Nova Scotia moves to secure future routes for regional transportation masterplan

The Nova Scotia government is protecting land for future highways and commuter rail.

The Houston government introduced the ‘Transportation Corridor Control Act’ Thursday, a new piece of legislation to establish priority transportation corridors for future development and to improve coordination between the province, municipalities, landowners, developers, and utilities.

The move follows Link Nova Scotia’s regional transportation plan released earlier this year. The provincial Crown corporation, formerly known as the Joint Regional Transportation Agency, has already laid out long-term plan for highways and transit, including light rail.

The transportation corridors haven’t been identified yet, but Link deputy minister Peter Hackett says they’ll be designated in sections, as development goes forward.

“It’s not going to be a surprise,” Hackett said. “Before we designate a corridor we would talk to the landowners, we would talk to the municipality and say ‘We’d like to designate this for this purpose,’ so everything would be very upfront.”

If land is designated, or falls within 30 metres of a corridor, the province must issue public notice to those landowners, and the legislation says no construction, excavation, or road work can take place within that zone without a permit.

Infrastructure Minister John Lohr says the act is meant to ensure land is available for major projects and to streamline coordination and construction.

“This will help improve on time, on budget delivery of significant transportation infrastructure by minimizing delays and improving coordination between landowners, municipalities and utilities,” said Lohr.

If someone living on or who owns lands identified within a corridor, the law dictates they must be notified by the province.

Hackett says they would work with everyone involved and suggests this legislation doesn’t apply to purchasing or acquiring land, it’s merely for planning purposes, suggesting there is already expropriation legislation in place that dictates how the province would purchase and acquire any land.

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