45 (1) The Minister shall appoint a Director of Compliance and Enforcement.
Whoops! I just discovered that there is such a person: Seamus McGreal, Seamus.McGreal@novascotia.ca.
If you look him up on the Interwebs you discover he used to be a Senior Heritage Planner. There is no announcement of any job change, so I guess it's up to us to welcome him and offer to work with him on any of the many access problems. McGreal has the distinction of being the only one of 19 Directorate employees with a name.
Continuing on after that discovery, I happened on the relentlessly positive 2024 & 2025 Minister’s Annual Report on Accessibility The minister touts the Built Environment Standard as a major achievement. He says "The standard applies to infrastructure installed and built after April 1, 2026." Even though the Act says:
2 The purpose of this Act is to
(a) achieve accessibility by preventing and removing barriers that disable people
This exception for anything created before April 1 reminds me of the province's decision to invoke "Restorative Justice" to respond to its loss in the human rights case about restaurant washrooms. Restorative Justice is simply another way to have a separate kind of justice from what everyone else gets. April 1 is not mentioned in the Act in the context of creating standards.
"after April 1" is a clear affront to "removing barriers". Yet another arbitrary example of a double standard for people with disabilities.
Then, in the annual report, the Minister goes into detail about "The Remedy" for Systemic Discrimination. The Directorate is not involved with the remedy as far as I know, so this annual report encompasses other efforts.
Ending with "Key Priorities", the Minister says a way of making complaints is in the offing. Let's test it out!
Dear Mr. McGreal,
Congratulations on your new position! I am writing to tell you about a hazard to wheelchair users. It (along with a few examples of poor curb cuts) is described in a blog post.
Sidewalks need to be safe. This is a maintenance problem, probably an oversight by HRM Transportation.At this HRM website about sidewalk repair there is no mention of these grassy areas, technically called 'verges'. They should be filled to level with the sidewalk and planted.
The Built Environment Standard dtd not contemplate maintenance of facilities in all cases. Section 28, Maintenance of parking areas has this:
(1) An organization that owns a parking area must develop a regular maintenance plan,
But nothing in the sidewalk section.
This is doubtless a sin of omission, not commission, but municipalities need to pay attention as they develop accessibility plans.
Sincerely,
