Published Jun 10, 2025 • 5 minute readScott Armstrong, minister of Opportunities and Social Development, makes remarks concerning the release of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Remedy annual progress report at a news conference in Halifax on Tuesday June 10, 2025. TIM KROCHAK PHOTO Photo by Tim Krochak /The Chronicle HeraldMore Nova Scotians living with disabilities are living in the community and fewer remain in segregated institutions, a provincial progress report says.The Disability Rights Coalition (DRC) counters that the government has failed to meet many timelines and commitments to improve the provincial disability support program, timelines spelled out in the Human Rights Remedy and agreed to by the province as part of a legally binding order from a Human Rights Commission Board of Inquiry. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle content“Moving too fast creates challenges and difficulties,” Scott Armstrong, minister of Opportunities and Social Development, said Tuesday in support of the department’s second annual progress report on the rights remedy put in place following an October 2021 ruling from the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal that the province had engaged in longstanding and systemic discrimination against people with disabilities.“I do agree with the fact that we want to do this as quickly as possible to end discrimination,” Armstrong said at a news conference in Halifax.“I want to make sure that we do this effectively, we do it right, we do it respectfully so that the people that are transforming within the system, both staff and clients, can do this in a way that is respectful and with dignity.“I’d rather see it done well and done right than done too quickly.”Article contentThe DRC says it appreciates the hard work that has been done by disability support program staff to put the remedy infrastructure in place but says the province is lagging on several critical, court-mandated targets.“There is lots to do,” said Kim Long, vice-chair of the DRC board of directors, recognizing that staff recruitment has been a significant reason why the province has fallen behind in its remedy targets.“We understand that the province has a recruitment strategy to hire the staff required to implement the remedy,” Long said.“Recruitment is a challenge for all employers but that is something that fundamentally needs to happen in order to have the supports in place that people need in order to transition successfully into life in communities.“They recognize that, we’ve had conversation with (the department) and I know that they have some explanation for that and they have a recruitment strategy coming up that they say is imminent and we’re anxiously awaiting what that is because (staff) need to be put in place to facilitate the achievement of the targets.”Article contentThe province had no local area co-ordinators in place when the five-year remedy plan kicked off in March 2023 and had recruited and trained 26 by March 31 of this year, despite an agreed-upon target of 50 trained local area co-ordinators by that date.The province fared even worse in the recruitment and training of intensive planning and support co-ordinators, training only 20 of the 65 targeted for March 2025.In an effort to reach the 2028 goal of no Nova Scotians being housed in large institutions, including adult residential centres, regional rehabilitation centres and residential care facilities, the disability support program reduced the baseline 2023 number of 870 people by 188 as of March 31, 72 per cent of the overall reduction targeted.Armstrong called the reduction in the number of institutionalized people “a real landmark.”Article contentThe department did meet its target of reducing the 2023 baseline of 589 Nova Scotians on the wait list to receive support by 289 by March 2025. That wait list has been reduced by 293 people.“We are looking for the wins, too,” Long said. “That is definitely a huge improvement and we are very pleased to see that and it is obviously very important to the people who were on the wait list and receiving no services that now have the opportunity to access the supports that they need.”Armstrong called the progress report a picture of the work that represents “a once-in-a-generation transformation of our province’s disabilities support.”The minister said it’s about building something new and better that is grounded in dignity, inclusion and human rights.“And it’s working,” he said. Maria Medioli, disability support program executive director, prepares to answer to a reporter’s query during a technical briefing concerning the release of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Remedy annual progress report in Halifax on Tuesday June 10, 2025.TIM KROCHAK PHOTO Photo by Tim Krochak /The Chronicle Herald“In two years we’ve made meaningful progress in moving from a system that people had to fit themselves into to one that fits itself around people. Today, more Nova Scotians with disabilities are living in communities supported by individualized funding and planning, more are receiving services closer to home and more are being directly engaged in shaping the future of disability support.”Article contentArmstrong said of the 28 targets set for Year 2 of the remedy, the department is reporting exact compliance on 20 and substantial progress on the remaining eight.The department counts among its successes the invitation to 100 Grade 12 students to participate in the new School Leavers Program, which connects students and their support teams with local area co-ordinators to create transition plans as they leave high school, providing more funding to 2,900 people and families in existing individualized funding programs, and creating a workforce strategy to guide government action to modernize and strengthen the disability support workforce.The DRC counters that only about two-thirds of the number of individuals who were supposed to have left segregated institutions for persons with disabilities by this point in the remedy have done so and that there has been virtually no progress made in moving adults under the age of 65 out of long-term care facilities. Article contentThere are now 476 adults under 65 living in long-term care facilities, compared to 424 at the start of the Remedy. Only six per cent of the spaces that were supposed to be created in a program jointly created by the disability support program and the Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care to transition these adults to community-based settings have been created. The DRC points out that the province is significantly behind the benchmarks in the remedy for the creation of new support options for community-based living, including not having created any spaces of the 240 required in the new Home Share program for community-based living.That program will have providers come forward and, after rigorous vetting, share their life and homes with people with disabilities.“A key component is that both parties have to be agreeable,” Maria Medioli, executive director of the disability support program, said in a technical briefing preceding Armstrong’s news conference. “No person with a disability will be forced into a home share that they did not select and no home share provider that they did not agree to.”Article content
Progress of N.S. disability rights remedy draws mixed reviews
