Tourism: Tory critic says Petitcodiac project will ruin attraction; experts say that's not likely

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Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

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A mud-slinging match is under way between proponents and opponents of the Petitcodiac River restoration.

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Photo courtesy N.B. Images

A war of words has broken out over whether the restoration of the Petitcodiac River will adversely affect the Hopewell Rocks.

Wayne Steeves, Progressive Conservative critic for tourism and parks, said Wednesday that opening the gates of the Petitcodiac River causeway could ruin one of the province's most iconic landmarks and busiest tourist attractions.

Steeves said the Hopewell Rocks will be on the receiving end of a river choked with silt and mud once its natural flow is restored.

"I want the provincial government to close the gates if that ends up being the case," Steeves said. "As a tourist, you don't come prepared to walk in marsh mud."

But experts involved in the restoration project maintain that changes to the causeway will have no effect past Memramcook, several kilometres north of the Rocks.

Jacques Paynter of AMEC Earth and Environmental, the Fredericton-based company overseeing the causeway removal project, said Hopewell Rocks will not be affected any more than they already are by the massive Fundy tides.

"Hopewell Rocks is a high-energy environment and has been erosional for a long time," Paynter said.

"It was erosional before the causeway was put in, it has been erosional for the 40 years the causeway has been in place, and just because we are opening up a 200-metre channel in the causeway doesn't change that."

Premier Shawn Graham announced earlier this week that the gates of the causeway linking Riverview to Moncton are on track to open in the spring.

The province has invested $20 million to fund the first stage of the restoration project to open the gates and restore the river's fish habitat.

The restoration project is also expected to help with the recovery of the river's tidal bore, a tourist attraction that was diminished with construction of the causeway in 1968.

"It would be restoring one attraction that may ruin another," Steeves said.

The Albert MLA said his concerns are rooted in a trial opening of the gates for three months in 1988.

"The people that were working at the rocks at the time started to have to wear rubber boots along the shore," Steeves said. "I'm worried about the lack of concern from the provincial government that this may happen again."

A Department Fisheries and Oceans Canada backgrounder on the Petitcodiac River said the gates were re-opened in 1989 and again in 1990, "but only during low tide to prevent siltation of the head pond (between Moncton and Riverview) as experienced 1988."

But a department report on biology and habitat in the river system from 2000 says changes to the causeway will have no effect past Memramcook.

Paynter said 15 million cubic metres of silt will be removed from the river once the gates are opened. But he said that twice a day, there are millions of cubic metres on the move with the Bay of Fundy tides.

He said the excess silt will discharge into Shepody Bay at the head of the Bay of Fundy, but some will deposit in other areas.

The Department of Supply and Services says that the environmental impact assessment process determined that the Hopewell Rocks was outside the zone of interaction with the Petiticodiac project. However, an extensive environmental monitoring program will commence once the gates are opened.

A technical review committee will analyze the data.

The Hopewell Rocks attract more than 100,000 visitors each year. That number increased by 15 per cent this past season.

It was named one of Canada's top ten "hidden travel gems" by a national tourism commission web contest earlier this year, while the Bay of Fundy also made it to the short list of the world's greatest natural wonders.

"As tourism critic, I am concerned about destroying our economy in Albert County where tourism is a large part of it," Steeves said. "We can't allow this project to destroy the icon of tourism in the province of New Brunswick."