In Northern Construction Enterprises Inc. v.
Halifax (Regional Municipality), 2015 NSCA 44, the Nova
Scotia Court of Appeal recently considered the extent to which a
municipality can regulate activities related to a quarry.
In Nova Scotia, the provincial government has reserved the right
to regulate the location of quarries, but has delegated to
municipalities the authority to regulate development adjacent
to quarries. In Northern Construction, one
of the key issues was whether crushing and screening equipment (a
crushing spread) was part of a quarry, and thus outside municipal
regulatory jurisdiction.
According to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, the crushing
spread was part of a quarry and could not be prohibited by the
municipality. In the Court's view, the province reserved the
right in connection with "quarries" and not in connection
with "extraction". As such, the province reserved the
right in connection with all quarries, including aggregate quarries
where
