Landowners can say no to uranium exploration on their properties: Deputy

Nova Scotia’s deputy minister of natural resources says private landowners whose property has been identified for potential uranium exploration can say no.

Karen Gatien told reporters Tuesday that letters are being sent to property owners in three selected areas, and the government hopes there will at least be conversations about possible exploration.

However, she says property owners retain surface rights to the land and don’t have to agree to allow activity on their property.

The provincial government added uranium to its list of priority critical minerals earlier this month and issued a request for exploration proposals at three sites it says have known deposits of the heavy metal.

Each of the three sites is on private land, and Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton has said the government would begin talks with the landowners about possible exploration.

The locations are: an 80-hectare site in Louisville in Pictou County; a 64-hectare site in East Dalhousie in Annapolis County; and a 2,300-hectare site in Millet Brook in Hants County.

 Premier defends decision for exploration

Premier Tim Houston told 95.7 NewsRadio the province needs to find new ways to grow the economy, citing a study that shows Nova Scotia ranks at the bottom of a list of 50 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces in terms of GDP per capita.

“It wasn’t that long ago that every community in this province was thriving. There were fishing communities, farming communities, forestry communities, mining communities,” Houston said. “We had a thriving province — at one time we were number one in Canada in the economy — and we are not anymore. So we need to look at these things, and uranium is one thing that we are going to look at.”

The move has raised concerns from environmental advocates that say it will remove safeguards for tailings that seep into groundwater, potentially contaminating it with toxins.

These health concerns are for both humans and wildlife, the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre, told The Canadian Press.

With files from CityNews Halifax’s Chris Halef.