Coastal Protection, Stormwater Infrastructure Upgrades for Pictou

The Town of Pictou is receiving investments from the Province to provide better coastal protection and improve stormwater service.

“Pictou is an outstanding place to raise a family or own a business. To ensure it stays that way, the town needs the infrastructure in place that will help it thrive and grow,” said Marco MacLeod, MLA for Pictou West, on behalf of John Lohr, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “These projects are important, and we’re thrilled to be working with the municipality to help make them happen.”

Caladh Avenue and the surrounding area will be reconstructed to elevate the road network to protect it from coastal hazards.

The municipality will also be adding about 250 metres of new stormwater piping to the area surrounding Coleraine Street for the collection of stormwater.

The Province and the municipality will each invest almost $2 million in the two projects.

The projects are part of the Municipal Capital Growth Program, a one-time $102-million investment in projects across Nova Scotia – a historic provincial investment in municipal infrastructure.

Quotes:

“‘The Town of Pictou is always pleased to partner with the Province on projects that improve the sustainability of our infrastructure while furthering our long-term plans for community growth. The separation of stormwater from our wastewater system will reduce sewage treatment costs while increasing our capacity to service commercial and housing growth. The re-engineering of Caladh Avenue will move us forward on our extensive waterfront plan while defending our downtown district from the coastal impacts of climate change. We thank the Government of Nova Scotia for its continued investment in our community.”
— Jim Ryan, Mayor, Town of Pictou

Quick Facts:

• the Municipal Capital Growth Program, announced in February, was designed to respond to the infrastructure needs of municipalities and addresses critical issues such as housing, climate change, accessibility and growth
• on February 26, the government released The Future of Nova Scotia’s Coastline: A plan to protect people, homes and nature from climate change; it has 15 actions for the Province, municipalities and property owners to carry out to make coastal communities, homes and natural areas climate resilient
• also on February 26, the government announced a $1.6-million top-up to the Community Climate Capacity Program and $1.6 million more to develop municipal flood-line maps, which give people and municipalities more information on flooding risks and support municipalities in better zoning land to reduce coastal and inland flood hazards
• on May 9, the government announced the first projects under the Community Climate Capacity Program, which included support for the Municipality of Pictou County, Town of Pictou and the Pictou County Partnership to use climate projections in waterfront planning
• the Department of Environment and Climate Change employs a stormwater engineer to support municipalities with climate resilience work

Additional Resources:

News releases about the Municipal Capital Growth Program and projects are available at: https://news.novascotia.ca/search/all?field_topics=293

The Future of Nova Scotia’s Coastline: A plan to protect people, homes and nature from climate change – https://novascotia.ca/coastal-climate-change/docs/coastline-plan.pdf

News release – Government Announces Plan for Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities, Homes: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/02/26/government-announces-plan-climate-resilient-coastal-communities-homes

News release – More Provincial Support for Community Climate Priorities: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/05/09/more-provincial-support-community-climate-priorities