HALIFAX, MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2020

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ON SUPPLY

12:30 P.M.

CHAIR

Rafah DiCostanzo

THE CHAIR: I call to order the Subcommittee of the Whole on Supply. We’re meeting today to consider the Estimates of the Department of Justice.

Resolution E12 - Resolved, that a sum not exceeding $374,244,000 be granted to the Lieutenant Governor to defray expenses in respect of the Department of Justice, pursuant to the Estimate.

THE CHAIR: We will start with the minister’s remarks. The honourable Minister of Justice.

HON. MARK FUREY: Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before Budget Estimates.

Typically, Madam Chair, in the past, I have been very quick with my comments to allow for good discussion with my colleagues on the committee. Today I’m actually going to take some time and really tell a story of the work that’s happening in the Department of Justice, both for the benefit of my colleagues and also to highlight some of the good news that is having a significant impact on the lives of Nova Scotians.

I’m pleased to highlight that work and to speak about our priorities for the coming year: work that is keeping Nova Scotians in our communities safe; improving access to justice for Nova Scotians, especially for those who struggle the most; and helping lead Nova Scotia forward to become a more accessible province.

Joining me today is Lora MacEachern, Associate Deputy Minister of Justice. Lisa MacKinnon, to my left, is the department’s Executive Director of Finance. They will both assist me in responding to questions from the committee today.

The department supports access to justice for Nova Scotians through its many divisions, including Public Safety and Security, Court Services, Correctional Services, Policy and Information Management, Legal Services, Maintenance Enforcement, Victim Services, Restorative Justice, and the Accessibility Directorate. I have members of our team representing those groups available to support and respond to questions today as well.

Through these divisions, we focus on policing and public safety; administration of the courts, including courthouse security and support to the judiciary; Correctional Services, including community and custody programs and services for adults and youth; Victim Services to help victims of crime; enforcement of court-ordered child and spousal support payments; implementation of the Accessibility Act; providing legal services to the Government of Nova Scotia and its legal entities - literally the law firm for government; and supporting restorative approaches in justice and across government.

As Attorney General, I also have responsibility for oversight of the Public Prosecution Service. Joining us today is Martin Herschorn. Martin is the director of the Public Prosecution Service.

Madam Chair, there are a number of independent agencies and commissions that also report to the Minister of Justice. They include the Office of the Police Complaints Commission, the Public Trustee, the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service, the Serious Incident Response Team, the Human Rights Commission, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal, and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Our budget is just under $375 million - $374,244,000, to be exact. We have a budget increase of $12.8 million, or 3.5 per cent, over last year. The department’s budget highlights for 2020-21 are focused on advancing our commitments to Nova Scotians through the delivery of responsive and accessible programs and services.

Our work is spurred by innovation, prevention, and collaboration. We looked, quite frankly, to deliver justice differently. This means being more responsive to the needs and interests of those we serve. A key priority is to support diversity and inclusion across the justice system. We also take a preventive approach to the work that we do, aiming to break the cycle of repeat offences and to eliminate barriers to access across the province.

Madam Chair, this work, as is the case in all that we do, is driven by our collaborative partnerships with justice partners, victims and survivors, persons with disabilities, and other communities we serve.

Madam Chair, human trafficking and sexual exploitation are the fastest-growing crimes in Canada. The harms of these crimes are impacting Nova Scotians in communities across the province. As part of our ongoing work to keep Nova Scotians and our communities safe and to address serious crime, beginning this year, government will invest an additional $1.4 million annually to fight human trafficking and provide more supports and services for its victims. Our focus will be on protection, prevention, prosecution, and partnership. The trauma and fear that is left with survivors and their loved ones is something none of us can possibly imagine unless we ourselves are victim to it.

In my many years of policing, I was witness to the impacts of these crimes. I spoke with victims and apprehended perpetrators. I can tell you that my resolve to combat the issue and shelter families from the horrors has remained with me.

A considerable amount of the work we undertake within the Department of Justice is focused on addressing sexual violence, domestic violence, and human trafficking. We have delivered and continue to deliver trauma-informed training and sexual violence training to front-line officers, providing them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to effectively handle the complexities of these investigations.

In 2019, we set up a dedicated human trafficking unit of four officers to improve the intervention in human trafficking and the conviction of offenders. Having a provincial team of highly skilled officers dedicated to this work will improve the intervention in human trafficking and the conviction of offenders and better protect our daughters and sons from the harms of human trafficking. This year, we will strengthen this human trafficking unit with an additional $135,000 investment, which will support the hiring of a crime analyst and administrative support personnel. This new investment will allow the investigators to stay focused solely on investigating these crimes.

Two years ago, we began funding the YWCA’s Safe Landing project, which helps victims of human trafficking access needed social supports and emergency housing. We’re working with the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking on a national research project to inform service delivery, public policy development, and police intervention for victims of human trafficking.

With an additional $585,000 added to the department’s budget this year, we will focus on additional actions to help further combat these crimes and better support victims. This includes $285,000 for the department’s Victim Services division for the hiring of three family and victim support navigators based in Halifax Regional Municipality, Cape Breton Regional Municipality, and the South Shore. These navigators will provide one-on-one needs-based support for survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. They will also be the glue that brings everyone together - community, law enforcement, our Public Prosecution Service, and many others - ensuring that survivors have coordinated help. These navigators will work collectively with survivors, families, communities, law enforcement, and others to deliver comprehensive responses to the impacts of these crimes.

We’re also reassigning six province-wide officers from the Additional Officer Program as dedicated sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking investigators. They will lead, coordinate, and advise on investigations and training matters, working closely with the human trafficking unit, prosecutors, Victim Services, and community organizations.

In addition, $300,000 will be provided to the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia for housing support and for the hiring of three youth program coordinators. These coordinators will deliver a Not a #Number program at sites across rural Nova Scotia, including youth correctional facilities, sexual assault centres, family resource centres, and schools. Their work will focus on teaching our youth how to protect themselves from human trafficking and exploitation.

Also, $150,000 is being provided to the Public Prosecution Service for an additional Crown prosecutor to specialize in human trafficking cases, and $40,000 to support specialized training for Crown prosecutors across the province. These investments will ensure better outcomes for survivors and prevent more Nova Scotians from falling victim to these crimes.

In addition to these investments, government will partner with community groups to host a series of round table discussions across the province to better understand the issue of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. These first-voice discussions are impactful. They’re very moving and most emotional. We just did this with domestic violence, and it really allows us to frame the direction and the policies and procedures around these types of abhorrent crimes.

As I indicated last Summer, I had the privilege of meeting with victims and survivors of domestic violence during a series of eight first-voice listening sessions across the province. These conversations were inspiring and heartbreaking. What we heard is informing and driving our continued commitment to ensure that victims and survivors of domestic violence have the support they need to heal and feel safe.

Last Fall, we passed legislation to establish a death review committee focused on domestic violence. This expert committee will review domestic violence deaths and help us better understand the factors that lead to these tragedies. The work of this committee will help save lives. These committees will help us identify gaps in our system to help prevent domestic violence, to learn more about what we can do to make our system better, to be more responsive, to be more proactive, and ultimately to prevent these crimes.

Nova Scotia is also working collaboratively with New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador to address and prevent domestic violence and domestic violence-related homicides. In January, the Council of Atlantic Premiers announced that they would establish the Atlantic Domestic Homicide Review Network to enhance information sharing between Atlantic provinces, jointly consider existing system responses and prevention efforts, identify partnership opportunities with research and academic institutions, and best practices. This network will be created over the coming months. This work will help us map the best path forward for Nova Scotia to address domestic violence and better support victims and survivors.

Madam Chair, in the coming year, we will continue to work in partnership with the Department of Community Services and the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women to implement Standing Together, a provincial action plan to prevent domestic violence and to support victims of domestic violence. Our work will focus on reviewing gaps in programs and expanding current initiatives offered by the department to prevent future violence and support people affected by domestic violence. Particular attention will be paid to historically marginalized and equity-seeking groups.

Planned action will include supporting and participating on the domestic violence law enforcement committee of the Nova Scotia Chiefs of Police Association. This is a new committee to assist in combating domestic violence. We will complete a review of high-risk protocols, and this is about ensuring consistency in police response and community supports to victims. We will work to expand the partners and agencies involved. We will continue to seek input from police and service providers on the updated intimate partner violence quick reference guide to ensure it is providing them with comprehensive access to information about domestic violence resources and best practices.

We will also support the continued implementation of Domestic Violence Courts in Sydney and Halifax. This includes creating consistency in policies, programming, and service delivery; collaborating with community-based agencies and partners; delivering services to clients of the court; and continued monitoring and evaluation to respond to emerging issues in the field. We will focus on the recent expansion of the Domestic Violence Court in Bridgewater. Just this week, there were discussions with justice leaders with the Yarmouth-Argyle community to initiate a domestic violence and wellness court in those communities.

We will ensure stronger support of connections between families experiencing violence and child protection by working with our partners at the Department of Community Services, the Domestic Violence Court program working group, and the restorative initiatives unit to implement case conferencing in cases of current domestic violence child protection matters. This will help create better information sharing between matters in Criminal Court and Family Court proceedings. We will work with partners such as the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Association of Black Social Workers, the Mi’kmaw Legal Support Network, the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, and Transition House Association of Nova Scotia to ensure culturally safe programming is linked to the Domestic Violence Court program.

[12:45 p.m.]

Nova Scotia’s wellness courts, like Domestic Violence Court programs, play a vital role in helping not only individuals but their families and communities as well. The collaborative and restorative approach of these courts has improved the lives of many people over the last 10 years, connecting them to important programs and services and helping set them on a better path forward.

Madam Chair, in my previous career as an RCMP officer, I saw first-hand the devastating impact mental illness and addictions issues have on people and how those issues were very often at the root cause of their conflict with the law. I also know that for many people, they wanted to do better, they wanted to be better. Now as Justice Minister, I can say unequivocally that wellness courts play such a vital role in supporting those who find themselves before a judge in getting them back on a better path. The approach of these courts is the very definition of collaboration and accountability. It’s a restorative approach - quite literally people coming together to determine the best approach to justice for those living with mental illness or addictions and to support safety and security of all Nova Scotians.

There are now wellness courts in Amherst, Dartmouth, Kentville, Port Hawkesbury, Wagmatcook First Nation in Victoria County, which is the first of its kind in the country. We have a Wellness and Gladue court, a provincial court, and a Supreme Court Family division, all in a First Nation community. It’s the only model of its kind in the country.

I want to speak briefly about our efforts in the area of accessibility. This is a critically important area of the department, an area of the department that really is going to effect change over the next number of years. Mr. Gerry Post, who is presently the executive director of the Accessibility Directorate, often recites this well-known and profound quote, “diversity is a fact, inclusion is an act.” This sentiment and his own personal experience pushed Gerry to drive the changes that need to be made for us to become a more inclusive and accessible province.

This year the Department of Justice will continue to lead the implementation of the Access by Design 2030 strategy and the government of Nova Scotia’s accessibility plan. These are guiding Nova Scotia toward our goal of being a fully accessible province by 2030. This is no small task, and we recognize that. It will take government, municipalities, businesses, communities, and individuals working together to get there. It will take the knowledge gained through the first voice perspective. This year we are investing an additional $798,000 on the Accessibility Directorate to support the implementation of government’s work on accessibility.

I continue to be impressed with the enormity of the work the directorate has achieved in its short time. Our dedicated team in the Accessibility Directorate are continuously engaging with persons with disabilities, gaining insight into this important work, and ensuring that the programs we deliver account for the differing abilities of all Nova Scotians. This additional funding in the coming fiscal year will allow for the hiring of five more staff in the Accessibility Directorate to support this critical work and help guide the work of future standard development committees, including employment, transportation, information, communication, as well as the delivery of goods and services.

In December, I also announced a plan to formalize and build on the accessibility work that is already happening within our communities, universities, and other establishments, and to reinforce our commitment to moving forward.

Beginning in April 2020, Nova Scotia municipalities, towns, and villages; universities; the Nova Scotia Community College; and public libraries will become prescribed public sector bodies under the Accessibility Act. This means they are now required to establish an accessibility advisory committee and prepare an accessibility plan to improve accessibility for their employees, stakeholders, and clients. This is an opportunity to tap into the vast expertise that exists in the public sector and to formalize and further advance accessibility work that is already happening across these organizations.

This past year, we also established the province’s accessibility standard developments committee. Community experts from education and the built environment, the majority of whom are persons with disabilities, are meeting regularly to develop recommendations for government. Significant progress has been made over the past to advance the commitments laid out in government’s accessibility plan, including the completion of accessibility audits of our provincial parks and the development of new diversity training for senior leaders within government that incorporates accommodation for employment equity groups.

We have also created a new website for the Province of Nova Scotia which meets international standards for website accessibility and ensures an equal user experience for everyone regardless of their ability, device, situation, or location. Work is happening across government to make our province more inclusive and accessible.

The Department of Lands and Forestry is working to improve accessibility at provincial campgrounds, parks, and beaches. The Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture has increased the number of barrier-free fishing sites throughout Nova Scotia. There are currently 19 sites province-wide that provide recreational angling opportunities to anglers with disabilities.

This past year, we partnered with the Rick Hansen Foundation to expand awareness of accessibility rights through the Everyone Everywhere campaign.

Work is under way now on the development of a provincial public awareness campaign to increase Nova Scotians’ understanding of accessibility, the rights of persons with disabilities, and barriers faced by persons with disabilities. This work, along with our many other focus initiatives will ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are fully realized.

Madam Chair, I want to take this opportunity to recognize Gerry Post. I don’t know if Gerry is with us today. Gerry recently announced his retirement from the Public Service. His leaving is going to be a huge loss for us in the department and for the implementation of this strategy across the province. Although he has decided to take some much-deserved downtime from working life, I’m sure he will continue to be every bit involved in the efforts of the province going forward. Gerry has been our strongest accessibility ally. He has been instrumental in establishing the Accessibility Directorate and advancing the work of government in achieving our accessibility goal. Nova Scotians have been well-served by his leadership and unparalleled dedication and drive that Gerry Post has brought to this critical role. Quite frankly, it’s infectious. When you’re around him, you can’t help but feel the movement and the music and the motion and everything that Gerry brings to the workplace. I think it’s safe to say that everyone in this room who knows Gerry and has worked with him is indebted to him.

Improving access to justice is another important part of the work we do in the Department of Justice, especially for those who struggle the most. Access to justice includes many things: safety, fairness, and responsive and preventive justice. It means resolving matters in a timely manner and providing expanded access to information and help. It means having a system that is culturally proficient and culturally reflective, and helping people access legal assistance and representation when it’s needed, as we do through funding and working with organizations like Nova Scotia Legal Aid.

It also means seeing people like yourselves represented in all areas of our province’s justice system and ensuring that Nova Scotians know and understand their rights and responsibilities. It means collaboration among government departments and with community. For example, in Corrections, we are accelerating our work with community partners like the John Howard Society, Seven Steps, the Elizabeth Fry Society, and Mi’kmaw elders. We are expanding our connections with more community partners like 902 ManUp, the Nova Scotia Brotherhood Initiative, and Mi’kmaw elders. It’s important that our justice system reflect the cultural diversity of our province. Every voice must be heard. Supporting inclusion and diversity in our justice system remains a top priority.

We also acknowledge the negative impacts that systemic racism has had on Indigenous and African Nova Scotians who are over-represented in the criminal justice system. The Department of Justice remains committed to addressing systemic racism and discrimination throughout the justice system. We are undertaking work throughout the department to ensure better responses, especially for Indigenous and African Nova Scotians and their access to justice. I said it before, the status quo is not acceptable. It’s not an option. We’re committed to action, accountability, and an approach of collaboration and communication.

In the coming year, we will engage Indigenous communities to develop an Indigenous justice action plan. Through the International Decade for People of African Descent and a Count Us In action plan, we have committed to developing an African Nova Scotian justice plan. The main goals of these plans will be to address the overrepresentation of both groups in the criminal justice system and to continue to increase their representation in justice professions. We have, for example, increased funding to the Indigenous, Black, and Mi’kmaq initiative at the Schulich School of Law by $350,000 to sustain this most valuable program. Our work will also help address and break down the systemic racism that we know exists in our criminal justice system, work that will help ensure that the province’s justice system better meets the needs of Indigenous and African Nova Scotians.

The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry showed us many things. The report points out progress and defines it in such a way that it requires a change in how we do things, not just in the things we do. We know that change is required throughout the entire justice system to address long-standing systemic racism, discrimination, and overrepresentation. The restorative inquiry reminded us of the opportunity to do things differently and to work differently. In the coming year, we will continue to apply what we learned from the restorative inquiry and to work with the African Nova Scotian community to ensure that we take meaningful action to ensure our justice system better meets their needs.

Madam Chair, we also continue our work and our commitments to implement the recommendations made by the Wortley report. Respectful interactions between police and citizens are essential to safe communities and effective policing. All Nova Scotians deserve respect and equal treatment. Government and police have committed to meaningful change to address systemic racism, discrimination, racial disparities, and overrepresentation in the province’s justice system. We therefore continue to work with police and African Nova Scotian community to implement the Wortley report recommendations, and we’re making progress.

For example, we took action to ban street checks. Last March, I issued a directive prohibiting the use of street checks as part of a quota system or a performance management tool. The directive required that officers at all levels, particularly front-line officers, adhere to their applicable codes of ethics and relevant policies, and review the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, human rights legislation, and the Wortley report. Last April, I issued a directive which placed a moratorium on street checks of vehicle passengers and pedestrians. This was followed up by a permanent ban on street checks, effective October 18, 2019.

In response to the Wortley report, we have changed the Police Act regulations to extend the timeline for filing a complaint against municipal police forces from 6 to 12 months, and we have provided police with additional funding to support training for officers and supported police agencies to enhance their cultural competency through training modules related to ethics, accountability, racially biased policing, trauma-informed training, and sensitivity training.

Another recommendation made by Dr. Wortley was to develop a public education campaign to ensure people are aware of their rights when interacting with police. In partnership with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, Nova Scotia Legal Aid, the law enforcement community, African Nova Scotian Affairs, the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, and the African Nova Scotian community, we are in the early stages of developing a public education and awareness campaign that will aim to ensure all Nova Scotians, including police and private security staff, and providers of services in stores and shopping malls, for example, are aware of and understand citizens’ rights and responsibilities when interacting with police. We’re working with law enforcement to keep apprised of their work on advancing the Wortley report recommendations.

Madam Chair, all Nova Scotians from every community need to see themselves reflected in our justice system. Ensuring a diverse and inclusive workforce is essential to improving both our workplace and our service to Nova Scotians. As a department, we’re taking action to achieve this. We recently launched a four-year diversity and inclusion action plan which aims to increase equity, diversity, and inclusivity in our departmental workforce and in the programs and services that we provide. The Department of Justice’s 2019-23 diversity and inclusion action plan focuses on three commitments: recruitment, retention, and advancement; building a culturally competent and inclusive work environment; and delivering culturally responsive programming and services. This year, the department created a new role, the senior adviser on diversity and inclusion. This individual sits at the senior executive table and is responsible for implementation of the action plan, coordinating our reporting and accountability on equity and diversity, and supporting the work of the department in its diversity and inclusion initiatives.

[1:00 p.m.]

I want to speak briefly on the area of restorative justice. Nova Scotians can be proud of the fact that our province is a leader in restorative justice. Nova Scotia has a long history over multiple consecutive governments of recognizing that restorative justice and a restorative approach can successfully transform the criminal justice system and make communities safe. Restorative justice offers victims an active role in addressing their harms and needs in developing a plan for the future. It also allows offenders to play a key role in addressing the harms they are responsible for.

For the past 20 years, Nova Scotians have been championing a restorative justice approach in our justice system. This has led us to having one of the most comprehensive restorative justice programs in the country. Since the program was launched, more than 26,000 cases have been referred to restorative justice. There were more than 1,300 adult referrals to the program in 2019 alone. This represents a 63 per cent increase over the previous year. A restorative approach focuses on individual and collective accountability. It considers the histories, contexts, and causes of harms and their impacts and works to bring about collaborative and non-adversarial resolutions. We all know that crime can impact an individual’s or community’s sense of safety and security. It can impact the lives of families and loved ones. By addressing the harms and needs of those affected by crime, communities and individuals can begin to heal, victims become less fearful of being revictimized, and offenders become less likely to reoffend. We know restorative justice reduces recidivism in criminal behaviours.

Restorative justice goes beyond retribution. It aims to make right what was wrong, to rebalance the imbalances created by crime, and to reconcile relationships. Our successes have shown us that restorative justice is a path we need to be considering more often and using more frequently. Government remains committed to accelerating the use of restorative justice in Nova Scotia. I have been fortunate to participate at the federal level in federal-provincial-territorial meetings. I can tell you that the work that we’re doing is being modelled by other provinces and territories. They see the Nova Scotia model to be the best practice.

Recent changes to the program will ensure consistent access to restorative justice for both youth and adults across Nova Scotia and allow earlier and more responsive interventions to the impacts of crime. There are many organizations that deserve recognition, but time allows me only to highlight a few, including police, the judiciary, Public Prosecution Service, Correctional Services, the eight restorative justice agencies across the province, and the Mi’kmaw Legal Support Network. Government increased funding last year to community justice organizations which, in partnership with community corrections, deliver our restorative justice program across the province. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of them for the work they do in delivering a more positive outcome for those impacted by crime.

This year, government will invest $450,000 to support the establishment of an international centre of excellence on restorative justice. This initiative is a partnership with Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, led by Jennifer Llewellyn, who is well known to many of us as a professor at the Schulich School of Law and, quite frankly, a global expert on restorative justice. This investment will provide an opportunity for us as a province to build on our success as a nationally and internationally recognized leader in a restorative justice approach. The lab will support restorative approach research, innovation, and education, allowing us to build capacity, develop policy, and support collaboration with community and the private sector. I’m actually quite excited about this initiative.

In 2020-21, the department will also support government’s commitment to work differently, as laid out in the final report of the Restorative Inquiry into the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, including enhancing our responsiveness to families and children by supporting the development of an integrated and family-centred approach to decision-making and service delivery.

Correctional service is an important element of the Department of Justice. Restorative justice informs many practices within the correctional system as well. Even when someone assents to custody or community supervision, however, we have the responsibility to ensure a safe a rehabilitative environment for those in our custody. Rehabilitation is critical to crime prevention and to ensuring that those in our custody successfully reintegrate back into their communities. I’m a big believer that society is better served by a justice system that is focused on support, rehabilitation, and reintegration, rather than exclusively on punishment. Our programs support inmates in a variety of areas, including substance abuse, educational upgrading, and anger management. The Limitless program, which we deliver in partnership with the Nova Scotia Community College, is one such example. This program helps inmates gain college credits and transition to community college once released. To date, 107 inmates have participated in the program; 26 have gone on to be enrolled as NSCC students upon release from custody.

Our community outreach program at Cape Breton Correctional Facility is another example of the programs offered to help inmates. The community outreach program provides opportunity for inmates to give back to their community through work like cleanups and landscaping. This helps inmates build a sense of pride and self worth, and develop skills and confidence to successfully reintegrate into the community and to seek and secure employment, all the while making a lasting positive impact on the community.

Correctional services also works closely with the Elizabeth Fry Society to help meet the needs of female inmates and those in the community through such programs as Circles of Support. Many of these women have been victims of violence and marginalized within the community. The Elizabeth Fry Society does excellent work for vulnerable women and girls to help address some of the root causes of criminal behaviour. We’re very proud to support the Elizabeth Fry Society through core funding for its work both inside our correctional facilities and in the community.

In the coming year we will work to better meet the needs of female inmates by transitioning East Unit at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility into a separate facility for women. We will also continue to extend educational opportunities for those integrating from custody to community.

Timely justice is one of the hallmarks of a free and democratic society. Addressing delays and making justice more effective and efficient is a top priority for me as Attorney General and Minister of Justice and for our government. This requires the combined efforts of the police, Public Prosecution Service, Legal Aid, the judiciary, court services, and Corrections. The Criminal Justice Transformation Group, which includes the leaders from these groups, is focused on this issue. Over the past five years, we have seen improvements in the time it takes to process cases in criminal court. Adult criminal cases are processed two weeks faster than they were in the past. We are making progress in reducing unnecessary delay, and we’ll continue our work in the coming year. The province’s Criminal Justice Transformation Group is also beginning to work to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous and African Nova Scotians presently in remand.

Madam Chair, we’re continuing to plan and invest in our courthouse infrastructure, including security and accessibility. The infrastructure of our court facilities around the province is critically important. We’re presently working with the judiciary and court stakeholders to help determine the priorities for the construction or renovation of courthouses across the province. Accessibility renovations are under way now at the Digby Justice Centre and the Amherst Supreme Court. These renovations will ensure that buildings are accessible for those using wheelchairs or walking aids. This work aligns with our efforts to modernize our courthouses and to help those with disabilities better access government buildings.

This year, we are also investing an additional $2 million to increase the staffing complement for sheriff services. Our sheriffs do extremely challenging and critical work on behalf of the judiciary, court staff, the public, and persons in our custody. Their safety and the safety of those we serve remains a top priority. We recently undertook an extensive staffing review of Sheriff Services to ensure we had the right staffing levels. This review, in collaboration with our labour groups and the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, included extensive consultation with staff to hear first-hand their concerns and priorities. We listened and have made considerable investment in our operations and the safety of our front-line deputy sheriffs. This investment is about creating a more effective organization, one that can continue to deliver effective safety and security for the judiciary, for our court staff, for the public, and for persons in our custody.

We continue our work to expand the unified Family Court model across the province. This will ensure that all Nova Scotians have access to a single specialized court for all family law matters. I’m not sure if you’re aware of it or not, but just Friday, the federal minister appointed four individuals to the Supreme Court Family Division to allow the Unified Family Court in Nova Scotia to expand. Expanding the Unified Family Court will help to reduce stress on families that are already dealing with difficult times and to navigate two different court systems. This expansion will improve access to justice for families quite literally across the province.

Madam Chair, another area that’s important and near and dear to my heart from my policing experience is the area of maintenance enforcement. This is a priority for me and for our government. The ongoing work is important to strengthen our maintenance enforcement program so children and families get the court-ordered child and spousal support they are entitled to. This is a crucial program. You have heard me say it’s the difference between living in poverty or out of poverty. It’s the difference between a child simply surviving or a child thriving. This program supports the financial and emotional stability of Nova Scotians. It helps Nova Scotians out of poverty and helps strengthen the economic viability of our province. It supports a child’s ability to thrive instead of simply surviving.

Listen to these numbers. Each day, the maintenance enforcement team supports over 14,000 families and more than 12,000 of our province’s children and youth. They collect and distribute $230,000 a day, $5 million a month, on behalf of families and children. Think about that. We work to ensure that families that rely on child and spousal support and that have been ordered by the courts to receive it do get it. About 10 per cent of support is collected through interjurisdictional support orders, and that’s why provincial co-operation on this issue is so important. If parents owe monies, we expect that they will be paid, no matter where that parent lives. We continue to work with our federal and provincial partners to see this happen.

We recently worked to ensure that all cases are being treated the same across jurisdictions when a young person reaches the age of majority. We’re looking at how we can better work together to trace and locate payors. Nova Scotia is a leader in this work, and we’re proud of the progress we’re making. I was in Victoria a little more than a month ago. This was not on the agenda of federal-provincial-territorial ministers. I took exception to that. I expressed my concerns with the federal minister. I documented my concerns, and during the course of round table discussions was able to inject this on the table. We have a great working relationship with a number of other provinces, but we have to build and expand on those circumstances. I’ve shared an example in the Legislature, I believe during Question Period. Working collaboratively with communities, individuals, and in these circumstances, Alberta, we were able to track down and trace a bank account where a parent was not supporting the child, a court-ordered child support, and we were able to secure $80,000 for that mother and her young family. That young woman is a resident of Queens County, my colleague’s constituent. I can tell you they are over the moon and so appreciative of the collaboration that took place to achieve those outcomes. We can do better. We will do better.

[1:15 p.m.]

When I speak about financial stability, with financial stability comes a path to opportunities and success. We all know that. We see that. Strong families mean strong communities. Support payments are often the difference between surviving and thriving. There are more than 12,000 Nova Scotia children who depend on court-ordered child support payments being made in full and on time. We’re committed to making sure we’re doing all we can to support them, including collecting on outstanding arrears. Arrears for cases managed by the Maintenance Enforcement Program have been reduced by over 14 per cent since March 2018, and they’re at the lowest level in 15 years. This is the one subject where I have been accosted on the street by male individuals who take offence to the level of enforcement we’re applying. I have been threatened personally, and I’ve warned them: stay tuned, there’s more to come.

There’s a film being made to support delinquent men. They approached me to be interviewed, and I declined, of course. They wanted to interview a caseworker. Those public servants in the Department of Justice who work in the Maintenance Enforcement Program will not be used or abused to drive the agenda of those who fail to make child support and spousal support payments. I said this publicly in the media. Quite frankly, bring it on. We’re ready for the fight. We need the support of everybody around this table, of all political stripes, to drive this agenda. I know I have the support of my colleagues on this. I know I have the collective support of my colleagues on this subject.

Enforcement of cases in arrears continues to trend upward. This is another good news story, with a 54 per cent improvement over the last two fiscal years. Work this year will continue to focus on increasing enforcement of arrears and decreasing reliance on the social safety net for vulnerable families. We will also focus on leading collaborative work with other jurisdictions to improve case management of maintenance orders being enforced outside of Nova Scotia. Based on my interjection, I have provided correspondence. We have federal-provincial-territorial meetings this Fall. I’m comfortable to say that the maintenance enforcement interjurisdictional support orders will be on the agenda for this Fall.

Madam Chair, we must remain focused on ensuring that all Nova Scotians have access to justice. This means providing easier access to services and programs. We will focus on client service improvements that leverage the online and electronic channels we recently made available to Maintenance Enforcement Program clients. We spent $1.5 million and introduced an app so payments are more efficient and more effective, quicker in and quicker out for recipients. We’ll promote increased use of digital technology to improve administrative processing, program effectiveness, and client service.

Another area I want to touch on is the area of cyberbullying. We see this too often in our communities. Smartphones, social media, and online channels continue to be used as a means of cyberbullying and the unwanted sharing of intimate images. The impacts of these behaviours can be devastating for victims. The Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act was adopted in response to the growth of these issues. Since this Act has come into effect, the CyberScan unit has received 258 complaints and assisted with the informal resolution of 81.6 per cent of those cases, so a restorative justice methodology applied to the CyberScan initiatives. Staff in the unit have also provided hundreds of presentations to the public, reaching an audience of over 11,000, including more than 9,000 students. The first successful application made under the Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act was heard in the Halifax Supreme Court in July last year. This court case, along with education and outreach delivered by the CyberScan unit is sending the message that these behaviours are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Madam Chair, in the coming year, we will continue to keep Nova Scotians safe through our cyberprotection work and help victims of cyberbullying and the unwanted sharing of intimate images to understand the resolution options and navigate the justice system.

I’ll just say a few words about our Public Prosecution Service. The Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service represents the Crown in all criminal proceedings and was the first independent prosecution service in Canada. The PPS employs more than 100 Crown attorneys and about 75 support staff in 18 offices across the province. Our Crown attorneys handle about 50,000 Criminal Code charges every year. On top of that, they handle trial court appeals as well. In addition to prosecuting all Criminal Code offences in Nova Scotia, the PPS is responsible for prosecuting some 10,000 violations of provincial Statutes annually. Major cases, we know, are complex and often require a significant amount of time. They’re very high profile. The skill and dedication from more than one Crown attorney is necessary, often two Crown attorneys on these highly complex cases.

Public safety and public perception of the justice system, quite frankly, are influenced by the outcomes of these cases, so it’s important to dedicate our best and an appropriate level of resourcing in these matters. The PPS makes it a practice to assign at least two Crown attorneys to each murder case, with at least one being a senior Crown attorney. This is essential to professionally respond to the demands of these very difficult cases. Crown attorneys with the services division of appeals and special prosecutions provide advice and prosecute major and complex prosecutions. These can include organized crime, murder prosecutions, complex fraud cases, historical sexual assaults, proceeds of crime cases, cybercrime, child pornography offences, provincial regulatory offences, and cases related to Aboriginal law.

I would like to talk for a few moments about the challenges facing the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service and this government’s effort over the past couple of years to support PPS in successfully meeting these challenges. A growing concern for our province has been a significant increase in human trafficking, and I mentioned this earlier. In fact, Nova Scotia has the highest rates of human trafficking in Canada, very comparable to the City of Ottawa, not something to be proud of. Over the next year, the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service will be able to focus more intently on this criminal activity and behaviour. This budget allows the PPS to hire a new Crown attorney dedicated to prosecuting human trafficking cases. The new Crown attorney will also participate in the delivery of specialized training to other Crown attorneys and collaborate with our justice partners in combating this horrific crime.

At the same time, the Public Prosecution Service must continue to be especially vigilant about case delay to ensure the accused is tried within a reasonable time period. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Jordan decision that all superior court cases and all trials which have a preliminary inquiry will have a time limit of 30 months from the date when the charge has been laid to the completion of the trial. For provincial court matters, the time limit is 18 months. Exceeding these time limitations puts criminal charges at risk of being stayed. We want to prevent that, wherever and whenever we can. The PPS, working with others, launched several initiatives to deal with this and the result has been that Nova Scotia, among all Canadian jurisdictions, has, at six cases, one of the lowest numbers of cases stayed due to delay. One case is too many, but the work we’re doing is work in the right direction, mitigating these circumstances and providing for appropriate access to justice.

An initiative that the PPS has undertaken to combat delay is the establishment of the Dartmouth intake team, in which five dedicated Crown attorneys conduct arraignment days, perform an assessment as to realistic prospect of conviction, contact complainants who appear to be hostile or recanting to further assess file viability, provide direction to police for necessary follow-up, and communicate with defence counsel about possible early resolutions. Here, Madam Chair, you see again restorative justice methodology and the application within our criminal justice system.

The Dartmouth intake team has had very positive results, reducing time to trial in the Dartmouth Provincial Court from up to a year down to two or three months. This focused effort is paying dividends. Avoiding delay will continue to be a major priority for the Public Prosecution Service for years to come. That’s not going to end anytime soon. The pressures on the court system continue. The pressures on our Public Prosecution Service continue, but I know they’re committed to staying ahead of this and finding those resolutions when possible. I want to commend the Public Prosecution Service for the work they’re doing and also for focusing on domestic violence, sexual violence, and cultural responsiveness.

Nova Scotia Crown attorneys are now being guided by a new policy when prosecuting any criminal cases involving Indigenous peoples. The policy recognizes the special legal and constitutional status of Indigenous peoples and is a step-by-step guide for Crown attorneys as they consider the unique factors contributing to an Indigenous person’s contact within the criminal justice system.

This year, the Public Prosecution Service published a new guide providing sexual assault survivors with plain-language information about sexual assault prosecutions. The survivors’ guide to sexual assault prosecutions takes survivors through the multiple steps of the prosecution, which can be very different from other prosecutions. The publication was tested with focus groups which include survivors of sexual violence and those who work with survivors, so we’re quite comfortable in its future application.

Before I close, I want to share some of the important work being done in Nova Scotia by the government and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. Over the past year, Nova Scotians have seen this government take action on street checks following the release of the Wortley report. Those most affected know very well that discrimination remains a widespread issue. I assure all Nova Scotians that addressing racism remains a priority. The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission has committed to continuing its work to address long-standing issues of systemic racism related to people of African descent.

The commission will once again be expanding its online training resources to provide free public education for the province on a wide range of human rights issues. More than 20,000 Nova Scotians have participated in online training courses offered through the commission’s virtual campus on issues such as preventing consumer racial profiling, addressing sexual harassment in workplaces, and removing barriers to employment for persons with disabilities. These courses are an example of steps the commission is taking to modernize and meet the requirements of an ever-changing human rights landscape. The work is being shared nationally through the commission’s leadership role of the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies, currently chaired by our own Nova Scotian commission CEO, Christine Hanson. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Hanson and her team for the ongoing commitment to this important work. I look forward to continuing the support of the work of the commission and the implementation of Canada’s international human rights obligations. Nova Scotia will be hosting the upcoming federal-provincial-territorial ministers meetings on human rights in May.

Before I conclude my remarks, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the full team at the Department of Justice for their commitment to the people of Nova Scotia. The support that they extend to me on a daily basis - and those days are not 8-hour days, they’re 24-hour days - is quite phenomenal. It’s exceptional, it’s responsive, and it’s in the best interest of all Nova Scotians. Seventeen hundred members of our team are on the front line delivering critical justice programs and services quite literally every day. I believe Nova Scotians can be extremely proud of the work the justice team does on their behalf. They accomplish great things every day. I acknowledge the important work they do every day, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for that.

With that, Madam Chair, I’m open to questions.

THE CHAIR: Thank you, minister. I have made many notes here, and I thank you for all the details.

We will be starting with the PC Party for one hour.

The honourable member for Queens-Shelburne.

KIM MASLAND: I thank the minister and staff for being here this afternoon and for the great work that you folks do. I know the minister has dedicated his entire career to justice and ensuring that citizens are safe. I would like to take the time to thank you for that. As a mother-in-law of an RCMP officer, I certainly know the sacrifices that you have made and that you continue to make to ensure that our province is safe. Thank you to you and your staff for all you do for citizens of Nova Scotia.

[1:30 p.m.]

Moving on to questions. One of the things that I didn’t hear you mention in your long speech was cannabis. During our time debating the regulation of cannabis in the Legislature, there were many conversations that we had concerning the black market, training, safety, and education. We have heard the minister say in the past that when it comes to a reduction in the black market, there is no switch that we’re going to flip and transition to a legal recreational market, and that this would take time. I certainly agree with the minister on that and would go as far as to say that we will probably never, sadly, eliminate the black market. I’m wondering if the minister can advise what effect legal cannabis has had on the black market. Can you quantify how much, and how would you measure that effect?

MARK FUREY: The legalization of cannabis, quite frankly, was a very complex undertaking. All of the points that you have identified were in fact at the time challenges. How do you legalize a product knowing that there’s an existing black market? The strategy, quite simply, from the outset was to keep it close and slow. We wanted to get this right from day one. We recognized that the competition was in fact organized crime, that the competition was existing black markets that were well established in many communities over many years. We felt we had to start somewhere.

I can tell you from my own experience in policing, whether it’s legal or not, people are consuming. I think that’s a given fact. We all recognize that. What people don’t realize is where the product in the black market is coming from. I want to give you an example. Back a number of years ago, I was involved in a particular investigation into cultivation in Lunenburg County. We used some undercover elements and surveillance over the course of the investigation. I remember being in the wooded area - there were two plots of growth. There were about 750 plants. The majority of them were in the perimeter of a pasture in the treeline, so they were exposed to natural light and natural rain. That was basically the fertilizing system. The two individuals allowed nature to grow the product. But within a confined wooded space where the concentration of sunlight and heat was much greater, they had a plot of 32 plants. Every Saturday morning, they would drive out from the city and go into this location. Onsite, they had 45-gallon plastic drums, and they were mixing herbicides and pesticides for purposes of fertilizing these plants. Without exaggerating, they had every plant named. These were two experienced individuals. One was a biologist, the other was a plant specialist. They knew what they were doing.

The point of my story is that they were feeding and injecting these plants with any number of chemicals, most of them carcinogenic. What they were yielding was a different plant altogether. There was obviously some cross-pollination. Your typical marijuana plant is six or seven feet high with sparse leafage. This breed of plant that they had created was three feet high and three feet wide. Imagine that - literally this wide and this tall. The abundance of growth of what we call the bud on the plant was unbelievable. What they were able to produce was quite remarkable. The content of THC, which is the liquid effective element of the plant, a sticky substance, you could touch the plant, and the leaves and bud would stick to your fingers. There was that much concentration in the plant.

I use that as an example of where the black market is sourcing their product, and the impact that has. When we talk about legalization - I’ll be honest with you, for the last eight years I spent in policing, I was advocating the legalization of cannabis because of the impact I saw it having. Providing a safe regulated product - although some may disagree - was in fact a much better approach than the availability of a product that nobody knew what went into its production. That’s why I use that as an example.

To my colleague’s question, we have the numbers. I just don’t have them with me. What we’re seeing is a reduction, a decrease, in the black market product and an increase in the purchase of the regulated, legal, product through the Nova Scotia Liquor commission – corporation - they’re offended by one of those two words, and I get them mixed up all the time - NSLC. We are seeing a shift.

One of the initial criticisms that we received - I go back to saying keep it close and keep it tight, keep it slow, so you understand the growth. I think we initially had nine stores, and there was a lot of criticism that that didn’t allow for availability in some communities, and therefore the black market would continue to thrive. At the same time, we created an opportunity for online purchasing, anticipating that that would take up to about 50 per cent of the purchase of the legal product. Nowhere in Canada did anyone see those numbers. We were seeing anywhere from 2 per cent to 6 per cent uptake in online orders across the country. Sometimes you’re the author of your own misfortune.

The employees in NSLC, in the training program they put together for the legalization of cannabis was absolutely phenomenal. Consistent feedback I get from people in the community is that the quality of the information and the training and the knowledge of our NSLC team who in very short order turned around a retail model that we as Nova Scotians can take pride in. We have a well-established, regulated, highly respected model that other provinces are now looking at because other provinces have not been able to achieve the same structure around the legalization of cannabis.

I like to frame it this way because I think it’s an important element of the question you have asked, and you would appreciate this coming from a police background yourself as a community support worker. The legalization of cannabis, the revenues generated - revenues, not profits because there are costs associated to the implementation of legalization - were just shy of $66 million. That’s from October 2018 to September 2019, basically a year. Look at it this way. Flip that. That’s $65 million - think about this - this is small Nova Scotia. That’s $65 million that did not get into the hands of organized crime. Organized crime, the cannabis sector is the financial institution of organized crime. It generates all the revenue they need to do everything else they do - extortion, human trafficking, illegal firearms, and the list goes on and on and on.

We’re making progress. There’s more work to do. I’m pleased with the progress we’re making. You would know just recently, the NSLC announced I believe 14 new stores - retail and/or boutique stores - across the province. We believe that is the next step in reducing one’s desire to purchase through the black market.

KIM MASLAND: We talk about access to the regulated product and how the rollout - if I could use that word - was slow in the beginning. Excuse the pun. We have seen the increase by government to select more NSLC locations. I think actually the NSLC in my constituency in Liverpool is the recipient of one of those stores. We do know that there are still gaps in the map, so to speak. I’m wondering if the minister can advise - we have the 14 new stores that were just opened. Is there a plan to eventually have this regulated legal product in all of the stores in the province?

MARK FUREY: The short answer is no. There’s no long-term plan to create that retail model in every NSLC storefront. As I said earlier, we have maintained control of the legalization of cannabis. We started with small numbers of stores.

I’ll give you a little bit of background rationale why. We worked very closely with the States of Colorado and Washington in our work up to legalization Phase 1, the leaf product. What happened in Colorado is basically anyone who wanted to operate a cannabis storefront had the ability to do that. We use the humour of the work environment relative to this. There are more cannabis retail stores in Colorado than there are Wendy’s, McDonalds, and Starbucks combined. They actually have a problem of oversupply. Cannabis in the U.S. is legal in certain states and illegal in most states. They have an issue where they’re actually exporting legal product from Colorado to states where cannabis is not legal. It was because they didn’t keep control from the outset, and once the horse is out of the barn, it’s pretty hard to get them back in. That’s really what happened in Colorado.

We talked about that extensively. How does that impact our strategy and plan for legalization? That was the reason we wanted to keep it very tight, very well-controlled - for two primary reasons: to confront the black market and to keep the product out of the hands of our youth.

Some say that’s hypocritical. It’s not hypocritical in the sense that they have access to illegal cannabis. I can tell you from policing experience that anyone who wants to purchase illegal cannabis could do that. They now have a safe option. The strategies and work we have put in place - we said this from day one, that we’re not going to flip a switch and change this overnight. This is going to take time. I say this confidently. We have seen that progressive transition. I believe the opening of these stores is the next step in that process. We’ll give NSLC the opportunity to now further assess the impact of these stores. I believe they’ll be opened over the next 18 months. That’s the plan. Some will be up and running sooner than others, depending on the design, the footprint, the model - whether it’s full retail or the boutique model. I think the boutique model, some of them are just 200 square feet. They’re pretty compact spaces.

NSLC has been outstanding to work with on this file. It has really been an incredible dialogue to see us unpack this legalization strategy compared to some of the challenges other provinces are facing. It’s possible, into the future, there could be other communities identified that aren’t part of the initial 23. There’s no plan that I’m aware of to eventually have a retail site in every store.

KIM MASLAND: I’m just wondering if the minister can comment - how many illegal cannabis stores were there in the province when cannabis was legalized?

MARK FUREY: I just don’t have the recollection, can’t pull back the total number of illegal dispensaries that existed prior to legalization - safe to say in excess of 50. My recollection is that there were 47 in HRM alone. We know we’re now down to single digits for storefront illegal dispensaries. That fluctuates based on the enforcement our law enforcement community is providing.

[1:45 p.m.]

We also know that there has been a transition to online sales instead of storefront sales. They existed previously, but there has been work done. I know at least one online site has been shut down. There’s work that continues to address that online element because it is a second method of illegal sales that are, as you can appreciate, much more difficult to address. I know our law enforcement community is focused on that at the same time.

KIM MASLAND: Back in 2018, we had 342 officers trained to give the standard field sobriety test. At that time, it was stated that all front-line officers in Nova Scotia would be trained or recertified. I’m just wondering if the minister can give an update on where we stand with all officers being trained or recertified in the standard field sobriety test.

MARK FUREY: As of January 2020, there are 609 trained standard field sobriety test operators, or SFSTs, as they are often referred to. The breakdown there is 324 RCMP officers and 285 municipal police officers.

KIM MASLAND: Does that mean that all front-line officers have now been trained? How many would we have in the province?

MARK FUREY: They wouldn’t all be trained. There would be an ongoing effort to continue training into the future. I’m estimating the total number of law enforcement officers to be in the area of 1,000 in general numbers. I can get the exact number. We know 609 are trained. Being familiar with the police environment, for the benefit of everyone at the committee, when you have individuals trained in this type of training, they become support resources for neighbouring municipal police departments or RCMP detachments. I’ll use my own geography, our communities, as an example. If there’s a trained SFST operator, an officer, working out of Bridgewater Town Police, and on a Friday night, Queens District requires an SFST-trained officer and they don’t have anybody on shift, it’s not uncommon that the Bridgewater officer would perform that training test for them. There is a sharing of that training.

I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary that every front-line officer be trained, but to be able to build that knowledge capacity with time because we’re also going to see attrition too where officers will be transferred out of front-line and into some specialty field. We want to make sure that we maintain a number. I would like to see us maintain that number in that general area of 600 going forward.

KIM MASLAND: Also back in 2018, we had 74 officers who were trained DREs, and it was stated at that time that would have up to 85 front-line officers in Nova Scotia trained or recertified. I’m just wondering if the minister can provide an update on where we stand now in the province for trained DREs.

MARK FUREY: As we speak, there are 84 drug recognition expert trained officers, commonly referred to as DREs: 42 of those are RCMP, and 42 are municipal police. There are six more awaiting certification as we speak. I anticipate any day those additional six will be certified. It’s in excess of or right around 90 now.

KIM MASLAND: I’m just questioning about the DRE training. Is it available in Canada yet? At one point, I know it was Phoenix, Arizona, and Jacksonville, Florida. Is there any availability for training for DRE in Canada?

MARK FUREY: No. The training is still done out of country. They looked at opportunities in British Columbia. Simply because of the prison population, as you know, a significant portion of the training is done within those correctional facilities in the larger U.S. centres, where the opportunity to sample is very much present. It’s a discussion that continues because there are costs associated to sending officers to the United States, southern states, for an extended period of time, and during their absence, their positions are often backfilled with overtime or switching of shifts. They certainly want to minimize those circumstances wherever they can.

KIM MASLAND: Talking about our testing equipment, the Dräger, how many of those would we have in the province? Would there be one in each detachment? Is that device shared amongst neighbouring communities also?

MARK FUREY: There is a sharing of the device. When the device first came out, the option was presented to all of our law enforcement organizations and leaders. We as a province were prepared to purchase those. There were concerns at the time expressed around the technology and the bulkiness of the equipment and suitable temperature operations, those types of things. As a result of that, I believe the RCMP purchased five of the initial rollout of Drägers, and leading up to and following the purchase, the RCMP have trained 50 officers, and municipal services have seven officers trained. That equipment is strategically located around the province. The training resources are strategically trained around the province. They have that piece of equipment and any number of trained operators in a geographical proximity that would allow an investigating officer to call on that resource if and when required.

KIM MASLAND: I’m sticking in the year 2018. My kids would say, mom, you’re stuck in the 1980s. If they were here today, they wouldn’t be happy with me referring back to 2018 so much.

We heard back in 2018 from MADD that they had concerns about the legalization of cannabis in our province. At that time, they were reporting that Nova Scotia actually has one of the highest rates of cannabis-impaired drivers with 43 per cent of fatal crashes involving cannabis. Their fear at the time was that they expected to see a bit of an increase because of the curiosity factor. My question is, has the policing community experienced an increase of impaired drivers by cannabis since cannabis has become legal?

MARK FUREY: Over the course of the last year, early in the legalization of cannabis, there was no marked increase. As a matter of fact, the police had publicly said they weren’t experiencing an increase in impaired driving by drug, in these circumstances, cannabis. Most recently, I recall an article in the media not that long ago where one of the RCMP officers indicated that they were experiencing an increase in the number of cases of impaired by drug specific to cannabis.

There are two possibilities. There is the possible increased use of cannabis based on legalization. People debate that both ways. It was always there. There’s no significant increase in consumption, which inherently would draw one to conclude that there’s an increase in those driving. It’s a possibility. I think the other part of the discussion is the increased enforcement and greater detection of those who drive while under the influence of cannabis. I know, again from my own policing experience, you would come across these circumstances on occasion. When there’s a focused attention on something - we have blitzes for impaired driving, we do Operation Christmas, we do seatbelt and cellphone initiatives. You always see a peak during that period, and then it settles off. I only say this based on my own experience. When you see increased enforcement, you’re going to see increased incidents, not necessarily because more people are consuming or more people are not using their seatbelt or more people are using their cellphone. It’s just at the time you’re into a focused enforcement initiative, and you might watch several inspection stickers go by but focus on seatbelts. I use those as examples. The numbers certainly indicate an increase. In 2018, 36.2 per cent reported driving within two hours of consumption, and in 2019, 25.1 per cent reported. There is some information that indicates that there’s increased consumption.

To your earlier questions, we’re very conscious of that. The number of both SFST and DRE trained officers continues to increase. Inherently, with the strategic enforcement, targeted enforcement, we’re seeing more cases recently of impaired driving by drug.

KIM MASLAND: In those most recent cases that you’re speaking of, what would the breakdown be of those resulting in just a 24-hour suspension?

MARK FUREY: We don’t have the drill-down detail of what it is you’re looking for. There is an administrative penalty, suspension for seven days, I believe, for those detected to have in their system two to five nanograms of the product. There is an administrative suspension. I don’t have those numbers that break down how many of that increase in use resulted in administrative suspensions. If we can drill down to find those numbers, we’ll get them for you.

[2:00 p.m.]

KIM MASLAND: Moving on to edible cannabis, we know edible cannabis presents new dangers. We recently saw what happened in Eskasoni. I’m just wondering if the minister can speak of how our law enforcement community will deal with what is already becoming increased access to consumption of edibles.

MARK FUREY: For Phase 1, we undertook a significant public awareness education campaign. This is following Phase 1, and the outcomes of that campaign were remarkable. I don’t pretend to know the profession, but our communications experts and those who have consulted on this work have shared with us some of the successes of Phase 1. It was quite literally off the chart, the response from Nova Scotians. The survey that we did originally, seeking public input, had in excess I believe of 20,000 participants in that public survey. That helped inform not only the policies around legalization of cannabis but also the expectations when it came to public awareness and education.

In Phase 2, we quite literally applied the same methodology around education and awareness to help mitigate the incidents of overconsumption. There’s a number of areas that we focus on - safe storage and the need to keep this out of the hands of our youth, no different than we would a prescription drug at the present time. There were ads on television, radio, transit, and online, encouraging people to visit our website for more information. We had expended, in the 2019-20 budget, $465,000 around public education efforts; $115,000 on public opinion research; $250,000 on creative development of an awareness campaign; and another $100,000 on materials. We have pretty well modelled that for Phase 2 around edibles. I’m seeing the ads and commercials. People are talking to me about them and actually explaining how it caught their attention in the way they’re presented. I don’t know if you have seen the Tick Tock Tick - I think one of them is actually up for an award. We’re quite pleased with the work. It’s absolutely an essential part of it. I said this from day one when we talked about legalization of cannabis, Phase 1 and Phase 2 - public education awareness is going to be critical. We’re very pleased with the work we have done and the results we have seen.

KIM MASLAND: I’m going to move on to Boots on the Street, which is a very important program. I know my short time working at Queens detachment was in a civilian position, but I got to listen to lots of conversations of the men and women who were working around me. There was always a lot of discussion that when the government gives monies for this program, many positions that are specifically earmarked for general duty uniformed policing end up as administration or support positions, and really, the increase in the uniformed personnel is not what we’re getting. My question is, could you provide me a breakdown of the amounts police forces are receiving for Boots on the Street this year compared to last year?

MARK FUREY: That’s an accurate observation in your comments leading up to your question about the challenge we face with the additional officer program and the appropriate use of those provincial resources for the purposes they were intended. I just happened to be seconded into the Department of Justice in 2003 and 2004, when the additional officer program was rolled out. Murray Scott, who was a police colleague and friend and Minister of Justice at the time, asked me to come into the department to work on this file and many others. I clearly understood the intent and purpose of that program and those officers. They were not to augment our provincial police service requirements of the men and women who wear the uniform in general duties. The additional officer program was a separate group of 132 positions, I believe, in total. Today, those numbers remain. You would know, with our focus on human trafficking, I have directed that six positions - one from each of the regional teams - be dedicated as sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking investigator. Their roles vary and are critically important as we regenerate that model that was first implemented now some - I don’t know how long it has been, since 2007 or 2008, some 13 years of focus on this.

To the substance of your question, just over $16 million in 2019-20 in support of the program, and a slight increase, over $16 million in 2020-21.

KIM MASLAND: I’ll move on now to something that’s very dear to the minister’s heart, and that’s maintenance enforcement. The minister spoke at length about this in his opening comments. I would like to make a personal comment. I was a single mother for a long time, and back in those days, it was an absolute nightmare to access payments. It can be to the point of making and breaking it for you as a family. I certainly endured those struggles. I don’t know what government was in power at the time. I have always been one who will say it the way it was. The program did not work. Now as an MLA, I have people come to me, and it’s incredible the response that has turned around and the positivity. The file that you mentioned was one of my constituents. She came to me in desperation, and by working with you, I’m very thankful, and the family are incredibly thankful for what the program has done for them. We have made a lot of advancements from when I was a single mom struggling, trying to get money.

In all that positivity, back stuck in 2018 again, the AG’s Report indicated that the program had weaknesses in human resources practices. This included no standard orientation process for new staff, no training to guide staff in fulfilling their duties, and no annual performance plans or evaluations. I’m wondering if the minister can advise whether these weaknesses that have been pointed out by the AG have been addressed?

MARK FUREY: One of the advantages I bring to this environment is a familiarity with audit processes. There was nothing more apparent in my policing environment in RCMP policy was the audit process that was so frequent, and you knew eventually there were going to be questions asked about performance. We certainly welcomed the Auditor General’s review of the program. I’m a firm believer that that’s how you improve services, constructive criticism of the policies in place and how we make it a better program. I think when the Auditor General did his review and those implementations, recommendations, came out in May 2018, they were completed by March 2019. All of the recommendations that the Auditor General identified were addressed and completed in what I believe to be a very reasonable period of time.

KIM MASLAND: Good work. You mentioned, when we talked about jurisdictional cases, there’s a percentage of 10 per cent. What does that translate into number of cases - cases that are outside of the province?

MARK FUREY: There are presently a little over 1,500 cases of interjurisdictional circumstances, and that makes up about $26 million of the roughly - I’ll round it off to $60 million, but we know the number has come down from $60 million total arrears.

[2:15 p.m.]

KIM MASLAND: I may have missed this in your opening remarks, so I apologize if you have already said this. What is the percentage of court-ordered child and spousal support cases that are currently in arrears?

MARK FUREY: There’s about 4 per cent of cases presently in arrears. Now, 4 per cent may seem low in numbers, but that accounts for $54.5 million. You can see the difference, if that money was in the hands of predominantly single mothers and children, the difference it would make in their lives, the opportunities that it would present for them. That’s the reason we have such a strong focus on this. I have seen this first-hand in policing.

I remember speaking to the Premier, who was Leader of the Opposition at the time. He showed up at my house unannounced on a Friday night, lucky to catch me at home. We talked for about two hours. He asked me, if you were to continue your time in public service, what could government do to effect change in the lives of Nova Scotians? I didn’t have to think twice - instantly, a response in support for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and maintenance enforcement. It will change the lives of families and people. Little did I know that 10 years later, I would be leading those initiatives. Four per cent is low. Any amount is too much; $54.5 million is unacceptable.

KIM MASLAND: I’m going to move on now to our correctional facilities. We know that the province has been moving to a direct supervision model at the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Burnside and the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Pictou County. The model involved renovating the Burnside jail to remove some physical barriers between inmates and the officers. Can the minister advise if the department has met its goals and objectives for transition to direct supervision?

MARK FUREY: In general terms, yes, but more work to do. Direct supervision is seen to be a best practice across the correctional community. It’s the interaction between correctional officers and those confined to our facilities. It has made a difference in the numbers of incidents we’re seeing within facilities. Personal injuries are down. Assaults are down. Transport out of the facility for the hospital care is down significantly. I just don’t have the numbers. I thought I had them, but I can’t find it. We’re seeing a significant decrease in some of those areas, where we believe the interaction between those correctional officers and those in custody is actually making a difference.

KIM MASLAND: How many incidents occurred at the jail or facilities that we have that warranted being made public?

MARK FUREY: I don’t have a total number of incidents reported. There is a policy in place, and there’s criteria for the more serious matters, where there’s mandatory reporting, and that is captured on our website. There would be other minor interactions that take place that aren’t reported as the policy doesn’t require that they be reported publicly. The most serious incidents are reported publicly on our website.

KIM MASLAND: Would there have been more or less incidents occurring this year than last?

MARK FUREY: I’ll just kind of pull all of what we call incidents together. If I use matters as examples, damage to property, detrimental behaviour or contraband, we have seen an 11 per cent decrease from 2016. When we talk about the effect of direct supervision, and I mentioned earlier the number of emergency medical escorts from our facilities to hospital, we saw a 60 per cent decrease from 2016 to 2019.

The whole intent of close supervision, direct supervision, is to build a relationship between the correctional officer and those in custody so that they understand some of the challenges and complexities of those environments, the circumstances of individuals, how they’re able to make observations in that space and be in there to prevent incidents from happening.

As I said in my comments to your first question, direct supervision is having a positive effect within our environment. There are challenges around direct supervision, but in principle, the policy is sound. The facility in Pictou County - is it northeast - first announced under a previous government, constructed and located in that community, kind of set the benchmark for the model in Nova Scotia. Once that facility was up and running, renovations were made to Burnside, which now provides the same model of supervision and our experience has been that it’s working. It requires close attention, and we’re seeing those types of decreases in incidents. Any incident is too many, but we believe the principal objective of direct supervision is having the intended outcome.

KIM MASLAND: The details that emerged regarding the December incident at the jail were alarming. Some say the incident is a symptom of problems at the centre. What changes have been made as a result of that incident on December 2^nd?

MARK FUREY: There have been changes since that incident. I want to speak briefly to that incident. I have to be careful not to compromise some of the circumstances within the facility that we wouldn’t want the criminal element to know about. Obviously, how the operations take place, there’s a need to keep some of that within the employment workspace for the safety of our correctional officers and for the integrity of the institution, the facility.

There were a number of changes made as a result of that. I have to give credit to our correctional officers in those circumstances. They found themselves in very difficult and challenging circumstances. They go to work every day to keep our facilities safe for themselves and for those they care for in that environment. We recognize that it is challenging sometimes. You’re dealing with the most unruly behaviours from society, confined in one space. It’s difficult to expect that you’re not going to have some incidents that require an enhanced or heightened level of response. That’s the nature of the environment they find themselves in. I say that because I want to give credit to our correctional workers for the work they do and the challenging circumstances that they find themselves in on occasion. As a result of that event . . .

THE CHAIR: Order. The time has elapsed for the PC Party. We move on to the NDP.

The honourable member for Dartmouth South.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I’ll start with a few Corrections questions so if the minister wants to finish that thought, that’s fine.

I just want to begin by thanking the minister and the department for the core funding for the Elizabeth Fry Society. That is located in my riding. It’s something that we have advocated for and worked with them on. We’re really, really pleased to see that and to see all of the skills that they have and the work that they do being recognized, supported, and funded. That’s great news.

Just to pick up where my colleagues left off a little bit, we have been hearing a fair amount about challenges in implementing the direct supervision model. Regardless of whether or not it’s a good model, both the inmates and the staff have had some trouble adjusting to it, which makes sense because it’s a new thing, and new things are hard things, generally. The upshot is that we hear a lot on the side of advocates for folks incarcerated around extended periods of lockdown for days and days and days at a time. Then we hear from the correctional staff about chronic understaffing and folks not showing up for work. Those two things are obviously connected, so I wonder if the minister could address that a bit. Particularly when the minister talks about a reduction in violent incidents, I wonder what connection that has to people not being allowed out of their cells very much.

[2:30 p.m.]

MARK FUREY: What my colleague has laid out are some of the challenges obviously in these types of facilities. I know there’s different language and terminology being used. My colleague had used the language of lockdowns. We would use the language of rotation, so there are times where people are confined to their space, but that’s rotated so that people are out of their space as well. That’s a normal procedure within our corrections facilities. It’s an important part of the ability to minimize conflict, to ensure those individuals have equal time and open space and allow our correctional officers to best manage that environment.

My colleague spoke about resourcing. I would say this, that we have the appropriate number of resources, FTEs, full-time equivalent positions, required to fulfill the mandate of the facility and the people who work there. My colleague had identified, and it’s a problem no different than any other workplace, absenteeism. We continue within Correctional Sservices and in our engagement and interactions with the employee representative, the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, in particular the president, Jason MacLean. We have recently had these discussions on how we address that, and we recognize it’s a two-party role. We’re working together to find solutions. It’s not confrontational. We recognize there’s a challenge, and we want to fix it. We want to resolve it. Our people want to come to work, and we want to make sure they’re well when they’re at work.

There are a number of initiatives that we have undertaken, recognizing that absenteeism is one of those challenges. There’s training on policies, performance management, and goals so everybody is familiar with and knows what those policies are. We have stationed a human resources consultant right at Burnside. That’s new and gives those in the workplace the opportunity to engage their human resources worker. We have attendance meetings each day so that there is dialogue and discussion around this very issue. There’s a partnership with the Office of Workplace Mental Health navigators, twice a month available to the workforce and I would say at any time available to the workforce whether in their workplace or outside of their workplace.

There’s a new social worker position created at the facility and really an overall training methodology to improve comfort and their ability to do their work with the intent of reducing that absenteeism, which inherently will reduce the pressures on those in the workspace. There would be additional factors that come into play. When there’s absenteeism, there would be overtime extended to individuals to cover shifts. That’s not uncommon in the correctional facility or in a policing facility, for that matter, the policing environment.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Just to clarify, regardless of terminology, the amount of time that folks incarcerated at Burnside are allowed out of their cells - is that impacted by the issues with absenteeism? Are those rotations always the standard rotations, or is there a difference now - because that’s what we’re hearing - in the amount of time that people are allowed out of their cells?

MARK FUREY: The point that my colleague identifies is predominantly a challenge at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility here in Burnside. That’s mostly on weekends, driven, probably, by high numbers of remands or weekend sentencing. We’re always conscious of that. The objective is to provide as much time in the dayrooms, the general space, as is possible. There are often circumstances that may mitigate employees’ ability to provide that time as much as they would like to. It really is about, on behalf of our correctional officers, their ability to balance time in that space and at the same time, the safety and security of both correctional officers and those in custody in our facilities. It is a fine balancing act. We’re continuously working to mitigate those circumstances and again balance the time in that space with the safety of all involved.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Back to the staffing shortages, can the minister provide the number of days of sick leave taken and absences, missed shifts, et cetera, by staff for the past three years? Does the minister have numbers?

MARK FUREY: We don’t have that information readily available to us here, but we can certainly get that information for my colleague.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: In terms of retention of staff, does the minister have numbers for the average length of service of our correctional officers currently employed?

MARK FUREY: We’re seeing incidents of short- and long-term disability, where employees are not able to work, but there’s a significant hiring initiative behind that - safe to say we’re maintaining our numbers of employees. We have senior experienced correctional officers in our correctional environment. In backfilling, new training, constant training, conscious of diversity, we believe that’s part of the problem and part of the challenge, having a diverse workforce, so that there is an awareness and an inclusiveness felt not only by our correctional guards but also by those confined. It has been absent, and there’s great efforts to move in that direction. Generally speaking, we have maintained a significant amount of experience and leadership and, at the same time, opportunities to hire a more diverse workforce for our correctional facilities.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Hopefully, the minister’s department could provide the average length of service, just as a data point.

Regarding sheriff services, I wonder if the minister or staff know how many positions are full time and how many are part time and relief currently.

MARK FUREY: We’re just gathering a little additional information, but I will speak in specific terms about some of the efforts that we have taken here. We had a review of sheriff services probably two, maybe three years ago now. One of the elements that surfaced in that was this insufficient number of FTEs to fulfill all of the many roles and responsibilities of that position.

In this most recent budget, we funded 28 additional new FTEs in the amount of $2 million annually. This was through extensive work with the labour representative of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union and directly Jason MacLean, the president. These are the types of things we openly talk about and work towards solutions and resolutions. We are quite confident, quite happy - these FTEs came as a result of a grievance and a review. Obviously, we supported those efforts and that work. That, I think, reflects generally our awareness of the role of sheriffs and the need to support them in this capacity.

It also addressed some of that part-time piece in that these themselves are full-time positions. I was actually at an event on Saturday night in Lunenburg where a deputy sheriff approached me, who was previously working casual, and he’s very junior. As a result of these new 28 positions, although he hasn’t been yet able to secure a full-time permanent position, he’s now in an extended term position. He expressed to me his thanks and also his optimism that in the near future, he would have full-time employment. That’s just kind of a general overview of what’s happening in the sheriff environment.

[2:45 p.m.]

To my colleague’s question, we don’t have the breakdown, but I’m committing to getting that breakdown for my colleague so we can differentiate full-time permanent positions, term positions, and casual positions.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Just a couple more questions in this vein. We filed an FOI asking for briefing notes, documents, and correspondence around overcrowding at Central Nova. The response from the department was that there were no responsive records. My question is, why? Particularly given that we have heard about this, it has been in the media, does the minister feel that there is an issue with overcrowding at Burnside? Is it being discussed anywhere?

MARK FUREY: Interesting in that we are experiencing the lowest count of those in custody that we have ever experienced. As we speak, there are 150 beds across the province available when you look at all of our facilities. It goes back to a question my colleague asked earlier. There’s the appropriate number of FTEs. This is another example of where absenteeism in the workplace contributes to the circumstances that my colleague has identified. As I indicated earlier, there’s a number of steps being taken working collaboratively with the labour representatives to find solutions to these issues. We recognize that they are a challenge, and there is a commitment towards a solution.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: We saw a prison strike last year. One of the main things that those folks talked about was health care and access to health care, air quality, physical activity - not that there isn’t health care provided in the correctional facility. We know that there is, but often there’s a sense that it’s not necessarily appropriate.

That aside, open any newspaper this morning, and it’s talking about COVID-19. We haven’t seen any cases in the province, but in other parts of the country, we’re seeing it in long-term care homes and other places where we have groups of people in close proximity. Can the minister speak about what work is being done to prepare for the possibility of a case in our correctional facilities?

MARK FUREY: That’s a great question because in our preparations for coronavirus COVID-19, this is one of the very questions I asked last week, conscious that when you have a large number of people confined to a space, there’s a higher risk associated to transmission. I know our correctional services staff have been working very closely with Dr. Strang, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province. There’s a plan in place to address COVID-19 in our correctional facilities. We have an infectious control practitioner from the Nova Scotia Health Authority who works with the superintendents to ensure we’re always taking the necessary precautions.

Whether it’s coronavirus or some other illness, obviously, we want to ensure that we can protect people as best we can. In consultation with the infectious control practitioner, we’re confident that they have all the supplies on hand that they would need to treat and control this if we were to see it within our facilities. We have a quick reference guide at all the facilities around warning signs and best practices for staff and inmates when it comes to the transmission of these types of illnesses and obviously as they are across the general population promoting good hygiene, that’s part of the strategy. My colleague would know that there are general health assessments upon appearance, presentation, at our facilities for custodial sentences. Those are done upon an admission screening type process. As I indicated earlier, I know as recently as last week, the executive director was working with Dr. Strang. We’re aware of these circumstances and taking appropriate steps to mitigate them. What we all know is that it’s only a matter of time before it impacts us.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I want to ask a couple of questions about cannabis here. My colleague asked a few of the first ones around issues around the black market supply. We know that even while we were discussing legalization, we were debating it in the Legislature, that individuals continued to be charged for possession. We also know that these possession charges disproportionally affect marginalized folks in our community, particularly racialized folks. I wonder if the minister can tell me how many individuals are currently incarcerated in Nova Scotia because of cannabis possession charges.

MARK FUREY: I don’t have those numbers readily available. I would be surprised that there’s individuals in the facility for possession of cannabis. There may be those there for trafficking in cannabis or importation of cannabis. We’ll drill down and find the numbers relative to possession of cannabis. I don’t know if my colleague wanted us to be broader than just possession because possession is a summary conviction offence, highly unlikely that any custodial sentence would arise from possession.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I appreciate that. Perhaps it is a bit broader, and I acknowledge that it is a summary offence. I guess the challenge is that we now see growers and producers and others who are capitalizing, for lack of a better word, on legalization. Then we see other folks who did the same thing - of course, it was illegal at the time, but there is a category of those people who were convicted of relatively minor offences. They may have been in trouble for other reasons in their lives or whatever else.

I guess what I’m getting at is, the minister mentioned being at the federal-provincial-territorial table with his counterparts, and I wonder if there’s any conversation going on around pardons for cannabis possession, whether or not that led to incarceration, but we know that where criminal record checks are very prevalent, at this moment in time, especially when we’re talking about diversifying all kinds of areas of our society and workforce, we know that racialized Nova Scotians are disproportionately the victim or the recipient of those types of charges. We would love to hear about whether there’s a pardon process or a more accessible and potentially less expensive and onerous pardon process than what we have.

MARK FUREY: My colleague raises a great question because just recently, there has been some federal discussion around addressing the circumstances of previous convictions and the impediments that that is facing. I often hear it with truckers from my community who are heading back and forth to the U.S. They get an exemption, but they’re coming up on the expiry of their exemption, and they’re worried about the ability to renew, and of course, the pardon process in the past has been an extensive process. My recollection is it’s as long as five years.

Recently, I know there was some discussion, I just don’t know the full details of it. It hasn’t been part of the federal-provincial-territorial discussions to date. We know there’s about 250,000 Canadians who have a criminal record for simple possession, and to date, through the pardon process, facilitated by the parole board, I believe, about 44 pardons have been granted. There’s certainly more work to do in that area. I’m not going to defer to the federal government because I think there is a provincial responsibility for us to engage in that discussion for the very reasons I mentioned. It’s impacting people’s employment and their ability to cross borders. I think there’s a deeper challenge where that information is already embedded in data banks. How do you purge? An individual is granted a pardon by the Canadian government, but the information is retained by U.S. Border Services. That’s the bigger challenge. I think that’s really a federal discussion with our U.S. colleagues - predominantly U.S. - to find the solution.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I think the minister points to an important issue, particularly around that cross-border piece. I’m also glad to hear the minister say that you’re actively pursuing looking at the pardon piece. I mean, even to volunteer in a school - we take the position in fact that criminal records checks are often a bit too onerous. If the police are doing their job, and people are serving their sentences, and when they get out, we would like to think that people get a second chance, and they have the ability to participate in society. We see a lot of places where there’s an impediment to that, actually, because of criminal records checks for things that might have no relation at all to the way in which a person is trying to earn a living or contribute to society. Please hear that there’s some work - particularly in this case. We’re talking about possession of cannabis, which everyone has now begrudgingly or enthusiastically acknowledged is a thing that is legal in our society. It feels like it’s time to move on.

I want to move a little bit to some of the ongoing conversation that we have had around the Wortley report and the progress made there. As I mentioned to the minister in Question Period the other day, we recently received a dashboard from the department tracking work on the recommendations. If it’s okay, I would like to go through some of those that popped out one by one and perhaps, if the minister has the information, get some updates.

Recommendation No. 1.6 of the Wortley report was that a committee of police and community should be formed to assess the impact of the street check ban on police-community relations, and public safety. The dashboard indicates no action. Is that being deferred to the future, or has that been abandoned as a recommendation? Can the minister comment?

[3:00 p.m.]

MARK FUREY: My colleague has spoken specifically to Recommendation No. 1.6. It’s classified as outstanding in the status, but it’s pending the establishment of the research committee referenced in Recommendation No. 3.1. We are in the process now of striking that committee that would be representative of academics, law enforcement, and community members. That work continues but certainly hasn’t been deferred.

If I may, I just want to go back to the previous question only for clarity, and I’ll be very brief. I didn’t want anyone to misunderstand. There have been discussions with the feds around pardons, but we as a province have no authority to pardon. It is a federal responsibility, and we’ll continue those discussions. I want to be able to communicate the economic impact that is having and just wanted my colleague to be aware of that.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I should also note that here in Recommendation No. 1.6, after the portion that I read, it reads, “This committee should also explore the possible re-branding or re-naming of street checks or the shifting of street check information into other data fields.” That seems to fly in the face of the moratorium that was announced. I’m hoping that that part will not be actioned. Is that accurate?

MARK FUREY: This is a very valid point that my colleague identifies. I’ll just reread what she has referenced, “explore the possible re-branding or re-naming of street checks or the shifting of street check information into other data fields.” The discussions have been the elimination of data retained by December 2020, I believe. I stand to be corrected on the time frame. In the short term, there’s restricted access to that data by Halifax Regional Police, and it’s restricted to a specific level of supervision. Officers on the front line don’t have access to that data. It has been blocked on their platform.

There has been discussion around the use of that data, from both sides. It’s not our law enforcement community taking one position, and our African Nova Scotian community taking the other. There has actually been discussions from both sides. If we want to be able to track the incidents, then we need to be able to retain data and use it to make these determinations definitively that this practice continues or doesn’t continue. That is the outcome of both sides of that discussion. I’m confident in the network of people - academics, law enforcement, and community - that how that’s presented, that we would rebrand or shift street check information into other data fields for the purposes of retention is, to my colleague’s point, counter to the recommendation of the Wortley report and the intent of the discussions, collaboration, and relationships that we are trying to establish with the broad community, quite frankly.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I thank the minister for that clarification. In fact, I had the opportunity to ask the minister just about that data retention by 2020 because we are very aware of that conversation of a lot of people advocating for retention of disaggregated data, which leads me into my next question, so that we’re not using it for all of the nefarious purposes to which we believe street checks have been put, which then necessitated a moratorium but more that we could ensure that that practice was in fact not happening anymore.

Recommendation No. 1.7, the very next one, to this point, is that “police should be mandated to collect and disseminate information on the personal characteristics - including racial background - of all civilians subject to police stops and other investigative detentions.” I think that gets to the information that folks are wanting to see, which is, are racialized Nova Scotians still being disproportionately stopped? Again, we don’t see any action on that here in the dashboard that we have. Can the minister speak to whether there’s progress happening on that one?

MARK FUREY: From a status perspective, it’s ranked as outstanding, so obviously there’s work to do. It’s pending the establishment of this committee that I referenced earlier, where we have academics, law enforcement, and community members on that committee to ensure that these matters are progressing. Similar to the previous question on Recommendation No. 1.6, it’s pending that committee. I’m led to believe that’s in the works as we speak.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: That looks like Recommendation No. 3.1, the committee.

MARK FUREY: Yes.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Okay, thank you. Recommendation No. 3.2: “Halifax region police services should establish a permanent data collection system to record information on all stops of civilians.” I think to the same end, to show that we are in fact monitoring the impact of those stops. Again, no action indicated. Is there work happening on that recommendation?

MARK FUREY: Again, the same circumstances. These three recommendations are all contingent on the establishment of this research committee that’s referenced in Recommendation No. 3.1. Again, I’m led to believe that that work is happening as we speak, where we’re pulling people together from academia, law enforcement, and the community to strike that committee and be able to move on these specific recommendations.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: We’ll look forward to hopefully news of that committee.

Recommendation No. 3.5, is “It is proposed that reports documenting the results of all data collection and research activities be released to the public on an annual or biannual basis.” Is this again that we’re waiting for the committee to get the reports to release the reports?

MARK FUREY: Again, Recommendation No. 3.5 is based on the establishment of this research committee that I have spoken about and responded to the questions of I believe Recommendation Nos. 3.1 and 3.2 that my colleague has presented.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Recommendation No. 4.1 is that “The HRP and RCMP should develop a protocol that will screen new recruits for both cultural competency and racial bias.” The minister mentioned diversifying the workforce earlier. This seems directly of some piece with that. Again, we have no action indicated on the dashboard. Is there work being done here?

MARK FUREY: Both Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP are using what I would call current psychological testing to assess these competencies of cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity. This is an important element of our ability to change a culture into the future. I have said publicly and in many private discussions that we have to change how people think and react to given situations. The only way we can do that is through education and awareness.

We are moving on a rights and responsibility initiative now with multiple stakeholders, including community members, to ensure that individuals are aware of their basic human rights when it comes to interaction with law enforcement and law enforcement are aware of their responsibilities in knowing the limitations of the authority they have - whether it be the Criminal Code, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and their own operating procedures and policies as well as their codes of conduct regardless of which police agency they’re a part of. That’s a significant undertaking, and I say this based on my own experience in the law enforcement community.

Your work is based on relationships, and if you don’t have relationships with people regardless of the community they come from, you can’t engage them in a constructive way. People will react in a defensive way if you haven’t built a relationship. This rights and responsibilities initiative is going to be a key part of this and the education and awareness going forward. Psychological testing is only one part of it. I’m certainly not the expert in that field. I don’t know what we can do to expand on that piece that identifies pre-determined feelings or beliefs, unconscious bias. That’s a broad discussion. There’s a lot of research taking place as we speak on this very subject.

As I said earlier, it’s an absolute necessity if we are to change the culture and the response that Nova Scotians are feeling as they engage our law enforcement community. I have to qualify, most of the women and men who go to work in uniform as police officers go to work to provide a level of safety to their community, and they’re doing exceptional work. Every one of us at this table sees that, and we can name individuals who go above and beyond. Having said that, we know there are challenges with individuals. It’s unfortunate that all of their colleagues are being labelled in the same way.

I have spoken with many people in the African Nova Scotian community around street checks specifically. In every discussion, they express their concerns or frustrations and their impatience with what they see to be continued incidents. But in every discussion, they will identify a police officer who they have trust in, who they have confidence in, who they have worked with in the past, and who they continue to engage. They want this discussion to come to fruition. They want to see a change. Those individuals I have spoken with in the African Nova Scotian community are stepping up and leading that discussion. I believe they’re making progress. It’s absolutely necessary. Whatever we can do to enhance the screening of cadets who choose to pursue a career in policing, on the front end, is one element in mitigating the circumstances we’re experiencing on the back end.

[3:15 p.m.]

The irony of this discussion is that Halifax Regional Police has the highest number of African descendent police officers per capita of any police force in the country. That speaks to some of the work that they have been able to do. I don’t have to tell anyone around this table that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done by all of us, not just the law enforcement community but all of us as elected officials from all of our political affiliations, from our academic community, our volunteer groups, and community members themselves.

I can tell you, and I have probably shared this story at past Law Amendments Committee meetings, I remember working in the Mi’kmaq community for the first time in Wagmatcook in Victoria County when I was in charge of the Baddeck detachment. That was my first exposure to physically working in a Mi’kmaq community. It didn’t take me long to learn the culture and the practices of the elders and the community and become involved in those, embedded in the school systems, doing the sweat lodges and the healing circles and the moose hunts and how that’s all restorative in nature. The value of that experience and listening to those individuals who have suffered as members of minority communities or marginalized groups, how valuable that listening, first-voice experience is and has been and how it’s shaping the work that we’re doing in the Department of Justice going forward. I spoke earlier in my opening comments about listening circles for domestic violence. We’ll continue that practice, that methodology. That is going to be a critical element in our ability to overcome some of the differences that have been advanced and how important it is that we focus on rebuilding those relationships, and we all have a part in that.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Given everything that the minister just said, I’m hopeful that there will be a revisiting of Recommendation No. 4.1. Maybe just an exposition of what the psychological testing is that the minister referenced. I think regardless of the diversity present in the force, as the minister mentioned, this is changing the culture. These are systemic issues. I know that for myself, in many, many, many of the conversations I had with folks after the release specifically of the Wortley report, a lot of what was in that report was not new information for the community. The community already knew all that stuff. What was new was the qualitative comments from many police officers, which were viewed by many people in the community as racist. Again, that is not to cast aspersions on the force or even on specific officers to be honest. It’s around changing the culture, as the minister said. We’re keen to see these recommendations and the following Recommendation No. 4.4 - not following but one of the following - which is that “HRP and RCMP develop a testing or evaluation strategy for all anti-bias, cultural competency or race relations courses.” Again there, we see no action. Is there work being done on that piece?

MARK FUREY: Just a couple of comments in response to this question. There is ongoing training - there was sufficient additional money allotted for these very types of training. The RCMP have testing associated with all of their training programs. There is a specific course called the African Canadian Experience training, where a survey is done pre-course and post-course to assess whether the objectives are being met. That’s specific to the RCMP. More work needs to be done in that level of training in our municipal police services. That work will continue into the future, but I think parallel models of training will be one part of our ability to change the culture and recognize where there are deficiencies in people’s behaviours.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: I could literally ask these kind of questions all day, but I only have six minutes. I’m just going to move on and ask a question about toxicology. We received a response to an FOI request indicating that the minister travelled to the U.S. to visit NMS Labs in August 2019 and that staff from the Department of Justice, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and the Department of Business continued to dialogue with NMS Labs’ sales manager and territory manager regarding collaboration between Nova Scotia and NMS Labs for toxicology testing and drug identification for criminal and regulatory charges and child protection matters. That’s all quoted from the FOI. If there’s a change in who is providing toxicology testing and drug identification services, would this go through a procurement process? The minister is nodding. Just to move ahead into the question, if the minister could talk about what that procurement process would look like and what the estimated value of this contract would be and where we are with it, that would be great.

MARK FUREY: NMS Labs, based out of Philadelphia, have an existing contract with our medical examiner’s office here in Halifax. They are seen to be one of the leading toxicology laboratory services on the continent. The existing toxicology contract between the medical examiner’s office and NMS is due to expire. To the point of my colleague’s question, just this past week, I signed off on approval to initiate the next procurement process. Yes, the renewal of this contract will go out through the standard procurement process for purposes of soliciting the interest of any laboratory that would be able to provide the service.

I had the opportunity to meet with the leadership of NMS and tour their facilities, around broader discussion of what laboratory services look like for Nova Scotia, and a larger discussion of what laboratory services look like for the country. We know the RCMP laboratory services have limited capacity. The federal government closed a number of laboratory services across the country including one here in Halifax.

The analysis of exhibits in any matter, and I know my colleague would appreciate this - the timeliness of examination of exhibits and the ability to share the results in the required disclosure process and the pressures of the Jordan decision in 18 months or 30 months completion of a core process is integral to our ability to provide that continued access to justice. That was really the scope of the discussions I was having with our colleagues at NMS. They provide an exemplary service. Dr. Bowes, who has a renowned reputation across North America and globally for that matter, established this relationship with NMS a number of years ago. We’re always looking for opportunities to explore and expand the discussion.

I’m just so conscious of the continuity of exhibits and the protocols that are required when you’re transporting exhibits across international borders for examination and the ability to continue to provide those services in the most timely manner possible given the pressures we’re facing with the Supreme Court of Canada Jordan decision and the timelines associated to that and the appropriate disclosure of evidence. We’re seeing in some cases recent dismissals where examination of exhibits and the appropriate disclosure of the results has had a significant impact on court decisions to the point that some of them, some of the most high profile, have been dismissed over the handling of exhibits. This is a discussion that I have had with the head of Public Prosecution Services, who sees this first-hand and is able to articulate specific cases where these circumstances present themselves. I want to mitigate those. I’m very familiar with that environment, and the continuity . . .

THE CHAIR: Order. The time has elapsed for the NDP. We will move on to the PCs. Before we move on, would anybody like a bathroom break? We’ll recess.

[3:29 p.m. The committee recessed.]

[3:37 p.m. The committee reconvened.]

THE CHAIR: Order. We will be resuming questions with the PC Party. We are starting with the member for Queens-Shelburne again.

KIM MASLAND: Continuing on with my questioning on the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility and the December 2^nd incident, media reports stated that guards were shaken after the incident, and unions went on to say that they didn’t believe that there was enough staff on duty during the night in question. I’m wondering if the minister can advise what the staffing levels were that night.

MARK FUREY: I don’t have the specific numbers as to the staff on shift that night - nothing unusual. As I have said before, the appropriate number of FTE positions, we believe, exists there. Safe to say that even our labour representatives don’t disagree with that. The common discussion we’re having is around absenteeism. I explained earlier, when absenteeism presents itself, there are a number of methods to mitigate that, and one of them is paying overtime for others to come in and cover shifts. It’s a combination of strategies that allow the facilities to continue to function in the environment that they find themselves in.

I do want to go back - when we finished with my colleague’s line of questioning, she had posed a question, and we ran out of time before I could provide a response. If I may, just to that point, my colleague asked what changes have been made. There’s a new rapid response approach and training for staff, a new unit for intensive direct supervision. There are a number of steps being taken to mitigate these types of events from occurring into the future.

In full transparency, without compromising the internal operation of the facility because I think everyone at this table can appreciate that there has to be some level of confidence around internal operations there. We respond in an appropriate manner. The executive director and his team are diligent in providing an environment that is safe for both correctional officers and those in custody.

I wouldn’t want anyone to leave this table thinking that steps you take to prevent these types of incidents occurring into the future will not eliminate the possibility but simply mitigate the possibility. You’re dealing with individuals who, depending on circumstances, could present those types of incidents into the future. In spite of all of the preparation and all of the training, our correctional officers may not be able to prevent every incident from happening. I think to prepare them to respond to any incident that happens is critically important. I wanted to differentiate those two sets of circumstances because I know everyone at this table understands the complexities and the challenges and the personalities that exist in that environment and how important direct supervision is to further mitigating some of those conflicts and tensions and the ability of our correctional officers to defuse situations and individuals in their actions and behaviours that inherently prevent incidents.

As I indicated earlier, we’re seeing a significant reduction in these types of incidents of property damage and incidents of health care where transport out of the facility is required. I think that’s a reflection of the collective work that the executive director has undertaken directly with the president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union. The president himself has said to me that it is an exceptional work relationship. There is dialogue there and discussions that did not happen in the past. There is a new space, and it is in the best interests of both parties. We can build those relationships at that level and demonstrate within the facility that when we take that approach, there’s a much greater chance that we will defuse these conflicts versus drive these conflicts.

KIM MASLAND: We talk a lot about work-related traumas that some of our first responders experience - our police officers. We recognize the need for police, paramedics, and other first responders to receive the support and treatment that they need to deal with the real dangers that they face on a daily basis. Our guards working in these facilities see horrible acts of violence and carnage that can result. I’m wondering if the minister can advise what supports are in place to help prison guards cope with PTSD and other workplace traumas.

MARK FUREY: There are a number of initiatives and resources available. I touched on some of them earlier, but I’ll just try and capture them holistically again and may even miss some of them. There is occupational health and mental health discussions every month in the environment. This is all centred on wellness. There are peer support programs available to all the employees. There are field mentors and trainers in the system. I indicated earlier that we have a human resources consultant onsite at Burnside. We have a partnership with the Office of Workplace Mental Health, navigators in the facility twice a month responding to needs of the workforce. There’s a new social worker position created to respond to these circumstances. This would not be limited to the inside of the workplace. These resources and much broader mental health supports through the Public Service are available to our Corrections employees for purposes of wellness. I say this coming from that environment and staying in close touch with our emergency service groups. We have work to do. It’s evolving, it’s expanding, and it’s getting better, but there’s still a stigma attached to self-identification of mental health.

[3:45 p.m.]

I remember when I came through the RCMP, I know the stigma that was associated to those who sought mental health. You were ostracized, criticized, and minimized. Ironically, I think I was probably the poster boy for mental health in the RCMP, and you would relate to this. Once a year, I would meet my RCMP staff psychologist at White Point Beach. We would overnight and have a nice meal and a walk on the beach in the morning and brunch and go our separate ways. The discussions were all about how we eliminate the stigma associated to seeking mental health amongst emergency first responders.

You have identified the groups that are impacted. It’s not just law enforcement. It is correctional officers, it’s sheriffs, it’s ambulance operators, it’s firefighters. They see the worst of the worst, and it can be challenging sometimes.

There are support services in place, and I think the Public Service does an exceptional job at that. I think individual organizations are doing the best they can to change the culture in this environment that recognition of mental health is nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, it demonstrates the strength of individuals to overcome and manage those circumstances and be valuable in the environment they find themselves in. Having said that, and I know you would know, there’s always work to do to improve and respond in a more appropriate way.

KIM MASLAND: Last Spring, we saw that fentanyl was seized at the Burnside jail. How often are drugs found at the centre, and what measures are taken to keep drugs out?

MARK FUREY: We have seen significant improvement in the reduction of illegal substances coming into the facilities. My colleague would be aware that last year or two years ago, we purchased five body scanners. We did not previously have them, and a lot of contraband was coming in through general admissions, being hidden in body cavities et cetera. The body scanners - two in Burnside and one in each of our facilities in Northeast Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Yarmouth - have pretty well eliminated that medium of bringing contraband into our facilities. Individuals revert to the more traditional approach of literally throwing items over the fence. The body scanners have been a huge deterrent in this practice. They haven’t eliminated it. There’s still obviously means and ways to do that. We’re very pleased with the introduction of the body scanners and the outcomes that we have experienced.

To the substance of your question, I don’t have the exact numbers of incidents where contraband has been found in the facility. For any that we have experienced, we would be able to find those numbers for you.

KIM MASLAND: One last question on our correctional facilities - in 2018 the AG outlined the lack of comprehensive risk management approach to managing safety and security risks to those living and working at the correctional facilities, and at the time, the department’s own policies and practices were not followed, for example, where approvals for close confinement were not always in offenders’ files. There were weaknesses in the hiring processes and ongoing training and recertification. Some staff were hired without criminal checks. The AG outlined 12 areas of weakness, and the department agreed to action in all of them. I would like the minister to advise where we are in addressing all of those 12 weaknesses within the department.

MARK FUREY: As a follow-up to the Auditor General’s work, there were 12 recommendations, as my colleague has indicated. Eleven of those recommendations have been completed, and one remains ongoing. It is specific to the level of staff training. The training continues. It’s a little more challenging given the 24/7 operations of the facilities. It takes a little longer to ensure that everybody’s receiving that identified training.

KIM MASLAND: Moving on to the CyberScan unit, in 2018 it was stated that the Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act would be reviewed in three years to see if it was achieving its goals. We need to make sure that the laws and regulations laid out in this piece of legislation are responding to reflect our core values and provide a way to effectively change attitudes towards bullying behaviours. They need to ensure accountability and responsibility. This is something, as the minister knows, that is very, very close to my heart. I realize we’re not in 2021 yet, but I’m wondering if the minister can advise that we’re meeting our goals thus far.

MARK FUREY: I know my colleague’s attention to this subject is very personal. I’m very confident in the work that the CyberScan unit is doing, the education element, but more importantly the response. We have had 258 complaints into the CyberScan unit. The CyberScan unit, through the work they do, has assisted in the informal resolution of almost 82 per cent of those complaints. Again, the restorative justice methodology is applied to resolutions of these types of incidents. There’s a very close work relationship with our law enforcement community. The CyberScan unit is actively engaging and educating on this subject. I think the numbers of complaints that the unit has received is reflective of the response they have received from the broad community, and then the use of restorative justice in resolving those issues has been very successful. My colleague would know we had a very high-profile set of circumstances in the Bridgewater high school about four years ago now, where eight students were charged with sharing intimate images. That was resolved through restorative justice.

I paid close attention to that because these behaviours are not restricted to any demographic of society. This has impacted, both as victim and perpetrator, those who you would not expect it to involve and impact. I know from those circumstances in my community the effect it had on an understanding of the impact of those types of behaviours. I’m really pleased with the work the CyberScan unit has done. We continue to see these types of behaviours. I’m not naïve to think that we’re going to eliminate it, but we have certainly brought greater attention to it. I think that’s a direct reflection of the work that the CyberScan unit is doing.

KIM MASLAND: Moving on to human trafficking, as the minister has mentioned in his opening remarks, we do have the highest rates of human trafficking, very comparable to the City of Ottawa. It was wonderful to see the additional funds that will be spent annually in the next five years to address the province’s high rates of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The minister had mentioned that there will be funds being invested into the Public Prosecution Service to give specialized training to Crown attorneys and to hire a dedicated Crown attorney for cases of human trafficking along with an administrator and a crime analyst. I realize this announcement was just made not too long ago, but can the minister advise when we can expect to see these positions fully up and running?

MARK FUREY: I think this is another subject that is near and dear to many people’s hearts. You would be surprised, the families that this has impacted as well. I know from my policing career the number of people from rural communities, our communities, who, through no fault of their own, have been pulled into this behaviour and these practices. This has been a discussion that has gone on for many years. How do you appropriately respond? For me, it was to engage the subject matter experts in law enforcement and to hear them share the stories that they’re experiencing.

We do biannual briefings with the RCMP as our provincial police service provider. They will provide updates on various elements of the work they’re doing. Last year, one of those was human trafficking. We had then committed to four positions in the provincial human trafficking team. Interestingly enough, the young gentleman who was in charge of the team at the time worked for me as a recruit when I was in charge of the watch here in HRM back in 2004, a young man by the name of Dave Lane. He’s very passionate about this work. He was telling me the work he was doing. He was carrying a phone, and he was engaging these young women, and in some cases, young men. He was literally working 24/7 with no support. He was trying to manage the number of calls coming in and responding appropriately. I remember him saying, I just need some admin support to manage this so we can do the investigations.

[4:00 p.m.]

It was that discussion that really focused our attention to the needs of the law enforcement community, and at the same time, working with advocacy groups and with my colleagues in Opposition on this subject matter. We all recognize the seriousness of this. I’ve said publicly that this is not about politics - this is about people, the most vulnerable people.

In the work we’ve done on this file, it has been, quite frankly, an all-Party initiative in the absence of a formal all-Party committee. We have worked very closely. There have been collective meetings with subject matter experts and with survivors that really gave us a better understanding - and with law enforcement - to build capacity. I want to speak to that briefly because it is a huge network now that did not previously exist just two years ago.

We have that coordinating human trafficking group who have a network quite literally across North America and around the globe. That’s their role. They have some investigative responsibility in leading, mentoring, and providing advice and guidance, but they needed the crime analysists to analyze all the factors and to develop strategies and plans. They needed that admin support to do that administrative duty that police officers are doing. Now police officers will be able to focus on the work itself.

The network that we’ve created around the province with this particular initiative, when you look at the social worker environment, as well as the YWCA and the continued support of community groups who are actively involved. We hired three victim services navigators who are focused on Cape Breton, Halifax, and South Shore. Those decisions are based on information we have that demonstrates concerns in these communities - these areas of geography.

We have the additional public prosecutor who will be solely focused on human trafficking. That will be a combination of prosecution, training, and mentorship. We’ve seen that when you create that subject matter expertise role, there is a huge opportunity for others to experience that, to be guided by the expertise of that individual and effectively respond in their community.

In addition to that, we are reassigning six positions from the additional officer program. As we speak right now, there are six regional teams in the province. One person in each of those six teams geographically situated around the province will now focus on sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking investigations. They’re all interconnected. Think about that. Think about the connections you have made across the province. Think about the subject matter expertise that you’ve created to respond appropriately to circumstances that we all know and have been shared here - the highest rate per capita in the country with Ottawa.

There are a number of elements that contribute to that. There are organized crime groups who are driving this. They make a lot of money off this. The Amherst-Truro highway has been identified as that alleyway, for lack of a better term, for the movement of these individuals. We now will have individuals who will come in - I’ll use the six additional officer positions as an example. The first approach - and I say this having spent three years in charge of the human resources program for the RCMP in Nova Scotia back in the late 1990s, early 2000s - there will be criteria built around those positions such as previous training, previous experience, previous education.

There is an opportunity to move seasoned investigators who are doing that in uniform now into an official role where they’re solely focused on that. We created a network of six of those around the province. They’re working very closely with the navigators, the advocacy groups - survivors are a key piece to this - the police and their ability to engage the human trafficking team. Now a provincial prosecutor solely focused on human trafficking has created a network that did not previously exist, and the ability to network with their colleagues across the country and south of the border.

This is significant. Is it enough? I don’t know, but it’s an appropriate use of resources to try to address a problem that unfortunately puts us at the top of a national list. That’s a place I don’t want to be into the future.

KIM MASLAND: I just have one final question. I’m going to share my time. The federal government passed a bill requiring judges to have updated and ongoing training about sexual assault law. Why hasn’t the province adopted this much needed requirement?

MARK FUREY: The discussion around mandatory sexual assault training for the judiciary has been a point of discussion for some time. One of the challenges we face is trying to balance the independence of the judiciary with what one would identify as the expectations of the public at large. That’s a fine line for us to walk. Recognize independence of the judiciary, which we have to respect. There are, safe to say, constitutional questions around the federal legislation, as well as the P.E.I. provincial legislation.

Only time will tell, as is the case with any new legislation, but I’m very conscious of the independence of the judiciary. Some will accuse me - some have accused me of interfering, but I want to assure this committee that our dealings, my dealings, with the judiciary have been of the highest respect, applying processes consistent with existing legislation, policies and procedures. That has been a critical part of the relationship I have with the judiciary.

It rolls into this discussion because there is a federal body responsible for the training of our judiciary. Nobody is dismissing the recognized independence of the judiciary. I’ve thought to myself - and these are discussions we’ve had in the department - how do we work to develop the knowledge and skills of those within the criminal justice system, including the judiciary around matters of a sexual nature, sexual violence, sexual assaults.

We have to depend on the federal body that provides for the training - the Canadian Judicial Council and National Judicial Institute. They are responsible for the training of federal judges and the provincial court. Sexual assault is a topic that’s covered. Our broader group of stakeholders in the justice system - whether they be police officers or sheriffs or correctional officers - all receive training. Victim Services receives training in these areas.

I think an objective, open, transparent judiciary selection process, a key contributing factor where recent appointments to the bench are those who come from either strong prosecutorial experience or strong defence experience in the area of sexual assault. I’m conscious of the independence necessitated by the Constitution, but I’m also conscious of our ability to effect change where we can. I believe that is in the appointment of those to the bench where they will not only bring their experience to that environment, but they will be able to lead and demonstrate on the bench their sensitivities and understanding of the issues without compromising the rights of the accused.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think the discussions we’re having, unfortunately based on negative experiences, have actually triggered a more constructive approach. In some cases, federations and/or provincial-territorial jurisdictions are pursuing legislation, and in other areas, a combination of education here in Nova Scotia, in appointments to the bench.

KIM MASLAND: I want to thank the minister and staff for the time this afternoon and for answering my questions. I’ll now pass it on to my colleague, the member for Cumberland North.

THE CHAIR: The honourable member for Cumberland North.

ELIZABETH SMITH-MCCROSSIN: Recently, I was able to spend some time personally with the minister addressing some of my concerns within his department, so some of this will be a bit repetitive. As I’ve explained to the minister, one of the biggest concerns coming into my office as MLA in Cumberland North is around illegal drugs. It’s affecting law enforcement as well. Often, I’m getting calls from law enforcement very frustrated with them not being able to help someone under the Adult Protection Act and the limits that come with that.

I have family members contacting me concerned for their loved ones, community members who are concerned with people in the community they see addicted to drugs. That’s contributing to homelessness and sometimes even death in our communities. Drug houses are a problem. There have been at least three house fires in Amherst in the last year that are allegedly drug houses or where illegal drug activity is publicly known to be going on. There is an alleged drug house near our junior high school. Our street crimes unit is understaffed, as they’re sharing with me.

[4:15 p.m.]

I believe that being a border town and border county to New Brunswick is contributing to this problem. We have some of the cheapest crystal meth and cocaine in the province of Nova Scotia. I’ve visited the Minister of Public Safety in New Brunswick to share my concerns and ask for their support. They are saying they’re willing to work with their counterparts in northern Nova Scotia.

I’m wondering if the minister can tell me today is there are special funds that could be allocated to address the unique needs of our border community.

MARK FUREY: I want to thank my colleague for the question. We had a great meeting last week where my colleague had shared these concerns and articulated some of the challenges that she is hearing about not only through her law enforcement community but from the community at large. Particularly parents whose children have been victimized by drug abuse and drug addiction.

There’s a significant investment as we speak right across the province, but I do want to highlight some of those resources in my colleague’s community - in and around Amherst and Cumberland County. As everyone knows, the Town of Amherst is policed by a municipal police service of 25 officers. The rural elements of the community outside of Amherst in Cumberland County are policed by the RCMP for a total of 28 resources.

My colleague and I spoke about this and really focused on co-operation among all of the agencies and resources to strike a strategy or a plan. One thing I have to be very careful of is as the Minister of Justice I have no authority, nor should I, to be delving into the operations of police operational plans and strategies. I think overarching we have a responsibility to engage our partners so they understand the challenges and the concerns that the community is expressing. I’m sure they hear it directly from community members. More importantly, how do we coordinate efforts with the resources that are identified for these very purposes to support the community and mitigate the circumstances that my colleague has shared?

I’ll just give you kind of a breakdown of additional resources there. We have what we call Criminal Intelligence Service Nova Scotia. These are analysts that analyze crime trends, particularly in the area of illegal products, illegal drugs. There would be analysts assigned to that particular geography. I have two analysts, one RCMP and one municipal police, who work out of the Bridgewater police facility. They are responsible for gathering intelligence in Lunenburg County, Queens County, and the South Shore.

They feed into a provincial body referred to as CISNS - Criminal Intelligence Service Nova Scotia - which is the collective group of analysts and leadership. They set the priorities for the province based on the input they’re getting from communities. Illegal drugs, obviously, is one of the items on their radar.

In addition to the CISNS presence we have an integrated street crime unit there in Cumberland County. It comes from the additional officer program that my colleague for Queens-Shelburne referenced earlier. My colleague for Cumberland North and I spoke about this last week. She expressed the concern that the unit may not be staffed up to its allotment. I think my colleague had thought there were seven; there’s actually five positions there.

This goes back to what my colleague for Queens-Shelburne mentioned earlier. The use of those resources for the purposes they were intended. It’s not uncommon that those resources are being called upon - let me back up. We have a provincial policing contract for the province that identifies a specific number of resources. Each of our towns have municipal police services that are contracted by their town, employees of the town, for purposes of providing public safety in their town.

The additional officer program is 132 positions funded independently by the Province. An initiative first advanced by Minister Scott and continued by Minister Clarke - I worked for both of them - leading that file. It continued under Ross Landry with the NDP Government and subsequently continued with my colleagues, then Ministers Whalen and Diab in their role as Minister of Justice.

The commitment to the program has been continued across every government. We all recognize and appreciate the value of those resources. What has been lost is the intended use of those resources because this is, I believe, a contributing factor in the concerns that my colleague has raised. Resources were put there for specific purposes and they’re being used for other purposes.

It wasn’t uncommon in the Summer months, when there’s high pressure for Summer holidays, that the person on street crime would be pulled out to cover the shift. That’s not a permitted action of that team. They’ve been taken out of the street crime team to perform administrative and training duties. That’s not the mandate of those positions.

The reason I share that with you is this is a discussion that I’ve had with our law enforcement leaders since I’ve come into the Minister of Justice position. I’ve indicated to each of them that after 10 years, we will re-evaluate the program. You would know that not this past budget - maybe it was the last budget - in 2019 we secured the necessary money to maintain the 132 positions. That was important.

Now, getting back to a discussion with our law enforcement leaders of the primary responsibilities of those positions. I share that extended diatribe to simply communicate to my colleague and committee members that we are giving these units and these resources the attention they deserve to meet the priorities of the province. To meet the priorities of our policing community. To meet the priorities and expectations of communities. The appropriate use of those resources will go a long way in helping my colleague address these problems in her community.

In addition to the street crime enforcement team, there is an established federal drug section that works out of the Truro community. They are resources for the region; they’re not specific to Truro. They are federal RCMP drug positions. We have the roving traffic unit in Cumberland-Colchester County that provides traffic services but is often used in providing capacity for traffic stops where evidence suspect of trafficking in illegal products are known. My colleague is quite right in that Amherst stretch is a gateway for the province and to Newfoundland and Labrador. One would argue there are other gateways for illicit drugs into the province of Nova Scotia.

Then we also have the RCMP Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement and Response Team that is available for these types of investigations. As I shared with my colleague, we have the SCAN unit in the Department of Justice - Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods - who are instrumental in responding to and addressing the high number of illegal cannabis dispensaries when we first legalized cannabis. Those resources were used to identify and do enforcement surveillance on these target locations.

The nice thing about that is they’re covert and unknown to the community at large. Their purpose is to go in and gather evidence by legal means to advance these types of investigations.

Those are really the discussions that my colleague and I had last week. We’re conscious of those circumstances. It will take a collective effort. I shared with my colleague it is the law enforcement community that has to identify this as their priority and to strategically call upon all of those resources, develop a plan, and respond appropriately.

It troubles me when a community so openly talks about a drug house, whether it’s Amherst or whether it’s Yarmouth or Sydney or any point in between, and there’s a sense that there’s nothing we can do. I can’t accept that, having spent 32 years in the environment. Those aren’t words coming from my colleague, that’s a general understanding of the frustrations, I think, that many experience in her community and, quite frankly, many experience in other communities.

I’ve committed to my colleague to work with her and work with our law enforcement community to provide the resources that we have in the Department of Justice to support those efforts and do what we can collectively to address and resolve the problems that my colleague has shared.

ELIZABETH SMITH-MCCROSSIN: Thank you to the minister. I certainly appreciate your openness to helping us. It’s frustrating for me as their MLA, and I’m sure it’s frustrating for you as minister, to know that these problems are ongoing. But think about the parents that are coming to me that have their teenage children visiting these drug houses and not getting any response and knowing that they’re still actively happening. It’s hurting our community. I think that we need to speak more publicly about these problems and really address them.

Is the minister’s department working with the Department of Health and Wellness around the current problems that law enforcement are facing because of the lack of adequate psychiatric services in this province? It is, by far, one of the, again, biggest problems. It’s related to our illegal drug problem. Many of our people that are struggling with addictions and breaking the law, who are also maybe experiencing psychotic episodes, are not able to access health care services.

Often, law enforcement are being called upon to intervene. It’s taking a lot of law enforcement’s time to take these individuals to emergency departments and having to stay with them until they’re assessed. Then oftentimes because there’s no psychiatrist available - in Cumberland, there are no acute care psychiatric beds - these people are often being discharged right back into the community or going free.

It’s a complete collapse and failure of our system. It’s frustrating for our law enforcement. It’s frustrating for our citizens. I know it’s frustrating for our emergency room doctors, because they don’t have psychiatric support. It is really a collapse and failure for these individuals who have addiction problems and are trying to seek help. We cannot continue to just go on the way that we are.

I’m wondering if the minister has had any discussions with the Minister of Health and Wellness and, between those two departments, how we can fix the huge, glaring gaps that currently exist in our communities?

MARK FUREY: There are ongoing discussions around mental health. There have been significant increases in funding for mental health, particularly our youth. There are elements that are available. I don’t want to dismiss anything my colleague has said because I see and hear these very circumstances in Bridgewater.

My colleague has, in many ways, described my own community, with the absence of the high profile visibility of illegal drug houses. Presently as we speak, I’m not aware of any in my community. I meet with my police leadership on a regular basis to have these very discussions without interfering in their operations or providing any guidance of their operations.

[4:30 p.m.]

We have mental health crisis teams. We have the Mental Health Court. My colleague makes a very valid point. I just think back not that long ago - I’ve been retired now for eight years. When I retired, the calls for service for criminal activity or violations versus mental health were somewhere in the area of 90 per cent to 10 per cent. When you talk to front-line police officers and managers and leaders now, they’re saying it’s about a 50-50 split which demonstrates, to my colleague’s point, the prevalence of drug presence, drug abuse, and addiction in our communities across the province.

I see this when I talk to front-line officers. It’s not uncommon for me to end up, as I did last week, walking through the emergency department and engaging police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and patients and doctors and nurses. They’re sharing with me their problems and challenges. These very discussions come up. It’s not just the availability of mental health, but it’s the availability of mental health training.

I think of our law enforcement community and the shift in the need for calls for service. Law enforcement are transitioning to that space where there’s a greater need for mental health training and mental health education. We’re seeing that across the police profession. It’s not fast enough to catch up, but it’s certainly progress.

We also have, specific to my colleague’s community, clinical social workers working with youth in Cumberland as part of the youth services and Corrections initiative. Those are some of the elements, but what my colleague has said is not lost on me. It’s frustrating and it’s disheartening to the people involved, particularly the family members who are doing everything they possibly can to support their family member. That, in itself, is challenging.

I’ve dealt with those circumstances myself as an MLA. I think there’s awareness of this. There’s a much greater discussion. It’s going to take the broad community. It’s not policed through enforcement. It’s not solely independent mental health workers trying to address a problem. There’s a need for departments and organizations to come together. It’s not just Justice and Health and Wellness.

I’ve talked to my colleague about mental health challenges. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is critical to this discussion. Community services is critical to this discussion. I think we’re making progress in breaking down those silos and recognizing the role that each of us have to play in mitigating these circumstances and taking appropriate action when circumstances exist. As I said to my colleague when we met, relative to enforcement, I need to know that the leadership in law enforcement is recognizing this and working together collectively - use the resources at our disposal - to start to address this problem.

ELIZABETH SMITH-MCCROSSIN: I want to make sure that the minister knows the law enforcement officers in my constituency are my constituents, too. I’m worried about them. I feel like they are trying to do their best but because there’s no psychiatrist there to help them, because our mental health crisis team is not 24/7, because there’s no acute care beds, you know, they’re trying to help people that are in psychosis, that are schizophrenic, that aren’t getting the health care that they deserve and need when they need it. Our officers are being called upon to be mental health care workers when that’s not their training. It’s not really fair to them. I know they’re doing their best.

That’s why I wanted to know if there are discussions between your department and the Department of Health and Wellness so that the Department of Health and Wellness fully understands what your department is having to deal with because of the deficiencies in the Department of Health and Wellness. I think until the Adult Protection Act is actually used effectively, and until the Department of Health and Wellness has enough psychiatrists and mental health care beds, your law enforcement in this province is going to continue to be put under pressure that’s not fair to them.

I’m just wondering, is there strong communication between the two departments on this issue?

MARK FUREY: Yes, there is dialogue and communication between our two departments and particularly between ministers. I’ll certainly share and communicate the concerns my colleague has expressed to my colleague, the Minister of Health and Wellness to ensure that these discussions continue.

ELIZABETH SMITH-MCCROSSIN: In my last minute, I will ask, as a support to some of our officers, has the minister and department considered instituting a similar program, or the same program, called SAW, Save a Warrior, that many of our veterans and/or officers in law enforcement will go to seek treatment for PTSD?

MARK FUREY: No, I haven’t. I go back to what I said earlier to my colleague for Queens-Shelburne. There are resources available to deal with PTSD both within the workplace and outside of the workplace. Our municipal police and our RCMP have access to that.

I know I’ve seen enough incidents involving representatives from both police agencies and know that they certainly seek out that professional support. We have subject matter experts in Nova Scotia who are well known to the police and military communities. Those resources are being utilized.

THE CHAIR: Thank you, minister. The time has lapsed for the PC Party. We have just under two minutes for you to read the resolutions, minister.

MARK FUREY: Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues on the committee but also my colleagues in the department for the exceptional work they do and the outstanding support they extend me and my ability to do my job on a daily basis.

THE CHAIR: Shall Resolution E12 stand?

The resolution stands.

Resolution E21 - Resolved, that a sum not exceeding $947,000 be granted to the Lieutenant Governor to defray expenses in respect of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Office, pursuant to the Estimate.

Resolution E23 - Resolved, that a sum not exceeding $2,660,000 be granted to the Lieutenant Governor to defray expenses in respect of the Human Rights Commission, pursuant to the Estimate.

Resolution E26 - Resolved, that a sum not exceeding $395,000 be granted to the Lieutenant Governor to defray expenses in respect of the Nova Scotia Police Complaints Commissioner, pursuant to the Estimate.

Resolution E32 - Resolved, that a sum not exceeding $25,019,000 be granted to the Lieutenant Governor to defray expenses in respect of the Public Prosecution Service, pursuant to the Estimate.

THE CHAIR: Shall the resolutions carry?

The resolutions are carried.

Thank you, minister. Thank you, everyone. The time has lapsed. Thank you again, everyone. Have a wonderful afternoon.

[The subcommittee adjourned at 4:39 p.m.]