Island fishermen, First Nations members and concerned citizens joined hundreds of others at a rally in Pictou, N.S., on Friday against a proposed plan to pump effluent from a pulp mill into the Northumberland Strait.
Mary Moore-Phillips, an off-reserve councillor of the Lennox Island First Nation, said 60 members of the nation travelled to Pictou by bus to show their opposition to the proposed effluent pipe. The #NoPipe rally, organized by the Pictou-based Friends of the Northumberland, drew several hundred people, as well as a flotilla of boats from all three Maritime provinces.
Moore-Phillips made the trip because she was concerned about the effect the waste-water would have for marine life in the region.
"There's the pollution that will go into the water, and our waters are being affected. That's where our lobsters are, all our livelihood,” Moore-Phillips said.
“That's not just First Nations, that's all local fishermen around the area and in the region."
Moore-Phillips said one boat owner left Lennox Island at 3 a.m. Friday in order to travel to the rally.
The proposal from Northern Pulp would see the mill pump about 70 million litres of treated effluent a day into the Northumberland Straight.
The mill had previously sent effluent into a treatment lagoon next to Aboriginal land in Boat Harbour. The Nova Scotia government has ordered this treatment facility closed by 2020.
Ian MacPherson, executive director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, travelled to the rally with a group of 10 people. He said a large contingent of Islanders were present, but the crowd was much larger than expected.
"It was actually unbelievable. It's hard to guess the crowd because it was a different configuration, but it's definitely hundreds and hundreds if not over a thousand people."
MacPherson said over 300 boats participated in the rally.
He said the PEIFA shared the concerns of local residents in Pictou about the environmental impact of the effluent.
"We do have fishers that fish over there, I think around 15 or 20 boats. That's been a historic thing. Generally, people fish side-by-side irrespective whether they're from the same province or not," MacPherson said.
"There's very little science on what could be the proposed impacts, what could be the cumulative effects."
P.E.I. premier Wade MacLauchlan also expressed concern for the planned effluent pipe. In a letter released Friday morning and addressed to Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna and Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeill, MacLauchlan echoed one of the demands of protest organizers, urging that a federal environmental impact assessment be conducted, instead of a provincial assessment.
“It is imperative that this matter be seriously considered given the potential risks on an important habitat and on critical sectors, beginning with the fishery and tourism, in our region,” MacLauchlan wrote.
“If the matter is still to be pursued through an environmental assessment, I would strongly urge that the federal process be engaged and that Prince Edward Island be fully consulted and engaged.”
