DFO nixes plan to complete Highway 101 twinning over Avon River

There's no end in sight to a dispute that is delaying a new stretch of Highway 101 from being completed near Windsor, N.S.

The 9.5-kilometre twinning project should have been finished a year ago, but Nova Scotia's Department of Public Works has not been able to convince the federal Fisheries Department to give a portion of the project the green light.

Work is stalled over a section of highway that will span the Avon River. The province needs to install two bridges and replace the existing causeway and aboiteau, gates that can open and close to allow for water to pass through.

DFO, First Nations and environmentalists have argued that full fish passage should be restored, but the province is proposing a design that would allow limited fish passage and also maintain Lake Pisiquid, which was created by the current closure of the aboiteau.

The province first ordered the gates closed on June 1, 2023, in an emergency cabinet decree that has been renewed every two weeks since. The province has said the lake needs to be full to ensure firefighters have the water they need in case of an emergency.

Asked for an update Thursday on the years-long dispute, Public Works Minister Kim Masland did not hide her frustration. 

"Let's go back and do a little storytelling exercise here on the aboiteau," said Masland, after acknowledging DFO has recently rejected the province's plans. "They have now come back to us and said that they are looking further into our [other] options, they're not happy with this."

Masland said her department had originally submitted multiple options, but was told by the federal government to "pick one."

The one the province chose is the one DFO recently rejected.

"We'll work with them," said Masland after a cabinet meeting. "I'm getting tired of saying it ... but we will complete this project."

Both sides of the newly twinned section of the 101 are open to traffic, but there's a detour onto the old stretch of road adjacent to the Avon River.

'Textbook failure of 2 levels of government'

Drivers have complained about it being a dangerous detour, but Masland said the department has installed "enhanced safety measures" to make it safer.

The Liberal MP for the area, Kody Blois, said he was just as frustrated as Masland over the delays, but he denied it was all the federal government's fault. He called it a "textbook failure of two levels of government."

Blois said he favoured a plan that would keep water in the lake, but also allowed for salt water to flow in and out, in order to facilitate some fish passage.

Blois urged his caucus colleague, federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier, to use her discretion to "balance the variety of different factors" in this dispute and allow the highway to be completed.

"It has been a stalemate," said Blois. "I'm very hopeful and I will be very vocal if we are not able to get a resolution. I expect that this can be solved before Christmas."