Highway halted?
Keltic scraps planned road to Antigonish, for now
GUYSBOROUGH - Plans for a modern new highway running from Goldboro to Antigonish are up in the air now that Keltic Petrochemicals Inc. has removed the project from its environmental assessment report. The highway component of the proposed $4.5 billion Goldboro project has been scrapped in order to avoid a delay in start-up of the project.
Keltic Petrochemicals Inc. president Kevin Dunn told The Journal Tuesday the highway is no longer planned because the provincial Dept. of Transportation told the company it does not support the proposed route. Dunn said the $50 million highway, which would have passed through Erinville en route to the Beech Hill area just east of Antigonish, does not fit into the department's long-term plans for highways in the province. Construction of the highway was to be paid for by Keltic. The company wanted the province to take over responsibility for the highway once it was completed. According to Dunn, communication from the department indicated they weren't interested.
An internal government email related to Keltic's draft environmental assessment report forwarded to Keltic said, "The alignment proposed in this draft report is not consistent with our 100 series expansion plans; we have never supported it and thus are not prepared to further comment on the environmental or safety issues associated with it."
A lack of support for the highway from the department isn't something new. Over the past few years the matter has been raised at several open houses and public meetings Keltic has held. In those instances company officials indicated it was a challenge and they were continuing to work toward getting government support for the highway.
Minister of Transportation and Public Works Angus MacIsaac offered a different position when contacted by this paper Tuesday.
"The Department of Transportation and Public Works has quite a different view than that which has been communicated to Keltic," he said. "We will maintain that highway if it's built." MacIsaac seemed confident that the highway will indeed become a reality.
"That's a $5 billion project that needs a road and the road will be built." He said it's yet to be determined whether a new road would follow the route proposed by Keltic, or a different route.
"There are lots of things to discuss. We will sit down with Keltic and we will discuss them."
Dunn said the province wouldn't look at Keltic's final environmental assessment report - the next step in getting the project launched - with the existing highway plans in it. He said Keltic was looking at a four- or five-month delay if they pursued the matter further with the department - a delay they weren't willing to incur at this stage. Dunn said such a delay would put the supply deal for liquefied natural gas for the project at risk.
According to Keltic officials, the highway would bring time savings, operational efficiencies and safety benefits to the project.
"We're talking about millions of dollars (in lost efficiencies without the highway)," said Dunn. "It affects everything.
"We're disappointed, really disappointed," he added.
Guysborough warden Lloyd Hines is furious at the lack of support he says the Keltic project has been getting from the department.
"I'm sick and tired of this kind of attitude," he said during a telephone interview Tuesday. "This is absolutely in line with the myopic attitude of senior Nova Scotia bureaucrats…It's a normal response from that department when it comes to rural Nova Scotia."
Hines said the department's attitude toward the mega-project is another example of bureaucratic neglect of rural Nova Scotia.
"We can do these things in urban areas, but when it comes to rural areas, it seems like it's impossible."
Hines scoffed at the idea that the province could fork out $2 million for an overpass at Dartmouth Crossing, a new retail development, but doesn't want to spend the $215,000 a year it would cost to maintain the new highway between Goldboro and Antigonish. He said if the province doesn't want to take responsibility for the highway, the municipality might.
"Maybe our little municipality can foot the bill of maintaining it," he suggested. Hines said he will put a motion before District of Guysborough council at the next opportunity to see if council wants to approve funds to take over the highway after its built and look after maintenance. He said the municipality could contract out the maintainance work, noting that the unit stands to receive significant funds from commercial taxes on Keltic project properties. "Maybe we'll put a toll on it," he said of the highway.
"To have these guys (senior bureaucrats) put the clamps on it is just unacceptable."
Gordon MacDonald, special projects manager at the petroleum office of the Guysborough County Regional Development Authority, said the highway was one of the things that local residents felt was important for the project. Increased truck traffic during construction of the Sable project was an issue for residents and they are keen to see an improved transportation route for the Keltic project, he said.
MacDonald said he is concerned over the message this kind of government response gives to potential investors, in a province that says it is open for business.
"The signal we're sending out to investors, that we're unwilling to even maintain a highway that they want to build, I don't think that's a signal that we would want to send."
Dunn said the company is still aiming for completion of their environmental assessment by June 30. It will then be subject to review by federal and provincial panels.
