Conservation Council’s Stephanie Merrill contributes insights on New Brunswick current water policy conversations to Water Canada‘s cross-country brief policy snapshot.
New Brunswick: Wetland woes and a long wait
Stephanie Merrill of New Brunswick’s Conservation Council identifies wetland conservation policy and the provincial water classification program as two areas of particular focus for the Province. The 2011 release of a predictive wetland map generated huge public backlash—people believed its purpose was to prohibit development on any areas identified as wetland. Under the weight of public scrutiny, the government dismissed the new mapping system in favour of maps Merrill describes as “incomplete,” and that may be missing as much as 50 per cent of the province’s wetlands. The issue was reintroduced in February through a series of stakeholder meetings focused on improved mapping, which Merrill suggests is a step in the right direction, but not equivalent to a “boots in the ground” physical survey. She says the Conservation Council has also been pushing for the completion of a provincial water strategy. The government committed to completing a strategy under the Province’s Climate Change Action Plan in 2007, and work was underway in 2009 and 2010. However, a change in government saw progress stall, and New Brunswick is still without an overarching guiding policy or strategy at this point in time.