Finance Minister John Lohr says his government will no longer support proposed changes to laws governing easements following public concerns about the impact on land protection and the feeling that there was no urgency to make the amendments.

“I still see merit in what we were trying to do,” Lohr told reporters at Province House Monday evening.

“I think the reality is we did hear from conservation and community groups that were concerned about the longevity of their easements and felt that this impacted that.”

Lohr announced at the beginning of debate Monday for the Financial Measures Act during the committee of the whole House that his caucus would not be supporting proposed amendments to the Community Easements Act and the Conservation Easements Act, both of which are part of the omnibus Financial Measures Act (FMA).

‘A problem that was not urgent’

The amendments would have created paths to undo easements via applications to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia if the easement would have created hardship to the landowner or when the easement holder ceased to exist.

The proposed amendments were “solving a problem that was not urgent,” said Lohr.

He did not rule out the possibility of the amendments coming back to the House in the future.

The two easement-related pieces of legislation are among 20 bills the FMA would amend, along with the creation of one new piece of legislation.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said she was pleased to hear Lohr’s announcement, but she questioned why the government is not listening to the concerns people have shared about other parts of the FMA, including the introduction of a levy for electric vehicles and hybrids.

Chender renewed her call for the government to pause the FMA and address all the concerns it’s heard from the public.

“I think this government has gotten more than enough feedback from every corner of the province, across sectors, to tell them that they need to take some more time and do their homework and show their work to Nova Scotians,” she told reporters.

Waiting to share changes

Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin told reporters that by announcing the change Monday, Lohr was addressing a key concern landowners and conservation groups shared both at the public bills committee and during direct correspondence with MLAs — that the amendments would have impacted the viability of using easements as a long-term tool to protect land in perpetuity.

“It just would restrict the interest for people to donate land and to provide for more conservation tools on private land,” he said.

Rankin lamented the fact that although Lohr signaled last week that changes could be coming, he did not share them until Monday.

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