Senator Cotter: The research that was provided to me was the late 1600s. I think they have slightly deteriorated since then.

(On motion of Senator MacDonald, debate adjourned.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Gold, P.C., seconded by the Honourable Senator Gagné, for the second reading of Bill C-232, An Act respecting Arab Heritage Month.

Senator Cotter: I certainly would.

Senator C. Deacon: Thank you, Senator Cotter and Senator Coyle, for your excellent speeches.

Just for my and others’ benefit in the chamber, could you just repeat when the first dikes were built in the Chignecto Isthmus so that we clearly hear that date?

Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, as another member of Senator Quinn’s national unity Senate, I rise to speak in support of Bill S-273, An Act to declare the Chignecto Isthmus Dykeland System and related works to be for the general advantage of Canada. I endorse Senator Coyle’s remarks, and the remarks of others, on the constitutional wisdom of doing this in such a declaration, unlocking the federal government’s engagement on a very important national unity project.

I would like to come at this in a slightly different way, if I may.

Colleagues, I’d like to invite you to come on a trip of the imagination with me for the next few minutes. Imagine, if you will, that it is the summer of 2043 — 20 years from now. We are watching a couple travel through New Brunswick on a Maritime vacation, and, through magic, we are able to listen in on their conversation.

They have reached the eastern end of New Brunswick. The driver says to her partner, “Well, shall we turn north and go across the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island?” “No,” says her partner, “we agreed that we would go straight east and take the new expensive bridge to the island of Nova Scotia.” “Okay. Fair enough,” says the driver.

“While I was gassing up” — sorry, it’s 2043, so she says — “While I was charging up the car, the attendant was telling me that this new bridge to Prince Edward Island was built mostly for the benefit of Nova Scotians, and was therefore named the Brian Mulroney-Allan J. MacEachen Bridge, or the Mulroney‑MacEachen Bridge. The attendant was saying that locals around here call it the Eminem Bridge, and if you’re a Liberal or a Conservative, your view is it tastes one half delicious, one half awful.”

The driver’s partner says, “You know, I was remembering about this bridge. There was a former senator, Jim Quinn, now in his dotage, who had different ideas about this area. In fact, 20 ears ago, when he was a senator and raised those ideas, some thought he was in his dotage then. But it turned out, he was a visionary.”

“Before Nova Scotia became effectively an island,” one says to the other, “this whole area was known as the Chignecto Isthmus.”

“Let me say that again: the Chignecto Isthmus. This word must be one of the hardest words to pronounce in the English language, like half of the consonants in the alphabet have been stuffed down your throat.”

“Anyway,” she says, “I read a few things about the Chignecto Isthmus, and what it used to be able to do to connect Nova Scotia to the rest of the country before it was overtaken by water from the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Strait.”

Let me now take you back to the present: During the late summer, my partner Elaine and I took a short vacation to New Brunswick, which was spectacular. This is me auditioning for a post-Senate job with the New Brunswick tourism authority. More seriously, though, as we drove from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick across the Chignecto Isthmus, with water edging closer on both sides, she said, “This is a disaster waiting to happen.”

I think she is right. And, as you heard from Senator Coyle and others, we are not alone.

The Chignecto Isthmus is situated slightly above sea level — a network of dikes, originally installed in the late 1600s, currently protects communities, though barely, as well as infrastructure, private lands and natural resources, from rising sea levels.

There is not so much left of that protective dike system to my eye. Indeed, it felt — to me — like the raised railway line was the largest protection in that whole stretch of land.

The Trans-Canada Highway through there is a key tourist route, as we have heard, which facilitates travel for tourists visiting Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Last year, Nova Scotia welcomed 1.9 million visitors; 1.2 million of those visitors arrived by that road — almost every single one of them. More significantly, and not entirely mentioned, the Izaak Walton Killam, or IWK, Health Centre, located in Halifax, provides care for Maritime youth, children and women from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and beyond. The IWK is the largest facility caring for children, youth and adolescents, and is the only Level 1 pediatric trauma centre east of Quebec. The IWK receives approximately 29,000 patient visits in the emergency department every year, and 5,000 babies are delivered each year in that centre, including — years ago — my daughter.

The Chignecto Isthmus has been recognized regionally, nationally and internationally as a critical wildlife corridor. It provides the only terrestrial connection between Nova Scotia and the rest of North America, as we’ve heard. The passage of animals and plants across this corridor is critical in terms of future environmental health and protection in that whole area. It also plays an important role in maintaining healthy wildlife populations over the long term.

As you have heard, it is a critical transportation route. The value of goods and merchandise transported through that corridor as well as revenues generated in corridor activity are estimated to be $35 billion per annum. Even now, when an extreme weather event results in the closure of the Isthmus for periods of time, the losses from an economic, social and sometimes health point of view are substantial.

There are compelling arguments, as you are hearing, for the preservation of the Chignecto Isthmus in economic, social, environmental and nation-building ways, I would say. Indeed, the only argument I can think of for letting the challenges of nature take their course is that we might one day be able to remove the words “Chignecto Isthmus” from our language. However, for every other good reason, particularly in the way in which we might empower our national government to make a meaningful statement of national unity and respect for all of the regions of the country, I would be more than willing to keep on saying the word “isthmus” for the sake of the benefit of Nova Scotians and all of Canada.

I hope you will join me in that. We might have to practise pronouncing the word, but we will all be better for it. Thank you very much.