NDP renews demand for province to release environmental racism report

CITYnews halifax /By Rachel Morgan

The NDP is renewing calls on the provincial government to release the findings and recommendations from Nova Scotia’s Environmental Racism Panel.

The eight-member panel, an idea spurred by the NDP, was appointed in June 2023 to look at how racism affects a community’s natural environment and it was expected to submit its recommendations by the end of that year. It was chaired by Augy Jones, who is now the government’s executive director of African Nova Scotian Affairs.

When appointed to the panel in December 2022, Jones told the Canadian Press: “We want this process to be an example to Canada on how you engage with marginalized communities who have been traumatized in an intergenerational way.”

But 18 months after the recommendations were supposed to be submitted, it appears as if no one has seen them.

“As Premier, it is your job to make sure the work of the panel is respected and acted on. Nova Scotians who have lived with the consequences of environmental racism are still waiting for meaningful change,” Suzy Hansen, NDP critic for African Nova Scotia Affairs and the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, wrote in a letter to Premier Houston. “They’ve waited long enough to be able to read the report for themselves.”

The question remains as to who in government has actually read the report and the recommendations.

In March, Deputy Premier Barbara Adams said the recommendations were made available to, and are being used by all government departments.

“This is an entire government approach in order to deal with the issues that the panel wanted to be addressed,” she said. “All government is reviewing those projects and working on the recommendations.”

At a recent Public Accounts Committee meeting, comments from ministers suggested all ministries may not have had access to the recommendations.

Following a cabinet meeting last week, the minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs, Twila Grosse, told reporters she has read the report but will not be discussing its contents.

She says a meeting will be scheduled soon with a group of ministers and the panel to discuss the findings, although a date hasn’t been set.

“These contradictions undermine trust,” Hansen said. “When your ministers can’t even agree on whether the recommendations have been read, let alone implemented, it send a clear message to communities that their experiences and input are not being taken seriously.”

The NDP has also created a petition that demands the government release the report’s findings to the public.