"The Politics of Shoreline Development and Environmental Protection: The New Brunswick, Canada Parlee Beach – Shediac Bay Case Study

Note: If possible, I would like to be on a common panel with Peter Clancy, St. Francis Xavier University.The Gulf of St. Lawrence, a major inland sea in eastern Canada, faces many challenges in the field of environmental... [ view full abstract ]

Note: If possible, I would like to be on a common panel with Peter Clancy, St. Francis Xavier University.The Gulf of St. Lawrence, a major inland sea in eastern Canada, faces many challenges in the field of environmental governance. Part of the complexity derives from multiple, semi-autonomous policy sub-sectors that overlay the region. This paper explores one such sub-sector with significant water quality implications—shoreline development. The focus is on the Shediac Bay region of eastern New Brunswick where continued municipal growth in the face of insufficient wastewater treatment has contributed greatly to the deterioration of local water quality which has negatively impacted Parlee Beach, the province’s best beach. Environmental concerns have been amplified given development has occurred with a corresponding decrease in coastal wetlands, nature’s natural filters. Using a historical institutionalist lens, this paper traces the actions of multiple actors, from local and regional governments to provincial and federal governments, over the last three decades to reveal the motives and policy complexity involved. The investigation reveals that public and environmental health have continually been sacrificed for political ends. Policy options for disrupting such deeply entrenched path dependent processes remain stalled with how to overcome the politics of the situation. This paints a bleak picture for addressing coastal environmental issues in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This case study is one of several as part of a larger book manuscript examining environmental governance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.