Jeff Carr says discussions are continuing between the two provinces on which option to pursue to protect the fragile, low-lying Chignecto Isthmus from increasingly frequent storm surges.

But there's no money in his budget for work this year, and Carr said Ottawa's suggestion that it would fund 50 per cent of the project isn't enough.

"We want the federal government to be a majority, lion's-share stakeholder in that funding, because neither province can afford to foot that bill," Carr said while debating his budget estimates at a legislative committee meeting Thursday.

"I'm not saying we won't, at the end of the day, add something to it but we want the federal government to be the lion's-share contributor to that because it is a piece of infrastructure of national interest."

Federal minister supported funding

An engineering study released more than a year ago presented three options for protecting the isthmus, ranging in cost from $189.2 million to $300.8 million.

Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose Beauséjour riding includes the New Brunswick side of the isthmus, said at the time that Ottawa would pay for up to half the cost, and he repeated that offer recently.

In a letter to his provincial counterparts, LeBlanc urged them to apply for funding under the federal disaster mitigation and adaptation fund before its July 19 deadline.

Green MLA Megan Mitton told Carr during Thursday's committee meeting that she was disappointed to see no funding in his budget for the project.

"It just has felt like there's not enough urgency on this to even get started, let alone how long it might take," she said. 

Dikes vulnerable

An estimated $35 billion in trade each year crosses the isthmus, which is protected from the Bay of Fundy tides by dikes and aboiteaux built centuries ago.

A 2018 report found that 70 per cent of the dikes in Nova Scotia are vulnerable to a one-in-50-year storm. Sea levels in that province are projected to increase by as much as a metre by 2100.

The Trans-Canada Highway and the main Canadian National rail line both cross the isthmus not far from the water's edge.

Green Party MLA Megan Mitton says she's disappointed there isn't funding this year for upgrading the main highway and rail links between the province and Nova Scotia. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)

Mitton, who represents the area provincially, said it is one extreme storm away from a major disaster.

"The consequences of us being too late is thousands of people in my community being underwater," she said.

Carr said officials from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are meeting every week to sort out how the project will be managed between the two governments.

He agreed that "time is of the essence" on choosing one of the three options and getting work underway.

"I'm absolutely committed to seeing this go through as quickly as possible because I too see the urgency and the immediate need that that land crossing is to all of us." 

Last year's report said the choices were:

• Raising the existing dikes, at a cost of about $200.2 million.

• Building new dikes, at a cost of about $189.2 million.

• Raising the existing dikes and installing steel sheet pile walls at select locations, at a cost of about $300.8 million.

In a written statement, LeBlanc's spokesperson Jean-Sébastien Comeau repeated the federal minister's offer to fund up to 50 per cent of the cost of the project and urged the two provinces to apply to the disaster fund.

"We look forward to working with them to secure this supply link for future generations," he said, without responding directly to Carr's request to cover a higher share of the cost.

Carr told Mitton he couldn't commit to an agreement this year on the project. 

"I cannot give a specific date until we have a funding arrangement in place with the federal government," he said.

He added that if there were a federal election this spring, Ottawa would likely have anted up the money by now. 

Mitton said she was willing to work with Carr to lobby to get the project going.

"I do hope it doesn't become haggling over which percentage each party is going to put in," she said.

Nova's Scotia's mainland moose population is endangered, with an estimated 500 to 1,000 animals, many of them on the Chignecto Isthmus, the land bridge connecting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

New Brunswick has a healthier population and is a potential source of mates for the Nova Scotia moose.

"From an ecological, conservation and biological perspective, maintaining a connected landscape for large mammals to move freely between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is incredibly important for the long-term health of wildlife populations, in particular for the endangered mainland moose," Craig Smith, the conservancy's program director for the province, said in a statement. 

"The vital habitat along the border is becoming increasingly fragmented by roads, urban development and agriculture so we are very pleased to be able to conserve these valuable and strategically located properties."

Lynx, bobcat

The new properties border a provincially designated wilderness area and include both mixed forest and wetlands. The area is important to many species of birds and for large mammals, including lynx, bobcat and moose.

One the properties was donated through the federal government's Ecological Gifts program, which gives tax incentives to people or corporations that donate ecologically significant land.

The federal infrastructure minister is urging Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to apply for about $150 million to protect the land link between their provinces from climate change-related flooding.

Dominic LeBlanc said he has written to the two provincial governments to say money is available and the deadline to apply to the disaster mitigation fund is July 19.

"I said the most direct way to get a federal contribution would be through the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, and urged them to pick an option from the study that was commissioned and I would work with them to try and get it approved," LeBlanc said in an interview on Monday.

Ottawa can pay up to half the $301-million potential cost to protect the Chignecto Isthmus — a stretch of land that connects Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, LeBlanc said.

Talks still underway

Premiers Tim Houston of Nova Scotia and Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick, however, are saying talks are still underway on how much each government should pay.

Higgs recently told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal that the federal government should consider funding the project the same way it funded the Confederation Bridge — which links his province to Prince Edward Island. That project was mostly paid for by Ottawa, the premier noted.

In an email, Higgs' office also said, "We are in the early days of discussion with the federal government. However, given the importance of this project in connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, we are evaluating similar interprovincial projects."

Meanwhile, Houston's office wrote, "It's going to take hundreds of millions of dollars to do this and we need to be creative. Discussions remain ongoing."

LeBlanc pushed back against the notion that the federal government should pay for most of the project. The Confederation Bridge, he said, represents a particular case because P.E.I. had been promised year-round transportation to the mainland as one of its conditions for entering Confederation.

Firm deadline

The federal minister — whose New Brunswick riding borders the Nova Scotia boundary — notes that while talks with the two provinces are "encouraging," the next deadline for applying to the fund is firm.

"This disaster mitigation and adaptation fund will organically be taken up with other projects, so time is a little bit of the essence in that there will likely be many more projects submitted than the total amount of funding available," he said.

"I just want to ensure we don't miss this window because it's the most logical window to find a federal cost-sharing opportunity."

The isthmus project is aimed at finding a way to protect the Trans-Canada Highway, the CN rail line and communications infrastructure from potential damage by major storms and flooding until 2100.

A study released last March says raising the height of the existing 35 kilometres of dikes would cost $200 million; building a new dike would cost $189 million; and raising the existing dikes and installing steel sheet pile walls in select locations would cost about $301 million.

The engineering study estimates that once an option is chosen, it would take five years for construction to begin and the project wouldn't be completed until 10 years after the start date.

And that timeline assumes there aren't delays from environmental assessments, unexpected problems with building materials, archeological studies or consultations with First Nations.

Decades of warnings

Experts have for decades warned that the combination of high tides with powerful storms up the Bay of Fundy could overwhelm aging dikes and flood large portions of Amherst, N.S., as well as neighbouring Sackville, N.B.

As well, the sea level at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy has been rising at a rate of about 2.4 millimetres a year over the past century.

LeBlanc said that the provincial governments could also approach CN Rail — which owns the rail line on the isthmus — to ask it to participate in sharing some of their cost.

"I would think it would be reasonable for the provinces to approach a private partner like that and see if they want to make a contribution to securing their main line between the port of Halifax and Montreal," he said.

CN spokesman Daniel Salvatore said in an email that the company is in talks with Nova Scotia's provincial government about the project; he had no further comment.