- Buchanan Era Banned Uranium Mining Exploration and Banned NS Power From Building a Nuclear Power Plant – Tim Houston Lifted The Bans
By Andrew Macdonald
A public meeting in the Chester area is being held next Thursday, organized by fourth-generation architect Syd Dumaresq’s Friends of Nature and with participation from the Environment Club at Forest Hills Community High School.
The meeting, open to the public, is to help grow opposition to both uranium mining and nuclear energy plants being built in NS.
The Tim Houston government has overturned both bans, and Dumaresq, a Chester resident with architectural offices in Halifax, says lifting the two bans is bad policy.
A meeting to oppose uranium mining and building nuclear power plants was held recently in Mahone Bay & Windsor. The Windsor meeting was standing room only.
The government of John Buchanan banned uranium mining exploration in the 1980s. A Tory government. In 1992, the Tory regime of Don Cameron put into law a ban that would prevent NS Power from building a nuclear energy plant.
Buchanan established a Select Committee on April 2, 1981. The Select Committee disbanded when the House dissolved on August 28, 1981.
But, on September 22, 1981, the Buchanan cabinet announced the uranium ban.
On January 22, 1982, the Government appointed Judge Robert McCleave to be a one-man commission to investigate uranium exploration. On February 2, 1982, the Government placed a ban on uranium mining pending the findings of the investigation.
In 1992, Don Cameron sold off NS Power, creating the Nova Scotia Power Privatization Act (Bill 204).
The bill contained the following clause:
“8 (1) Notwithstanding the Companies Act, the amended memorandum of association and articles of association for the Company shall contain
“ a provision that the primary object of the Company is to develop in the Province the use of power on an economic and efficient basis and for this purpose to engage in the Province and else where in the development, generation, production, transmission, distribution, supply and use of electricity, water, sun, wind, steam, gas, oil or other products or things used or useful in the production of power and the Company shall not construct a generating plant that utilizes nuclear energy to produce electricity”.
That bill was introduced on April 16, 1992. It received its 2nd reading on April 28, 1992 and 3rd reading on May 19, 1992. It came into effect on August 10, 1992.
The Houston government, on April 21, 2025, lifted the ban against nuclear power plants.
The section in bold was removed by SNS 2024 C2 s. 52 and in force April 21, 2025.
SNS – Statutes of Nova Scotia – Chapter 2, Section 52 now reads:
NOVA SCOTIA POWER PRIVATIZATION ACT
“52 Clause 8(1)(a) of Chapter 8 of the Acts of 1992, the Nova Scotia Power Privatization Act, is amended by striking out “and the Company shall not construct a generating plant that utilizes nuclear energy to produce electricity”.
So, section 52, which removed the prohibition for NSP to construct a nuclear power plant, came into effect on April 1, 2025.
In the fall, Tim Houston’s premier’s office announced a memorandum of understanding with the Doug Ford government that said “Nova Scotia and Ontario will work together to explore small modular reactor technology as a clean energy option.”
“Premier Tim Houston, who is also Minister of Energy, signed a memorandum of understanding today, October 23, 2025, alongside Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Stephen Lecce,” the premier’s office stated.
“Small modular reactor technology is innovative, versatile and scalable and has potential to further enhance the safety and economic and environmental benefits of nuclear energy,” the NS gov stated.
“Ontario is leading the way on small modular reactor development in Canada, with its Darlington New Nuclear Project named by the Prime Minister in September a project of national interest to be considered by the Major Projects Office.”
“Nova Scotia is open to exploring the full range of clean energy options that can help meet our province’s future energy needs, build grid resilience and protect ratepayers,” said Premier Houston. “We have an opportunity to learn from Ontario’s experience deploying nuclear technology and I see great value in this partnership to inform system planning and best practices for Nova Scotia.”
“While small modular reactor technology will not be established in Nova Scotia soon, the memorandum of understanding outlines these areas for collaboration:
– sharing knowledge and expertise, including technological readiness, regulatory frameworks, supply chains, economics and financing, nuclear waste management and public and Indigenous engagement
– influencing the federal government to ensure meaningful support and to streamline regulatory approvals
– informing the public about the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear energy and small modular reactors
– engaging with other interested provinces and territories,” the premier’s office explained.
“The world is watching Ontario as we lead the largest expansion of nuclear energy on the continent and build the G7’s first small modular reactor. Through this important clean energy partnership with Nova Scotia, we are helping to advance small modular reactor technology to create good-paying jobs across the country. Small modular reactor deployment is an anchor of our nation-building plan that will create 18,000 construction jobs and add $500 million annually into Ontario’s economy. As we face instability in the global economy, Ontario is partnering with provinces east and west to deliver self-reliance, more jobs and a stronger economy — Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Mines, Government of Ontario.
Getting back to Syd Dumaresq’s org Friends of Nature Conservation Society and the environmental club at the local Forest Heights Community High School, the joint meeting this coming Thursday between the nature org and the high school is designed to galvanize public opposition to both uranium mining and the building of nuclear plants in NS.
Dumaresq notes Friends of Nature was formed in 1954 and is one of the oldest conservation groups in North Americaout of the Village of Chester by Rudy Haase. “He was a real hero and mentor to me,” says Dumaresq.
“Haase lived in Chester and came up to Nova Scotia in 1967 with his three boys because he did not want to be an American anymore. He did wonderful things for Nova Scotia. He died five or six years ago. He was a wonderful guy.”
“It is a public information session so people can be made aware of the hazards of exploring and mining uranium.”
Dumaresq says uranium exploration and mining could forever pollute waterways and end up in wells.
“No matter how you mine uranium, you have to use water. You either use water by bringing the uranium up to the surface and use water to dissolve the uranium and get it out, or you use a form of hydro-fracking. Uranium dissolves easily in water, and it sticks around for thousands, thousands, and thousands of years. You never get it all, so when the miners leave town, there is always this residue of uranium.”
“And, Nova Scotia is so small. You can’t get more than 50 miles away from the land, and if any uranium is mined in the upper parts of the province, there is a chance the uranium-saturated water would sift down to everybody’s well – it’s just a terrible idea in a province this small.”
Uranium is used in nuclear power. “That is not such a great idea, either, because then you have all this spent uranium you have to deal with. It’s just a bad idea all around, no matter how you look at it,” says Dumaresq.
Dumaresq says the Friends of Nature Conservation Society and Rudy Hasse were very involved in the 1980s and 1990s to get governments to ban the mining of uranium and building nuclear power plants in NS.
“They put a moratorium on exploration and then they put an outright ban on exploration”, during the Buchanan administration,” says Dumaresq.
“This fall, the Premier (Houston) just arbitrarily got rid of the ban and opened it wide open, and they actually called for proposals for exploration in quite a few areas of NS and fortunately, industry did not respond. They didn’t get any uranium mining responses,” adds Dumaresq.
The architect and activist says Sask. mines a very high grade of uranium. “It is 100 km away from civilization. So, even there it is not a good idea, at least it is done a little more sensibly and it is high quality. We have a very low grade of uranium in NS, so you have to mine tons and tons and tons here to get a couple of ounces of uranium, and the residue they leave behind would just be awful. We can not have this in Nova Scotia.”
The Friends of Nature gives a student bursary of $500 every year to the school at Chester’s Forest Heights, and the student body contacted the conservation society to co-sponsor a public information session.
“I am so hopeful because of this, because who will carry on this battle when we get too old?”
Haase was a Naval architect by trade and bought the Barkhouse Boat Yard in East Chester. They had made the original Bluenose class sailboats. Haase was a founding member of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, and he started a school for elementary children out of his house and put a library in a barn.”
“He went around the province buying land that he particularly liked and put restrictive covenants such as conservation protections so that the lands could never be developed.
“He ended up owning a couple of hundred acres in East Chester, and he put conservation easements on that, which said it could never be developed. You could build a new barn, but not a larger house, and he said you could never subdivide the lands, never hurt the lands.”
The public meeting to oppose uranium mining is set for next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Forest Heights Community High School, just up from Chester Basin on the road to Kentville.
Dumaresq says The Council of Canadians “are also very big on” generating opposition to Houston’s plans. “There is a meeting they are sponsoring on Wednesday at the Mahone Bay Centre. There is obviously great concern about this, and I do not think this issue is going away. At least, I hope not, we need to get that ban back.”
“They held one of these meetings towards Windsor, when the government put out a proposal for uranium mining, and it was held at a fire hall, and it was standing room only right out the door.”
“I do not think anyone (in NS) wants it. It amazes me they got rid of that ban.”
Syd Dumaresq (The Notebook)
