Ecological group warns of environmental impacts from Hwy. 101 connector
Posted Mar 17, 2026 01:56:48 PM.
Last Updated Mar 17, 2026 02:03:17 PM.
A Halifax ecological group believes an environmental assessment done on the Highway 101 connector will detail the irreversible damage to wildlife the project will have.
Jillian Ramsay, sustainable cities co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre, told The Todd Veinotte Show that any development around Sandy Lake, which is on the edge of the proposed highway connector, will be a risk to the environment.
“Sandy Lake is home to 15 rare and endangered species, including the Atlantic salmon, which is very vulnerable to any sort of siltation or pollution runoff, changing the pH of its water,” she said.
On Monday, the government announced it is now issuing a request for proposals for engineering services to prepare for an environmental assessment. It will identify measures to avoid, reduce or mitigate effects on wetlands, wildlife, watercourses and nearby communities.
The new five-kilometre strategic link will connect Hammonds Plains Road with exit 2 on Highway 101.
Ramsay said the area where the project is proposed has pockets of old-growth forest, which is important to preserve since less than one per cent of all woods in Nova Scotia are over 100 years old.
“It’s important to recall that all of this wildlife is beautiful and worth protecting in its own right, but it also performs valuable ecosystem functions and services that serve residents of HRM and beyond,” she said.
Floods and wildfires are an increasing problem in the province as climate change continues. Ramsay notes that wetlands and forests act as carbon-capturing systems, removing the potent gas from the atmosphere that heats the planet.
The project is being touted by the Houston government as a way to reduce traffic congestion in the area. But Ramsay is not convinced it will solve the problem.
“Is this going to be a connector that is providing egress and reducing traffic or is this going to be an on-and-off ramp for a new community,” she said.
The area is slated as a new community development, one of nine locations expected to be an accelerated housing project. Across the nine locations, the province aims to build as many as 22,600 new residential units, with 6,000 of those being built in the Sandy Lake-Sackville River area near Bedford.
Advocates pushed back against the project, saying it would harm the old-growth forests surrounding Sandy Lake.
Ramsay notes that the environmental group is not against development.
“The Ecology Action Centre is very pro-development,” she said.
We do want to see development happen. We just want it to be done in the right way, that is, centring environment and community first in the decisions that are being made.”
