A senior R-C-M-P communications official broke down when she told a Nova Scotia public inquiry that procedures she used to alert the public to an active shooter led to a crucial delay during the killer’s rampage.

Lia Scanlan’s testimony yesterday stands in sharp contrast to what she told inquiry investigators last September, when she insisted she would not have done anything differently on the morning of April 19th, 2020.

Scanlan, who was director of strategic communications at the time of the mass shooting, now says communications procedures had to change.

That was her response when she was asked why it took the Mounties more than three hours to warn the public that the killer was driving a car that looked exactly like an R-C-M-P cruiser.

 

 

Members of Nova Scotia’s civil service have received an interest arbitration award that includes a total wage increase of 6.5 per cent over a three-year agreement.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union says the deal covers the period from April 1st, 2021 to March 31st, 2024.

The deal follows a series of bargaining sessions that began last year and ended up in binding arbitration on June 3rd.

The union says the agreement was reached after the sides decided to continue with mediation and it resulted in 1.5 per cent increases for 2021 and 2022, a three per cent increase in 2023 and a 0.5 per cent increase in 2024.

 

 

More details are available on a Nova Scotia program that will see provincial income tax returned on the first 50-thousand dollars earned by eligible skilled trades workers under the age of 30.

The first eligible trades under the program announced in the spring budget are in the construction, industrial/manufacturing, motive power and service sectors.

The program will take effect this year and eligible workers will qualify for their refund next year after they file their 2022 tax return and receive a notice of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The province says about 75-hundred current and new workers in skilled trades will benefit with an average tax refund of two-thousand 700 dollars.

 

 

Nova Scotia marked Clean Air Day Wednesday by beginning consultations on improving provincial air quality.

In a statement it released, the province says it will be discussing Nova Scotia’s air quality regulations to ensure industrial emissions have a minimal impact on air quality.

Nova Scotia will consult lung health specialists, businesses that produce air emissions, municipalities and others on the topic.

The province did not say when updated air quality regulations are expected, but consultation will begin later this year.

 

 

The federal government has named a special go-to person for residential schools.

Kimberly Murray will work with Indigenous communities to make recommendations to strengthen laws and practices related to the issue.

She says before beginning her work, she will take direction from elders and traditional people.

Murray says her two-year mandate will be “heart work” — not hard work.