Nova Scotia progress report hamstrung by deadline delays: disability rights advocate – Halifax

A disability rights advocate questioned the Nova Scotia government’s assertion today that it is making substantial progress in implementing a five-year plan to ensure people with disabilities are better supported.

Vicky Levack, a board member of the Disability Rights Coalition, said the government’s one-year progress report shows it’s moving in the right direction, but she said the province can’t ignore the fact it missed deadlines earlier this year.

Under a five-year plan approved last June, the province agreed to stop admitting people with disabilities into large institutions from March 31 this year, but the government recently confirmed that the deadline has been extended to January 1, 2025.

Levak said the failure cast a shadow over the government’s other achievements and said provincial officials were “a little too self-absorbed.”

Community Services Minister Brendan Maguire said the plan represented a “generational change” for people with disabilities.

He said the plan includes 90 “goals” for the first year, and the province has either already met those goals or made substantial progress toward meeting them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 3, 2024.