The governments of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are collectively moving forward to protect the Chignecto Isthmus from the increasingly destructive impacts of climate change. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia commit to paying $162.5 million each for a total of $325 million to support the project (valued at $650 million). This is a major step towards ensuring the security of this important link.
This was announced by Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Minister Kody Blois, Premier Susan Holt, and Minister Fred Tilley.
The dykeland system in the Chignecto Isthmus between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will be raised to decrease the risk of flooding, protecting agriculture in the region and surrounding communities, including Sackville, New Brunswick and Amherst, Nova Scotia, against sea level rise and storm surges.
The isthmus is also a transportation corridor including the Trans Canada Highway and the Canadian National Railway, connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. An estimated $100 million of goods and services crosses the corridor each day. The corridor also contains 138 kV and 345 kV of electrical transmission lines, and fibre-optical cables, both of which are essential to providing electricity and telecommunication capabilities within and across communities.
A network of dykes and aboiteaux that was originally installed in the late 1600s currently protects assets in the region from rising sea levels and storm surges, including a nearby wind farm, cultural sites, a sewage treatment plant, agricultural croplands, and private properties with buildings, wells, and septic systems. Increasing sea level rise and coastal sinking are forecasted to threaten the current dykes - along with the corridor infrastructure and communities they protect - before 2100.
The project will include raising the height of the existing dyke system to mitigate the risk of the Chignecto Isthmus being flooded with sea water. The project will have two major components: a minimum of 13 km of dyke system and three to five large aboiteaux and the replacement or addition of new small aboiteaux. Aboiteaux are culverts with gates that stop sea water from flowing inland past the dykes while allowing water behind the dykes to flow out.
The entire project is expected to take approximately 10 years to complete with the preliminary engineering studies, design, and land acquisition occurring during the first half of the period and most of the construction occurring during the last half.
