Lifting the Bans
In March 2025, Premier Tim Houston introduced legislation to kill Nova Scotia’s longstanding fracking ban and uranium exploration ban. These bans were based on extensive public consultation and evidence-based decisions by previous PC, Liberal and NDP governments. They came from the will of the people, from all walks of life and all regions of our province. Houston didn’t consult Nova Scotians, including Indigenous Nova Scotians, before ending these moratoriums.
What’s at risk?
Your water
Groundwater contamination, leaking gas wells, risks to well-water and property values—all brought to you by the fracking industry. As a small province with limited water resources, where is our drinking water going to come from once the fracking industry has polluted our water supply?
Your health
Radioactive materials associated with uranium exploration and mining are a toxic legacy to the health of future generations of Nova Scotians. The same holds true for the vast quantities of industrial wastewater produced by fracking. Who’s going to manage and pay for containment sites once the mining and drilling companies have left town? (hint: Saskatchewan taxpayers have so far paid $220 million dollars to clean up “unconfined tailings” from their own uranium mines).
Your land
With moratoriums gone, mining and fracking companies have free rein to come onto private land and begin exploring for resources—and landowners have no legal recourse.
Other economic sectors
Farming, fishing, tourism, the film industry… so many Nova Scotians depend on clean water, air, and land for their livelihoods. Are we willing to jeopardize core sectors of the economy valued in the billions of dollars?
What can we do about it?
Our response was to start a movement
We are a group of ordinary citizens who believe that “environment” and “economy” are not mutually exclusive terms.
We’re here because of the Nova Scotia government’s dangerous obsession with the outdated practices of uranium exploration and mining and hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
March 2025 Protest at NS Legislature
Photo Credit: People not Plunder
We’ve been here many times before: we successfully fought back against uranium exploration and mining in the early 1980s, clocking thousands of volunteer hours in every community in the province. The result was the McCleave Commission Report paving the way to an outright ban in 2009.
Then in the 2010s, we were again successful in pushing back against proposed fracking in our watersheds, standing alongside Mi’kmaw land and water protectors. The outcome was the Report of the Nova Scotia Independent Panel on Hydraulic Fracturing and led to a ban in 2014.
We are tired of constantly fighting our government, who are stealing our valuable time and energy. Instead, we want to promote and implement alternatives to this government’s literal dinosaur thinking.
Solar, wind, and energy efficiency are a few of the sectors that create good-paying jobs in rural areas where they are most needed.
This is the direction Nova Scotia needs to take.
Our goals:
- Demand the immediate reinstatement of longstanding bans on uranium exploration and mining, and fracking.
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Strengthen legislation so that bans can’t be overturned without extensive public and Indigenous consultation and buy-in.
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Champion alternatives to the current “drill baby drill” paradigm with the aim of developing NS as a powerhouse of energy efficiency and sustainability.