Bill No. 28 - Land Titles Initiative Acceleration Act. - Second Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and speak in support of this bill. We in the NDP caucus have been pushing for an expansion of this program for some time now. We know that progress has been very slow for families, as the minister mentioned, hundreds of years in some cases. We certainly hope that this signals increased attention and an increased pace of resolution.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that it was this very government, in fact, that was in court taking a position on adverse possession recently, which made it incredibly difficult for these families to move forward at a quicker pace. I am glad that the Premier, no longer minister, has changed his thinking about this and is moving forward in a substantive way.

I think it's also important to note, though, that when this department had to address titles on 28,000 properties in Cape Breton - in Richmond and Inverness Counties - no one had to apply. The government just went and cleared it up and quickly. The government had made the error in not providing title 100 years earlier. They acknowledged their error, and they fixed it. We hope that the government will take that same approach with the same speed for North Preston, East Preston, Lincolnville, Sunnyville, and the other African Nova Scotian communities that my colleague mentioned.

Finally, I want to applaud the hiring of Angela Simmonds. It was her early work in the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society when this pilot was launched in 2017 that really laid the foundation for this project and for this legislation. We're very pleased to see her in the newly created role of executive director, as well as the honourable judges who are joining her as commissioners.

We do still have questions, questions that I hope will be addressed as this bill moves forward and in the Law Amendments committee process. We'd like to know what standards have been set for speed. Again, how quickly will these land title issues be resolved? What capacity has been established within government to accelerate these applications? This is something we will, in addition to debate on this bill, try to understand through the Committee of the Whole on Supply as we move into Estimates.

How will communities be involved to ensure that any lingering barriers are identified and removed? As the minister acknowledged, this is a piece of dismantling the structural racism on which many pieces of our legislation and governance of our province are built, so we need to be aware of anything that we are missing in this process. How will progress be evaluated, and by whom?

I'm hopeful the government will be able to address some of these concerns in the course of this debate and moving forward. I very much look forward to hearing from stakeholders at the Law Amendments committee meeting.