Coastal communities closely watching fate of crumbling Nova Scotia seawall

The village of Gabarus, on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton coast, is racing against time to rebuild a deteriorating seawall that protects the tiny 300-year-old community.

The only problem is, no one seems to want to help. Not the federal government. Not the Nova Scotia government.

If you live along one of Canada's three coasts, you might want to consider what happens to tiny Gabarus as the country comes to grips with the expected effects of climate change on rising ocean levels and storm patterns that could threaten small seaside communities.

The Globe and Mail reports the village's 70-year-old wood and rock seawall is breaking down. A storm breached it in 1983 and again in 2010 and once more last March.

But pleas by the village's 78 residents for government help in rebuilding it at an estimated cost of $5.3 million have gone unanswered.

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Neither the provincial nor the federal government is prepared to take responsibility for the seawall. Ottawa funded construction of the barrier in 1946 and has handled periodic maintenance, but it now argues that it is Nova Scotia's responsibility because it sits mostly on provincial land, the Globe said.

“The Government of Canada cannot assume a general responsibility for shoreline protection throughout the country regardless of the owner of the land or adjacent property,” then acting fisheries minister Gail Shea wrote last November to the local MP, Liberal Rodger Cuzner, who'd raised the issue in the Commons, the Globe said.

It's Ottawa's problem, says the province.

“They built the seawall in 1946," Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker told the Globe. "They have maintained it in years since. It’s very much their responsibility.

“I think it’s a pattern we’ve been seeing with the federal government. I suppose they are not wanting to set a precedent.”

The Globe also noted there's no emergency evacuation plan for residents if the seawall fails, inundating the village and its single potholed road.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Cecil Clarke has been trying to come up with a compromise that would at least get the local, provincial and federal governments to chip in for $1.2 million to cover some repair work on the seawall, the Globe reported.

“The problem we have is people are more caught up right now in jurisdictional process and ownership issues rather than getting to the core of coastal communities, coastal economies and rural sustainability,” Clarke told the Globe.

The buck-passing ought to concern other Canadian coastal residents as scientists predict climate change could pose a threat to low-lying communities through higher tides and storm surges.

Nova Scotia actually has a Climate Change Action Plan published in 2009. But it focuses mainly on topics such as shifting to low-carbon energy usage and recycling. It doesn't refer to how vulnerable coastal communities might be protected.

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However a Natural Resources Canada paper looking at impacts on neighbouring New Brunswick warns that the coasts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence "are among the most vulnerable to sea-level rise."

Meanwhile, Gabarus residents — who call themselves Gabaroosters — are not sitting on their hands.

"The current efforts preserve our seawall are just the beginning," says a statement on the village's web site. "We are not just sitting around, like a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued, or less romantically, for someone to write a check."

Two expatriate Americans, Tim Menk and Gene Kersey, who came to Gabarus after first visiting the picturesque village seven years ago, have organized the Friends of Gabarus, including a Facebook page, to try and put pressure on government.