January 16, 2024
FREDERICTON – David Coon, Leader of the New Brunswick Green Party and MLA for Fredericton South, is calling on the Higgs government to stop wasting time and act now to protect areas of the province already being affected by coastal erosion and flooding.
“Violent weather resulting from the changing climate is washing away our shorelines and eroding our coasts, undermining roads, and damaging property from Caraquet to Grand Manan,” stated Coon. “We need to act now to protect those coastal areas that are already being damaged. Successive governments have told coastal communities they are going to study the situation, while municipalities watch their coastlines getting chewed up before their eyes.”
New Brunswick’s Climate Change Action Plan includes a commitment to carry out a provincial risk assessment on the province’s 2,250 km of coastline, however, with destructive storm surges already laying waste to parts of our coastline. Coon says that protective steps must be taken now in those areas that are already showing storm damage.
“Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have committed to studying the situation,” said Coon. “We need to help our coastal communities now, drawing on money from the Climate Change Fund and available federal programs.”
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