Summary#
Public Safety, An Act Respecting amends several Nova Scotia laws and enacts the new Conservation Officer Service Act. Its stated subject is public safety; the bill does not promise a particular result. It has received Royal Assent, but some provisions take effect only on a date set by proclamation.
- It creates a Conservation Officer Service under the Minister of Natural Resources, with a Chief Conservation Officer and conservation officers. Officers’ duties include enforcing specified laws; while lawfully doing those duties, they have peace-officer powers.
- It lets the Registrar dissolve a company, co-operative association or society after notice from the federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness that it is a Criminal Code listed entity. The Registrar may do this; for companies, directors’, managing officers’ and members’ liabilities continue.
- It updates rules for Nova Scotia’s 911 service, requires the Province to secure specified information, restricts its use or disclosure, and prohibits false, frivolous or vexatious emergency-service requests.
- It expands court remedies for intimate images, including fake images and threatened distribution, and allows administrative penalties for breaches. It also expands victim support to cover threatened distribution.
- It lets the Minister of Municipal Affairs set air-ambulance protection corridors and maximum heights for objects in them, subject to conditions including a federal agreement and consultation with the municipality.
- It expands property uses that can lead to a community safety order, allows the Director of Public Safety to act on the Director’s own initiative, and extends certain possible property-closure periods from 90 days to one year.
What it means for you#
- Conservation officers and the public: The new Service is within the provincial government, not an independent agency. Officers may enforce specified federal or provincial laws and must preserve the public peace while doing their primary enforcement duties. Regulations and ministerial directives can set limits and procedures. The law also allows regulations to establish independent investigations of serious incidents; it does not itself require that process to be established.
- People depicted in intimate images: A person may apply to court over a threatened distribution without consent. A person who previously consented to distribution may revoke consent; after being told, a distributor must make every reasonable effort to make the image unavailable. The law also provides routes for certain people to apply on behalf of a deceased person.
- People accused of distributing or threatening to distribute images: In covered court applications, the respondent must prove that the depicted person lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the law presumes that the person did not consent to distribution. A defence applies if the threatened distribution would be legally privileged. A person who fails to comply with an administrative-penalty notice commits an offence punishable by up to a $15,000 fine, six months in jail, or both.
- 911 callers and service workers: False, frivolous or vexatious requests for emergency services are prohibited. The bill sets no penalty for that prohibition in the supplied text. People with duties respecting the 911 service generally may not use or disclose information they obtain, except as necessary to operate the service.
- Landowners and municipalities: An air-ambulance corridor order can set maximum heights and prevails over conflicting municipal planning rules. The law says property is not considered injuriously affected by such an order. Municipalities must be consulted before an order is made or changed.
- Property owners and occupants: Activities such as human trafficking, certain sexual or criminal-organization offences, and storing, selling or exchanging stolen goods may qualify as a “specified use” for a community safety order. The Director may investigate, warn, seek agreement, apply for an order or take other action. The bill removes prostitution from the listed uses.
- Companies, co-operatives and societies: Dissolution is not automatic: the Registrar has discretion after receiving the specified federal notice. The text does not provide an application or appeal process.
Money#
The bill requires conservation-officer staffing but gives no cost estimate; no publicly available information on the bill’s total cost or savings is in the supplied material.
- A Chief Conservation Officer is to be hired, and conservation officers are to be appointed. The bill sets no staffing number or budget.
- The agency providing victim support services has an expanded mandate, but no added funding is stated.
- The bill permits administrative penalties; regulations may set their amounts and how collected funds are used. No penalty amounts are set in the bill itself.
What is unclear#
- I could not verify the changes against the current versions of the amended Acts because those Acts were not supplied.
- The start dates for provisions that require proclamation are not given. These include the new Conservation Officer Service Act and several other parts of the bill.
- Regulations may determine which laws conservation officers enforce, where and when they may act, and how complaints and oversight work. Those details are not set out here.
- The bill does not set out a full process for intimate-image administrative penalties, including specific contraventions and penalty amounts; those details may be set by regulation.
- The bill does not specify how many properties or communities may be affected by community safety actions, or how the Director will choose among available actions.
Case for#
- A possible argument for the Conservation Officer Service is that one service could enforce multiple conservation laws, with clear leadership and shared training.
- The intimate-image changes address threats as well as completed distributions. Court orders, privacy protections after death and expanded victim support could offer routes for help before or after harm occurs.
- Letting the 911 rules refer to a general network provider and allowing privacy and cybersecurity regulations could help the law address changes in the service and its technology.
- Air-ambulance height limits could be used to address safety concerns near hospital heliports, while requiring consultation with municipalities.
Case against#
- The Conservation Officer Service has broad peace-officer powers. Important limits and procedures depend on future regulations and directives, whose content is not specified in the bill.
- The bill lets the Director of Public Safety investigate and take action on the Director’s own initiative, while allowing a property closure of up to one year in specified orders. The supplied text does not set out detailed criteria for choosing these actions.
- Air-ambulance orders can override municipal planning rules, and the bill deems property not injuriously affected. That could limit owners’ ability to challenge the impact of an order or seek compensation.
- Intimate-image penalties and some application procedures depend on future regulations, leaving important enforcement details unsettled.