SOURCE: Nature Nova Scotia to Public Bills Committee re Bill 198: Financial Measures Act
Post on Nature NS website, Mar 20, 2026.
Date: March 19, 2026
Submission to Public Bills Committee Respecting Bill 198: Financial Measures Act
Public Bills Committee,
Nature Nova Scotia submits the following comments on Bill 198, Financial Measures Act, for your consideration. We invite you to break with this government’s growing tradition of ignoring expert and public comments in this law amendments process and consider making meaningful changes to this Bill.
Bill 198 amends many different pieces of legislation. We have organized our comments by these laws and the clauses affecting them.
Clause 54, Conservation Easements Act:
Bill 198 proposes to “permit the termination by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia of a conservation easement where its continuation would produce severe hardship for the landowner; and simplify the process when an easement holder ceases to exist.” Without defining “severe hardship,” we are concerned that this amendment will allow for easement termination for the purpose of extractive or other damaging activities on important conservation lands without adequate justification. The additions proposed in Bill 198 seem to suggest that the decision to terminate an easement would be made by the court upon hearing a case of hardship by the landowner, which is perhaps reasonable, but 52(b) seems to suggest that an easement may be terminated simply due to the fact that the original easement holder does not exist anymore. The Conservation Easements Act already allows for the termination of an easement if the easement holder no longer exists and another eligible body does not step forward to assume the easement. These clauses are important, because the conservation value of the land may very well outlive the life of any individual land trust or other eligible organization holding the easement. Active Conservation Easement agreements, held between a landowner and eligible easement holding body, also often allow for domestic and economic activities, such as building onto existing homes, erecting new buildings, firewood harvesting, and more, mitigating of the risk of a landowner incurring hardship. Not being able to clearcut, develop a high rise condo building, or mine conservation lands you have inherited from a conservation minded grandparent, for example, is not a “severe hardship.” Bill 198 proposes to do away with the existing process and allow for easement termination under two broad and vague conditions. Similarly, “simplify the process” is vague and does not tell us what government intends with this amendment or how processes and procedures, as outlined in the Conservation Easements Act, will be changed in practice. This clause requires much more thought.
Clause 56, Crown Lands Act
Clause 56 “amends the Crown Lands Act to provide that the Minister of Natural Resources may grant or renew timber and resource licenses for a period of up to five years without Governor in Council approval or 10 years with Governor in Council approval.” It is unclear if the Bill means to imply that longer licenses would sbe subject to approval of the Governor in Council. Also, given the Department of Natural Resources’ long and unfortunate history of mismanagement of our shared forest resources and the recent removal of the Wildlife Division, we feel that that any reduced oversight in timber licenses on public lands is a poor decision. This clause should be removed from the Bill.
Clauses 105-108, Provincial Parks Act
Clauses 105 to 108 amend the Provincial Parks Act with what seem to be logistical updates in on-the-ground park management. As Nature Nova Scotia and others have pointed out several times in the last few years, the Provincial Parks Act is unusual among protected areas related legislation in the power it gives to the Minister of Natural Resources and is vulnerable to abuse by those looking to exploit legal loopholes in public lands conservation. We invite you to revisit our earlier suggestion for a much more in-depth examination of the Provincial Parks Act and the specific points we have already made, invite government to speak with experts in natural and community heritage for this purpose, and again volunteer our help in navigating this process. Lastly, we want to stress the importance of maintaining the integrity of our democratic processes and ask that this government consider addressing these laws individually. Amending so many different pieces of legislation in one Bill makes it difficult for the public to understand the changes proposed and potentially results in many organizations and members of the public all speaking to the Public Bills Committee about unrelated issues all at the same time. Wanting to move quickly on what you feel are important financial issues for the benefit of the Nova Scotian public is admirable. Inadvertently subduing our democratic processes is not.
Becky Parker, BSc. MASc. (She/Her)
Executive Director
Bob Bancroft, retired government wildlife biologist (He/Him)
President of the Board of Directors