Nova Scotia ministers silent on environmental racism report, to meet with authors

CTV News

2 days ago

Twila Grosse, MLA for Preston, is sworn in as Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs and Minister of the Public Service Commission, becoming the first female African Nova Scotian member of the Nova Scotia Executive Council, in Halifax on Thursday, Sept.14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Government of Nova Scotia (Mandatory Credit)
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia government ministers say they will meet with a panel tasked with examining environmental racism in the province, although they remain tight-lipped on the panel's findings, which were submitted a year ago.
Following a cabinet meeting Thursday, Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs Twila Grosse confirmed the meeting, adding she will attend.
'We want to ensure that we collaborate and that we move forward,' she said on the report by the eight-member panel appointed in June 2023 to look at how racism affects a community's natural environment. It was delivered to the province about a year ago.
The panel's members included community leaders with expertise in subjects such as Mi'kmaw and African Nova Scotian history, law, health and environmental sciences. Environmental racism can occur in instances where landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants, toxic waste facilities and other environmentally hazardous activities are located near communities of colour, Indigenous territories and the working poor.
Last month, Becky Druhan, justice minister and minister response for the office of equity and anti-racism, refused to give any details about the report and wouldn't confirm whether she had read it.
On Thursday, Grosse said she has read the report but refused under repeated questioning to discuss the panel's recommendations. 'I am not prepared to comment on the content of that report,' she said, adding that its findings are the responsibility of the anti-racism office.
Nor would Grosse discuss whether as minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs she was comfortable with keeping the findings under wraps, saying she would continue to be the government voice for her community. She added that she is well aware of the environmental effects of racism from 'lived experience.'
Environment Minister Tim Halman told reporters he had been briefed on the report, but he too wouldn't release any details on what he had learned. Halman said he would be one of the ministers meeting with the panel.
'The path forward is that appropriate ministers will reach out to the panel and offer a meeting for a discussion and that will take place in the weeks ahead,' Halman said.
Meanwhile, two other ministers asked whether they had read the report — Public Works Minister Fred Tilley and Health Minister Michelle Thompson — said they had not.
The idea for the panel came from the opposition New Democrats, who proposed it in an amendment to climate change legislation that was passed in the fall of 2023.
'It is extremely distressing that many of the ministers haven't read the report,' NDP caucus chair Susan Leblanc told reporters. 'The report should be public, full stop.'
Liberal house leader Iain Rankin, who created the anti-racism office when he was premier in 2021, said the government needs to get its priorities straight and release the report.
'It's revealing that there are elements of the report they don't want public, it could be a cost implication, but certainly it's not a priority for the government,' Rankin said.
In a statement released later Thursday, Druhan said a public report wasn't part of the environmental panel's mandate, adding that it was tasked with providing advice to the government.
'It is understandable that this work is of interest to Nova Scotians and we want to be transparent,' Druhan said. 'We want to meet with members of the panel before sharing any further details publicly.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
By Keith Doucette