverpool Business Development Centre to install a new heating, ventilation and cooling system;
• renovations to make the business development centre, otherwise known as the call centre space, ready for the temporary home of the Thomas H. Raddall Library;
• the early design work to install accessible washrooms at the inclusive play park and splash pad near Queens Place.

“There are things on there that are very important,” Norman said. “Of course, they will not all get done (this year), but by putting them on here, it shows that these are priorities and start them, do the best that you can do with them.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

Katie Pitts of Liverpool was at Beach Meadows Beach on Monday afternoon to take in the solar eclipse. (Rick Conrad)

A few dozen people showed up to Beach Meadows Beach on a windy Monday afternoon to watch the solar eclipse.

We talked to a few people who were equipped with their eclipse glasses.

Listen to the audio below.

Stephanie MacLeod, Maeve MacLeod, Liesel MacLeod and Declan MacLeod were at Beach Meadows Beach on Monday to take in the solar eclipse. (Rick Conrad)