Nova Scotia·NewThe cabinet minister who will ultimately decide whether to make public a report on environmental racism in Nova Scotia says he takes the issue “very seriously,” but more than a year after his government received the document, Tim Halman says he still hasn’t read it.Meeting with panel members, cabinet ministers scheduled for coming weeksCBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoEnvironment Minister Tim Halman, seen in this file photo, has not read a panel report on environmental racism despite having it for more than a year. (Robert Short/CBC)The cabinet minister who will ultimately decide whether to make public a report on environmental racism in Nova Scotia says he takes the issue “very seriously,” but more than a year after his government received the document, Tim Halman says he still hasn’t read it.”Obviously this is a very, very important issue in Nova Scotia, something personally that I take very seriously,” the environment minister told reporters following a cabinet meeting Thursday in Halifax.The call for the report was the result of an NDP amendment to major environmental legislation the Progressive Conservative government passed in 2021. Although the panel’s report was delivered more than a year ago, few members of cabinet have read it, based on questioning by reporters.Halman, when first asked in June if he’d read the report, said he’d received a high-level briefing. On Thursday, he provided the same answer.”Most ministers, we’re briefed on issues. That’s just sort of standard practice, just given the multitude of things that we’re juggling.”Minister will take feedback ‘under advisement’In June, following criticism from Mi’kmaw chiefs and opposition MLAs, Justice Minister Becky Druhan backed away from a suggestion that the report was not intended to be made public and said a meeting would happen with cabinet ministers and panel members to discuss the recommendations in the document.That meeting is scheduled to happen in the coming weeks.Halman told reporters Thursday that he wants to hear panellists’ perspectives on “what’s the best path forward” and then decide whether to make the document public. But he would not commit to acting on whatever the panel suggests should happen with the report.”Whatever they suggest to me and the other ministers in that meeting, we’ll take under advisement. We highly respect the opinion and the advice, and then we’ll go from there.”‘I don’t take them at their word’NDP Leader Claudia Chender questioned just how seriously Halman and his government take the issue, given how it’s been handled so far.”I don’t take them at their word — that they’re committed to equity, which is what we heard the minister say — until we see the results of that report and we understand what they’re going to do about it,” she told reporters.It’s Chender’s belief that the report includes a call for redress, something she believes the government “doesn’t want to be on the hook” for. Halman, Druhan and other cabinet ministers have refused to say if the panel recommended reparations.Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette said it seems like the Progressive Conservatives want to avoid dealing with the issue until after the fall sitting at Province House, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Minister says he still hasn’t read environmental racism panel report, as meeting on issue looms
