The Nova Scotia government will release the final version of a report on environmental racism after the panel that produced the document has time to talk with their respective communities.

The long-awaited meeting between the panelists and members of the provincial cabinet took place on Dec. 11.

A statement from the province said Environment Minister Tim Halman, African Nova Scotia Affairs Minister Twila Grosse, Justice Minister Scott Armstrong — who is also responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism — and L’nu Affairs Minister Leah Martin took part in the meeting.

“The ministers felt that the meeting went very well,” an Environment Department spokesperson said in the statement.

“Once the panel has talked to their communities, and they have accepted the report as it is written, then government will make it publicly available to the rest of Nova Scotia.”

Lisa Young, chair of the panel, said in an email that “the meeting was very productive and conversations on how to best move forward together with community in a respectful and inclusive way are ongoing.”

The panel was assembled in 2023 following an NDP amendment calling for its creation as part of government environmental legislation passed in 2021.

Initially, government members said the panel’s report would not be made public and would not say if they’d even read the document. Following pushback from Mi’kmaw chiefs and opposition MLAs, the government called for the meeting with panel members to determine how to proceed.

In November, drafts of the panel’s work started to become public, first after CBC News obtained a version dated February 2024 and then when the premier’s office released a draft dated June 2024.

Both versions feature a series of recommendations, including: a formal apology by the Nova Scotia government; creation of a community-led governance body with decision-making authority to work with the government; new approaches to community engagement; and a public reporting process to help measure progress.

The panel also suggested in the draft that reparations should be considered.

Examples of environmental racism

To date, Halman and other members of the government, including Armstrong and Premier Tim Houston, have not said whether they think the province owes a formal apology to Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaw and Black communities for the history of environmental racism.

All three told reporters in November that they wanted to wait for last week’s meeting before determining next steps.

Opposition politicians have countered that regardless of the format and timeline settled upon, there’s nothing to prevent the premier and members of his cabinet from saying that the province should make a formal apology.

Draft versions of the report pointed to examples of environmental racism in Nova Scotia, including a history of locating dumps near marginalized communities, the effects a pulp mill established in Pictou County had on Pictou Landing First Nation through the pollution of Boat Harbour, and the razing of the historic Black community of Africville in Halifax’s north end to make way for construction of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge.

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