A newly released report says in the days following Nova Scotia’s mass shooting that claimed 22 lives, the R-C-M-P’s statements to the public were riddled with mistakes, confusion and omissions.
The document released yesterday by the inquiry, also asserts that key information including the victims’ names and the types of weapons used by the killer, was withheld from the public longer than was needed.
The 126-page document lays out a long list of miscues and delays, some of which attracted the ire of senior R-C-M-P brass in Ottawa.
It confirms that on the night of April 19th, 2020, when the Mounties held their first news conference about the killer’s 13-hour rampage, the R-C-M-P initially chose to understate the number of people who were known to be victims.
Tuesday was National Indigenous Peoples Day and hundreds of people gathered in Shubenacadie for a “March for Survivors” to honour residential school survivors.
The March for Survivors began at the site of the only residential school in the Maritimes, which existed until 1967.
Nova Scotia’s auditor general says shoddy management has resulted in a wait list that is too long for the more than 11-thousand public housing units in the province.
Kim Adair says there were more than 59-hundred applicants on the housing wait list at the end of last year _ a figure more than half the total number of units in the province.
Adair says there is an average wait time of about two years in a system that can be improved through better management and oversight.
Housing Minister John Lohr says work is underway on a new governance model, standardizing applications for housing and a uniform asset-management plan.
Nova Scotia is struggling to recruit and retain health care workers needed to sustain the health system that has been strained for the past couple years due to COVID-19.
The province’s health care recruitment office says in order to keep up with health needs, the province needs to hire 100 doctors a year for the next 10 years.
Doctors Nova Scotia president Dr. Leisha Hawker says that while the worst of the pandemic may be over, the pressures on the health system have not ended.
The province’s health authority says it’s short about two-thousand nurses and the Halifax children’s hospital has 80 job vacancies.
Nova Scotia is adding another 100-thousand dollars to its program supporting blueberry growers who keep bees to pollinate their crops.
Under the 350-thousand dollar program, growers can apply to expand the number of hives they keep or purchase equipment to improve efficiency in their bee operations.
Successful applicants are eligible for up to 100 dollars per hive to cover expenses and up to 50 thousand dollars for efficiency improvements between April 1st and December 31st.
The province has about 700 blueberry farms.
