Senator Cormier: Yes, that is my understanding, and that’s why I think it is so important that we bring this bill to committee to study it because I think it is an important question about the Constitution and relations between the federal government and the provinces and territories. I think it’s an important question, and that’s why I applaud Senator Quinn for tabling this bill, but I hope we’ll have a chance to discuss and study this bill in committee. Thank you, Senator Downe.

(On motion of Senator Coyle, debate adjourned.)

Senator Cormier: Yes.

Senator Cormier: Thank you for that answer, which is already in the public domain.

I see that the CRTC can be composed of a maximum 13 members appointed by the Governor-in-Council. However, it currently has only eight members. Why not appoint more advisers to achieve better francophone minority representation?

Hon. René Cormier: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, last summer and again recently, the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française wrote to the Minister of Canadian Heritage to express its concern that none of the eight commissioners of the Canadian Radio‑television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, speak French as their main language. According to that letter, a few commissioners — including Alicia Barin who held the position before being appointed vice-chair — speak and understand French, but the CRTC should have some commissioners from francophone backgrounds who live their lives in French and understand that reality.

Considering the colossal amount of work involved in implementing the new version of the Broadcasting Act and the Online News Act, I share the federation’s concern.

Senator Gold, it is the prerogative of the Governor-in-Council to appoint CRTC commissioners. Can you assure us that the next appointments will be francophone?

Hon. René Cormier: Colleagues, I rise today to speak to Bill S-273, An Act to declare the Chignecto Isthmus Dykeland System and related works to be for the general advantage of Canada, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Jim Quinn on September 19.

I’d like to acknowledge that I am speaking to you from the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people.

Our study of this bill must take into account the historical, political and legal context surrounding it. I think these perspectives are essential to understanding the purpose of this legislative measure and the questions it raises.

The Chignecto Isthmus is the piece of land that connects New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The system of dykes and aboiteaux that has been protecting it for centuries from the high tides in the Bay of Fundy holds a special historical and cultural place in the collective psyche of the region’s residents, particularly Indigenous people and Acadians.

[English]

The Mi’kmaq people occupied these lands long before Europeans arrived on the continent. The name “Chignecto” is, in fact, a European adaptation of a Mi’kmaq term for a much larger region: Siknikt, meaning drainage place.

In an article entitled “Revealing the History of the Isthmus of Chignecto: Toward Truth and Reconciliation,” Anne Marie Lane Jonah wrote:

. . . Archaeological investigations have found objects for hunting and food processing, trade goods, and cultural practices, demonstrating the sustained and consistent use and the importance of the region for trade and habitation over millennia. . . .

. . . The first Acadian settlers came to this area not only because they recognized its agricultural potential, but as importantly, because it was a Mi’kmaw place and a centre for trade.

[Translation]

When the Acadians arrived in this area in the early 17th century, they used an Indigenous agricultural technique to farm the Bay of Fundy’s saltwater marshes. It involved a water control system equipped with a breakwater to prevent the high tide from flooding the fields, while still allowing rainwater to drain off. This system of dykes and aboiteaux that enabled the Acadians to drain many hectares of marsh in order to farm is a fundamental aspect of Acadian culture.

Historian Ronald Rudin, distinguished professor emeritus at Concordia University’s history department said the following, and I quote:

 . . . when the Acadians were deported in the mid-18th century, 8,000 hectares of marshland had been drained, while on higher ground, only 200 hectares of forest had been cleared. That is why Acadians were known as “défricheurs d’eau” or clearers of water.

Roger Blais’s 1955 fictional documentary The Dikes, one of the first Acadian films made by the National Film Board, depicts this unique reality.

Although it is a work of fiction, this film shows how, in the 1950s, Acadians were dealing with the rapid deterioration of their dyke system and how major repairs were done in that region, including on the Chignecto Isthmus, to hold back the waters of the Bay of Fundy.

We have no choice but to acknowledge that, over the past few decades, new threats have arisen that were not contemplated at the time. Today, colleagues, the Chignecto Isthmus is especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and weather conditions caused by climate change.

Last year’s Chignecto Isthmus Climate Change Adaptation Comprehensive Engineering and Feasibility Study by the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia notes the following:

Induced Sea Level Rise (SLR) and coastal subsidence is forecasted to threaten a large portion of the coastal infrastructure in Atlantic Canada before the year 2100. The current Chignecto Isthmus dykes are at risk along with the various Trade Corridor infrastructure components they protect such as: TransCanada Highway, CN Rail, 138 kV and 345 kV electrical transmission lines, fibre-optical cables, a wind farm, agricultural cropland activities and various other utilities.

Given its importance to the country as a trade and transportation route, not to mention is agricultural value to the inhabitants of the region, it would indeed be catastrophic if the isthmus were to be flooded by 2100.

[English]

The Senate Committee on Transport and Communications is currently studying the impacts of climate change on critical infrastructure in the transportation and communications sectors — for instance, those located on the isthmus — and its members have heard relevant testimony on this subject.

Colleagues, allow me to quote David Kogon, the current mayor of the Town of Amherst, Nova Scotia:

We now feel that because we are seeing the sea levels rise, it will take less of a storm to breach the dikes, and our storms are getting more frequent and more intense. . . . the storm of a lifetime has become an annual event. When we look back over the last three or four years, we’ve had more hurricanes than we’ve had in many years prior.

The vulnerability due to climate change is the issue. It’s not that the dikes are destroyed, but they’ll be overcome by one of these storms. So the rail line being in good condition, the road being in good condition and the power lines being in good condition will all be for naught when the flood occurs.

We are vulnerable. We could have a high tide, full moon and hurricane at any time. That’s why we feel there is a major urgency to getting mitigation efforts started.

[Translation]

It is clear, then, that we need to adapt the isthmus dyke system to the effects of climate change before it’s too late.

The federal government and the provincial governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia agree on the need to restore this system, but do not agree on how it should be funded. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia feel that the federal government is entirely responsible for the work and for footing the bill, although Nova Scotia is proposing to pay 50%, based partially on the fact that the provinces own the Trans-Canada Highway that crosses the isthmus. The cost of the project to restore the system is estimated at $650 million.

Against that backdrop, the Nova Scotia government asked the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to clarify whether the federal government has “exclusive” responsibility to maintain the dykes and other structures in place to protect the isthmus. It goes without saying, colleagues, that this legal process raises constitutional questions that go beyond the issue of funding.

With that in mind, Bill S-273 would make the federal government responsible for dyke restoration work through a statement by Parliament indicating that this work is for “the general Advantage of Canada” under paragraph 92(10)(c) of the Constitution Act, 1867.

In doing so, we can reasonably assume that it will be responsible for footing the entire bill for the work, thus fulfilling the wishes of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments.

[English]

In his second reading speech on October 3, Senator Quinn presented some of the reasons for using the federal declaratory power, including the national importance of the dike restoration project given that it protects a number of elements essential to the country’s economic well-being such as the Trans-Canada Highway and the CN railway. He insisted that the planned 50% federal funding was insufficient given that this was a project of national interest.

Considering the context of Bill S-273 — and while I recognize the historical, cultural, economic and, shall we say, national importance of the dike system that protects the isthmus, including the related works — I have a few questions about the merits of this legislation.

[Translation]

As the legislative body in charge of providing sober second thought on legislation, is the Senate best placed to determine who is constitutionally responsible for the work in the Chignecto Isthmus?

Is it the best forum for adopting a bill likely to have a financial impact on the federal government?

Should the Senate interfere in this type of federal-provincial relationship, especially when we’re awaiting the outcome of the legal proceedings initiated by the Government of Nova Scotia?

In a spirit of cooperative federalism, shouldn’t we be promoting federal-provincial diplomacy for resolving the impasse? These are the questions I ask myself and I think they should be carefully considered in committee.

In this chamber, our former colleague André Pratte said that the declaratory power is a measure that should be used only as a last resort.

He said the following:

The declaratory power is the least federalist measure a central government can take. Some have called it the nuclear bomb of the federal government’s arsenal.

He went on to say this:

Renowned constitutional law professor Peter Hogg has commented that the federal Parliament’s power under section 92(10)(c) is in conflict with classical principles of federalism.

These assertions are all the more reason to take the time to carefully study the nature and potential scope of using declaratory power.

[English]

Colleagues, there is no doubt that the rapid and effective restoration of the Chignecto Isthmus Dykeland System in the face of the growing threat of climate change is in the interest of all Canadians, a national reality that underlies Bill S-273, and I sincerely thank Senator Quinn for bringing this issue to our attention.

[Translation]

As one of our most talented Acadian songwriters wrote in his famous song called “Les Aboiteaux”:

but somewhere the dikes are waiting

for the land around them to stir

telling us to set off before arriving

whispering of wonders to discover

It is indeed time to wake up and take action in the face of the fragility of this piece of land that unites not only New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but our entire country.

However, I feel that this legislation raises more questions than it attempts to resolve. I therefore invite my colleagues to examine this legislation in committee with all due attention.

Thank you.

[English]