November 29, 2007

Activist group urges lawsuit over Petitcodiac Bridge dispute

SAINT JOHN, NB

The New Brunswick government should sue Ottawa to help build the bridge replacing the controversial causeway over the Petitcodiac River, says the chairman of an environmental group that’s been fighting for decades to restore the river.

“The province should start the project and sue the federal government for its share of the cost,” Petitcodiac Riverkeeper chairman Michel Desjardins said.

“I would welcome that.”

Desjardins argued that Ottawa had a legal obligation to protect the navigable waters of the river yet approved the construction of the causeway, built in 1968.

Given what’s happened — silt that has reduced the river to a fraction of its former size, and decimated fish stocks — that original approval was “negligent,” he said.

“If I were the provincial government, I would consider this,” said Desjardins. “What are the other options? Wait until there is a more receptive government in Ottawa?

“It looks to me like the federal Conservatives don’t care about the most endangered river in the country.”

Premier Shawn Graham’s office declined to respond to Desjardins’ comments.

However, the province did reiterate its stance — and commit to funding its share of the bridge — in a roundabout way Wednesday.

The latest tactic in the riverkeeper group’s decades-long battle has been a court case it launched earlier this year. The group has asked the Federal Court to compel Ottawa to order the causeway removed.

The province’s affidavit in the riverkeeper case, emphasizes the stance that the causeway is a shared federal-provincial responsibility.

The affidavit confirms “the commitment of the province towards the removal of the causeway and continuing negotiations with the (federal) government to fund their share.”

It was a joint project 40 years ago and “the collaboration for its removal continues to this day,” says the document.

It refers to Graham stating publicly on July 12 that negotiations had begun with the federal government towards “a solution to correct the causeway.”

It also says the provincial government will find the money to pay for the province’s share of the project.

Desjardins’ group won a significant victory Nov. 9 in that case when two federal departments — transport and fisheries — approved of the causeway’s removal.

But the same day that position was communicated in an affidavit the federal government filed in the court case, federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon also wrote the premier to tell him Ottawa wouldn’t fund the $68-million bridge.

Cannon told the province the project didn’t meet the criteria of his infrastructure funds, which emphasize such things as clean drinking water. It is also a provincial road.

Canadian Press

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