HALIFAX — Nova Scotia seafood industry representatives voiced concerned Thursday over comments from the premier that he's open to ending a moratorium on fossil fuel drilling in the rich Georges Bank fishing grounds.
Premier Tim Houston said Wednesday the province needs to reconsider bans on various industries, including uranium mining and onshore fracking, in order to diversify the economy in the face of tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Reporters pressed the premier on whether that included pressing to lift the moratorium on drilling in the Georges Bank grounds off southern Nova Scotia, which is currently in place until the end of 2032.
Houston responded that while he realizes that citizens have the right to raise questions on any potential risks, proposals to reopen the area to fossil fuel exploration can't be ruled out.
"I think people have a right to be concerned that it would be done safely, and so those are questions to be answered, but they're discussions to have," he said.
"I mean right now in this province you can't even talk about something ... somebody mentioned Georges Bank, and we're nervous to have a discussion."
"Fishing, farming, forestry, our province was built on these traditional industries ... but we also have to have discussions about what we can do safely outside that," Houston added.
Richard d'Entremont, president of Acadian Fish Processors Ltd. in Lower West Pubnico, N.S., said in an interview Thursday that reversing the ban on drilling would curtail the fishing grounds and would be a potential disaster for fishers because of the risk of a spill.
"It's the last thing I want to see because all our quotas are there. We fish there year around and I'm afraid if they put an exclusive zone around these oil rigs, we'll lose a lot of territory where we'll no longer be able to fish," he said.
"Georges Bank has been a saviour for our fishing area for years here," said d'Entremont, 75, whose company fishes the area for haddock and pollock.
Kris Vascotto, executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, says the possibility of losing any harvesting from Georges Bank is "highly concerning," and his group would like some clear statements from the province about "what exactly their plans are."
The industry spokesman said Georges Bank is already making "an incredible contribution to the Nova Scotia economy, and we'd hate to see that imperilled because of resource development undertaken in an ad hoc fashion."
The moratorium on oil and gas exploration on Georges Bank was extended in April 2022 until the end of 2032. Federal and provincial law allows for the moratorium in the rich fishing ground to be prolonged in increments of up to 10 years.
When federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced the extension he said it would help maintain a “unique and valuable ecosystem for current and future generations.”
The bank is situated at the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia and is shared with the United States, with an internationally agreed upon boundary.
Houston's office had called the news conference Wednesday to discuss the potential effect of new tariffs on Canadian exports, but the premier used much of his time discussing a letter he wrote to members of his caucus saying the province had to become more economically self-reliant.
The letter describes the province's need to pursue untapped opportunities that previous governments "lacked the courage to act" upon.
"We must take the 'no' out of Nova Scotia. Special interests have captured too many parts of our economy and have had an outsized voice in policy creation. That must end. Outright bans of entire sectors are lazy public policy and we will reverse bans and focus on meaningful, mature discussion," said the letter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2025.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press
