Bill No. 28, Land Titles Initiative Acceleration Act - 3rd Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I am pleased to speak in support of this bill. The NDP caucus will support this bill. We are glad to see it. We're glad to see progress.

As I said on second reading, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that progress has been quite slow on this file. That included a court case with the government, and hurdle after hurdle. I want to start by just thanking and acknowledging the families who have been here for generations, in most cases much longer than my family has been here, who have had to withstand the lack of certainty, the lack of security, and the systemic disadvantage that comes from not having clear title to your own land.

We are very pleased that that situation continues to move forward. The situation with land titles in historically Black communities in Nova Scotia is one of the clearest examples of systemic racism in our province. Land was given to the Loyalists in the 1800s but only white settlers were given title. So, everyone got land, but if you were white, you got title - if you were Black, you didn't.

We know that property ownership and inheritance are significant sites of power and privilege in our society. Starting in 1800, and right through to 2021 in many cases, African Nova Scotians have been denied that.

I want to note on that line that this hasn't been the case for everyone who was denied clear title. Some Acadians also experienced that but when the government determined that it wanted to remedy the situation, it was remedied. No one applied, it went quickly, it was cleared up. That speed has not been applied and still isn't quite being applied for the communities that are impacted by this bill, which are North Preston, East Preston, Lincolnville, and Sunnyville.

It is encouraging that this is called the Land Titles Initiative Acceleration Act, but we still don't quite understand what the speed standards are here. How quickly will this happen? How much capacity has been created? We definitely applaud the appointment of Angela Simmonds as the executive director of the program. It's incredibly encouraging. She has been a tireless champion for African Nova Scotian families, and on this file in particular she has been working on it since she was a law student. She is tremendously capable. Our understanding is that many of the stakeholders have increased faith in the process knowing that she'll be there to guide it.

We are very hopeful that the government will be able to assuage, if not us, then those families still going through this process, how progress will be evaluated, how communities will be involved, and how this process will genuinely be accelerated.

This is a great step in the right direction. We support the bill and we hope that progress is swift, and justice is as well.