Drinking water takes priority over river restoration: minister

The minister responsible for New Brunswick says the federal government must first provide clean drinking water across the province before it can help restore the Petitcodiac River.

Two weeks ago the federal government notified the province that it won't help pay to eliminate a causeway blocking fish passage in the river.

The project is not a priority for the federal government, minister Greg Thompson told CBC News Thursday.

There are other pressing needs in New Brunswick, he said, "some of them involving the need for clean drinking water in their communities, and those are hard projects to say no to."

Thompson added that not all the communities along the river want to see the causeway replaced by a bridge.

New Brunswick had not yet told the federal government how much of a contribution it wantedforthe estimated$68 million project.

Premier Shawn Graham unilaterally announced during the 2006 provincial election campaignthatNew Brunswickwould restore the river, and right now it's the province that will have to pay for it, Thompson said.

"That was a commitment made by the premier during the election last year," he said. "There was no understanding that the federal government would be there as a partner on the project."

The New Brunswick government should start the project and then sue Ottawa to help build the bridge over the river, said Michel Desjardins, chairman of the Petitcodiac Riverkeeper environmental group.

Ottawa has a legal obligation to protect the navigable waters of the river, said Desjardins, yet it approved the construction of the causeway that was built in 1968.

Since then silt has reduced the river to a fraction of its former size and decimated fish stocks.

"It looks to me like the federal Conservatives don't care about the most endangered river in the country," Desjardins said.