N.S. cabinet ministers support more talk about natural resources, but struggle to identify impediments
Environment Minister Tim Halman says that if Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston wants to lift the ban on uranium mining in the province, it's his job as environmental regulator to set the table for the change.
Reporters asked Halman on Thursday if a change could be coming.
"Stay tuned," he said.
"If the premier is signalling that, as a regulator I have a responsibility to make sure my team is ready to regulate that safely, ethically and also to make sure that we protect the environment and protect human health."
Halman said he's not aware of any proponents who have pushed for the ban to be lifted, however. He was one of three cabinet ministers on Thursday who could not point to a specific natural resource development project that's been prevented from going ahead as a result of the province's current regulatory climate.
Still, last week the premier announced that he wanted to pursue more natural resource development and extraction in an effort to increase economic development in the province and strengthen Nova Scotia's economy as it faces challenges such as looming tariffs from the United States and plateauing population growth.
The premier has argued that in order to do that, it's time to wrestle control back from special interest groups and a small vocal minority of the population he said have put the "no" in Nova Scotia in an effort to stifle natural resources development.
But like Halman, Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton and Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau also struggled to provide concrete examples of opportunities the province has missed out on to date.
Boudreau said officials in his department are "hearing a buzz" that Nova Scotia is open for business since the premier's pronouncement. Houston said he is open to reconsidering all bans that exist in the province, including the moratorium on fracking for onshore natural gas and the ban on uranium mining.
It's OK for people to have concerns about potential development, Boudreau told reporters, but he said conversations need to happen to see if things can be done in a safe way.
"We owe it to Nova Scotians to have these conversations, to look at it," he said.
"Nova Scotians, along with the government, will decide is this the right path for us. We believe that we have to look at all of that. And whether it's fracking, whether it's offshore wind, whether it's tidal — all of those things."
A former Liberal government passed legislation to ban fracking, although regulations were never completed and the bill was never proclaimed. Houston told the legislature in 2021 that he would maintain the ban for the duration of his tenure.
Rushton said he wants to talk to the proponents behind several potential lithium developments to get a sense of whether anything about the provincial regulatory system has slowed their plans.
"Are there hurdles? I don't know of any right now, but I want to talk to the companies to find out," he told reporters.
Having conversations about natural resource development does not mean projects are destined to go ahead, said Rushton.
"We're not going to jeopardize somebody's drinking water … to do development," he said. "It has to be in an environmentally safe and prudent manner."
Opposition leaders criticized the fact that Houston waited until after the recent provincial election to put such an emphasis on the pursuit of natural resource development.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the premier is positioning the idea as a way to contend with looming tariffs but any new development would be years away and wouldn't provide immediate help to those who will need it.
The natural resources sector should be supported and helped to grow, Chender told reporters, but she questioned Houston's approach of "lashing out at perceived enemies."
"I'm not quite sure what this strategy is all about other than, I guess, to demonize some little non-profits in the province that are, I think, doing pretty good work."
Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette, a former minister of energy and mines, said he recalls from his time as minister concerns from some people about whether the province was considered open for business. But he said what ultimately determines whether a venture goes ahead is if a company thinks it's economically viable.
He pointed to the Little Narrows quarry in Victoria County that was relaunched in 2023 after a market shift created new demand.
"A lot of this is based on private investment decisions," he said.
Halman disputed suggestions by the opposition that the Tories are surprising the public with their policy directive.
He said the party's election platform, which included a paragraph about "smart development" of energy and natural resources sectors, along with the development of a critical mineral strategy, show the PC's transparency on the issue.
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