CAPE BRETON’S
CASSANDRA REPORT
A pilot project in managing small rivers in a changing environment
February 2023
Introduction
This brief pertains to the current state of four rivers located on Cape Breton Island. The four rivers are the Middle River, North River and Baddeck River, all located predominantly in
Victoria County. The fourth river is the Margaree River located in Inverness County. The total stream bed distance of the four rivers and tributaries would be approximately 350 miles of fish habitat.
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In Greek mythology, Cassandra, refers to the purveyer of unfortunate future events. A fitting title for the current state of affairs in the Highland Rivers Watersheds.
History
The four rivers referenced in this report support communities that were colonized in the early 1800's predominantly by Scottish immigrants from the northern sections of Scotland. These settlers joined an existing population of Mi’kmaq inhabitants who for many centuries lived on the shores abutting these river systems. French and English settlers also participated in building these river valleys into vibrant, self sustaining communities. The hallmark of these settlements was a pride in membership and a strong willingness to help ones neighbor in an era of subsistence farming, when no external government safety nets existed.
In 1976, the dynamics of control over the rivers shifted dramatically from the landowners looking after the river banks to centralized government control. The federal government of the day
significantly strengthened the Fisheries Act under the administration of the Federal Department
of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). This amended legislation formed the law that would shape the direction of control over the four rivers till the present day.
Coupled with the 1976 federal government legislation, the recently minted Nova Scotia
Department of Environment (circa 1973) became much more involved in river management with its own fully staffed mirror bureaucratic system. The rationale for dual control stems from the fact the Federal Government is responsible for the anadromous fish in the rivers systems
(Atlantic Salmon) whereas the actual water in the rivers is under provincial jurisdiction. Fish that are not anadromous in nature, including Trout, Bass and Pickerel populations for example, are under provincial government jurisdiction. For reference, the definition of anadromous is a term used to describe a fish that migrates up a fresh water stream to lays its eggs but spends a portion of its life cycle in the sea.
Changing Times for River Valley Residents
A major impetus for the 1976 Fisheries Act changes was the emergence of a growing recreational fishery in Canada and the lobbying efforts this group focused on government. Gone were the days when local landowners protected the river banks on their own accord to make sure the streams did not take away their valuable farmland. A seemingly never ending barrage of red tape emerged, particularly from the Federal Government side. Here, in the late 1970's, DFO had two sections, an engineering section that helped with river stability issues and a biology section.
Having dealt with both in the early 1980's, it was clear that the engineering section was on the way out and the biology section took full control. The result was a bureaucratic cloak that exists till this day where the message was clear....”hands off and let nature take its course”.
Authority & Responsibility
What history has revealed since 1976 is that the link between government authority, and the
responsibility that comes with that authority, has been broken. Looking back to the late 70's and early 80's, the one bright spot that existed for affected area landowners was the Nova Scotia Department of Environment. In this era, the provincial department funded river stabilization programs to protect farmland and had a staff centered in the Truro area that covered Nova Scotia. In the early 1990's, these programs fell victim to budgetary cutbacks and the remaining provincial environment staff by and large followed the lead of the federal government..... “hands off and let nature take its course”.
The most troubling aspect of this new regime was the willingness of both departments to let streams break their banks to form braided stream beds in previous landowner fields and/or woodland properties on the flood plain. The option to stabilize streams was never withheld but due to the high cost of doing so, it was cost prohibitive to individuals, some of whom were seniors living on Guaranteed Income Supplement. This in essence was “expropriation without compensation” for affected parties and fish stocks paid the price so much so that the Middle River Salmon stocks currently do not meet standards that will ensure the survival of the species.
Current State of the River Systems
It should come as no surprise to anyone in Canada that climate change is upon us. In the last fifty years, there have been four major flood events in Cape Breton occurring in 1982, 2010, 2017 and 2021. The acceleration of extreme weather events coupled with the lack of any notable investment in stream stabilization by either the federal or provincial governments has left the river systems in a state of flux. Major erosion is occurring to farmland originally cleared in the 1800's by the settlers and most disturbing is the damage that is happening to the road infrastructure in the river valleys. As example of how serious the damage to major road infrastructure is from this erosion occured on November 23, 2021 when the Middle River valley received triple digit rainfall which lead to the collapse of a bridge spanning the river on the Cabot Trail.
As serious as the loss of the bridge was it could have been much worse as a resident of Margaree, who was crossing the bridge on the way home from work, avoided certain death when their vehicle barely made it off the bridge before the deck fell into the rushing torrent below. A split second of fortunate timing saved this person’s life while the demise of the bridge can clearly be traced to the hands off approach both the Federal and Provincial departments have levied on the rivers. Several years before the bridge collapsed, the Middle River breached its bank 600 feet upstream from the bridge and two thirds of the stream was running through the woods creating a new channel. This channel ran parallel to the Cabot Trail hitting the bridge abutments sideways. When the extreme weather event hit on November 21st, the altered stream flow took out a pier and collapsed the bridge. The cost to ultimately replace the bridge (only a temporary bridge is in place at the present time with a permanent fix in the future) will likely exceed 10 million dollars.
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Added to this cost is the amount of damage sustained to vehicles required to use the detour on the west side of the river which was in a deplorable state, you could easily add another half million dollars to the total cost. All of this could have been prevented had a community lead group charged with responsibility for the river been in control at the time. And as more and more erosion occurs these costs will only continue to rise as more bridges and roads become vulnerable to damage from the increasingly frequent weather events. This will ultimately result in huge economic impacts to fish stocks, governments, communities and individuals.
Further examples of extreme erosion are evident in multiple places on all four rivers. Numerous reports have surfaced from the Margaree River with streams spreading over what was previously productive farmland and forestry land on the flood plain. On the Baddeck River, breakwaters put in by the settlers in the 1800's were breached by the November 2021 storm. On the Middle River, I visited a site where the river migrated 400 feet from its original channel causing a trail of destruction. On the lower reaches of the Middle River, the 2017 storm broke a portion of a 1998 breakwater and has continued a trail of destruction to the point where one significant rain event could potentially jeopardize 100+ acres of fertile farmland. The end destination of the resulting siltation will be the estuary of the Middle River and the Bras D’or Lakes at Nyanza Bay which is directly in front of the Mi’kmaq community of Wagmatcook. In my view, such in-filling of the accessorial fishing and recreational grounds will have a negative impact on the Mi’kmaq people who use the waters which house their community wharf. Given the above examples, astute readers can fully understand the meaning behind this reports name and the requirement for immediate action.
Why has it all come to this State of Disarray
At the age of 60, I have been around for the full duration of the 1976 Fisheries Act changes and the resulting carnage created to landowner assets, road infrastructure and fish stocks. The current system is witnessed by the grant of complete authority to federal and provincial enviro-crats with no checks and balances. Simply put, the fundamentals of tax expenditures on DFO habitat and Nova Scotia Environment staff charged with fish habitat does not make sense. Transparency is sorely lacking and the departments act much like a special interest group that is unaccountable and untouchable as well as being unelected. Furthermore, there are no metrics to gauge whether or not tax dollars are being spent wisely. The “let nature take its course” posture of both departments has largely relied on the legal government immunity afforded these employees such that they can make decisions with impunity and without fear of personal legal ramifications.
What Next?
In hindsight, the current system failure can be best summarized as the result of a policy mistake. What is needed is a new paradigm that is transparent and promotes the integrity of taxpayer
dollars for all affected parties including fish stocks, landowners, indigenous communities and the provincial highway departments. To get there, we need a policy response that repairs the shortcomings of the existing opaque system. One needs to look no further than the pre-1976 era when communities looked after the streams and were not impeded by a bureaucratic cloak imposed by the unaccountable.
A new system ask, on a pilot project basis, is for the federal government in the upcoming 2023 Federal Budget to consider the elimination of the Atlantic Habitat Section of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans due to the inherent redundancy of this federal department. Funds freed up will be available to fund many community groups for their respective river system and when stabilization is achieved, funding could go to other river systems in need.
A hallmark of a proposed new regime will be election by the river community of a chair that is accountable to the stakeholders on the municipal election rotation. This accountability factor will be to the benefit of all stakeholders. A new framework will envisage stream stability through stream bank stabilization programs as well as increased support for the existing fish hatchery located in Margaree. Staffing will be required and sourced from individuals in the catchment area or brought in to live in our communities if outside expertise is required.
With budgetary funding provided by the federal government, the communities can deliver on the stabilization needs which have been ignored for far too long. Dispute resolution mechanisms, increased fish counts to monitor populations of aquatic species, establishment of an internet web-page presence and community planning can all occur in a new framework. One notable exception will be the retention of fisheries enforcement by existing provincial fisheries officers who do not ordinarily reside in the community.
Final Notes
This is not the first time this issue has been raised in the political sphere. In past discussions by lawmakers, the word that popped up often to describe the situation was “bizarre”. Given the amount of moving parts in the system and the amount of stakeholders, it is understandable why the uninformed could arrive at this conclusion. I trust that the information contained in this fact based report will shed some light on the “big picture”and provide the level of understanding required to make an informed decision. From this, a strategy can be formulated that both the communities and the politicians that represent them can use to address the extreme devastation occurring. Budget estimates to follow.
About the Author
Bruce MacDonald has been a life long resident of Middle River (ex University) and grew up on the family dairy farm. I have been involved in public practice as a Chartered Accountant in the local area since 1990 and farm hay in Middle River and Big Baddeck. I am one of the founding members of the Middle River Watershed Society, established in 1984.