No review of N.S. police services until mass casualty commission report complete: minister
CBC
Nova Scotia's justice minister says he's aware of analysis of policing services in the province by his department and others, but he's not read it.
"Those are still in draft form," Brad Johns told reporters at Province House on Tuesday. "I'm waiting for them all to come to me as one."
His comments come several weeks after he suggested no such work had taken place. A government spokesperson later clarified that preliminary analysis work had been done, but the former Liberal government ultimately determined the mass casualty commission should be allowed to complete its work first.
Former justice minister Mark Furey ordered the review in December 2020 due to concerns about the looming increase in labour costs for RCMP services, as well as high-profile issues related to RCMP performance, such as a high-speed chase during rush hour, an armed raid near a high school as it was dismissing, and the response to the mass shooting in Portapique.
Johns said Tuesday he has no immediate concerns about policing in the province at any level.
"What I find frustrating at the moment is there almost seems to be this undercurrent of trying to show that there's some kind of conspiracy or that policing isn't doing their job correctly," he said.
"I want the record to be straight — I'm very comfortable with the level of policing in this province at all levels right now."
Johns said it would be premature for the government to make broad decisions about service delivery until after the mass casualty commission, which is tasked with examining events related to last year's mass shooting, completes its work.
"There are going to be recommendations that come out of that in regards to policing. We all know that. I think that independent review needs to be able to go forward," he said.
The commission was scheduled to begin public proceedings this month, but recently delayed them until the end of January. A final report of the commission's work is set for public release on Nov. 1, 2022.
But NDP justice critic Claudia Chender said the commission is focused on "a single, awful incident" and that doesn't pre-empt the government from doing its own deep dive sooner, which should include a look at whether the RCMP contract is in the best interest of the province.
"The issues that we need to look at around policing are broad and they encompass multiple issues across the entire province," she told reporters.
The costs of RCMP services continue to go up, particularly in the last year in connection to the mass shooting response and investigation, as well as activities in southwest Nova Scotia related to the moderate livelihood fishery, she said.
"Nova Scotians have a right to know whether they're not just getting value for money, but whether they're getting justice for money. And I don't think that's clear to a lot of people, and so the assertion that we have no issue and there is no need for a policing review is, frankly, puzzling," said Chender.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.
New poll results released by Narrative Research suggest the Progressive Conservatives are heading into Tuesday's provincial election with a commanding lead over their political rivals.
A measles outbreak in New Brunswick is set to push Canada's annual case count to the highest it's been in five years, highlighting how infectious the disease is and how low vaccination rates have allowed it to take hold, says an immunologist.