Members of environmental racism panel, N.S. government discuss meeting dates

Members of a provincial panel on environmental racism are discussing when they can schedule a meeting with Nova Scotia government cabinet ministers.

The panel was commissioned via an NDP amendment to major environmental legislation the Progressive Conservative government passed in 2022. A report was delivered more than a year ago, but so far has not been shared with the public.

Becky Druhan, the cabinet minister responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, said in May that there were no plans to make the report and recommendations public, noting that was not part of the panel's mandate. At the time, Druhan would not say if she'd read the recommendations.

Following pressure from opposition MLAs and Mi'kmaw chiefs, however, Druhan said last month that she'd asked department staff to arrange for a meeting with the panel.

"Out of respect for the panel, we want to meet with members before sharing any further details publicly," she said in a statement at the time.

• Mi'kmaw chiefs want environmental racism report and recommendations released
• Communities hope new panel will help shed light on historical environmental racism

On Tuesday, a government spokesperson said an invitation to meet had been extended to panel chair Augy Jones, who is also the executive director for African Nova Scotian Affairs for the province, and the hope was a meeting date could be set soon.

"Given the busy summer season and the need to co-ordinate several schedules, it is likely the meeting will take place later this summer or early fall," Denise Corra said in an email.

Tom Johnson, a member of the panel and the executive director of fisheries and wildlife for Eskasoni First Nation, confirmed in an email Tuesday that people are trying to line up schedules.

Calls for the report's release

Although Deputy Premier Barb Adams said earlier this year that the recommendations from the report are being used across government, some high-ranking civil servants and cabinet ministers have indicated in the last two months that they have either not seen the report or are only familiar with it at a high level.

No one from the government has been willing to say whether reparations for communities affected by environmental racism is one of the panel's recommendations.

Membertou First Nation Chief Terry Paul told CBC News last month that Mi'kmaw chiefs in the province have not seen the report, but they've talked about it and believe it should be made public.

Louise Delisle feels the same way.

Delisle lives in a historic Black community in the Town of Shelburne. She spoke to the panel during its consultation work and shared concerns about the effects a garbage dump situated for years beside her community had on the health of people living nearby.

'Where is it?'

"I talked about the fact of the high rates of cancer and the fact that our water was polluted," she told CBC News.

"We were not consulted when that dump was put in there. Nobody came into the community and asked anything because they felt they didn't need to do that. That's racism at its finest."

Delisle said her expectation was recommendations from the panel would be shared with the communities consulted as part of the work. She's frustrated by the lack of answers.

Communities are already dealing with the fallout from environmental racism, Delisle said, and to not share the report and its recommendations feels like another form of discrimination.

"Where is it? Just make it public."