N.S. pledges to end use of coal for electricity 10 years earlier than scheduled

The Nova Scotia government introduced legislation Wednesday that will enshrine in law 28 goals related to addressing climate change, including ending the use of coal to generate electricity 10 years earlier than scheduled.

The bill, tabled by Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman, includes goals such as supplying 80 per cent of the province's electricity using renewables by 2030, reducing emissions to at least 53 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050.

Much of the bill is similar to legislation the former Liberal government introduced and passed in 2019, but the Liberals did not place the goals in the act. Instead, they left them to be developed through consultation and then placed in regulations. The bill was never proclaimed.

Halman told reporters at Province House that that isn't good enough.

"Legislation is powerful and it holds government to a far greater level of accountability and transparency," he said.

The bill will also require annual reporting to the legislature by the end of July each year. The former government had stopped providing annual reports several years before tabling their own bill.

The goals in the Tory bill stem from 60 days of public consultation last spring and summer, conducted by the Clean Foundation, which was commissioned by the former government. More than 5,600 individual ideas were submitted through that process.

"It was clear from the feedback that Nova Scotians want the wellbeing of people and the planet to come first," said Halman.

As part of that, the bill calls for equity to be a consideration across government as various departments work toward meeting the goals that also include:

The path to achieving these goals will be set out in several reports that are scheduled to come beginning next spring. They include a climate change plan, climate change risk assessment.

It will also require help. Government officials acknowledged Wednesday that the proposed Atlantic Loop project is "a fundamental component" of meeting the goals in the bill.

NDP environment critic Susan Leblanc welcomed the decision to put the goals into legislation and the return of annual reporting, but she doesn't think the greenhouse gas emission reduction target is strong enough.

"We would like to see a 58 per cent reduction below 2005 levels," she said.

"We know from the 2030 declaration that 58 is what we should be shooting for; it meets more international obligations..."