**** Via RCMP
Today, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Assistant Commissioner Dennis Daley, Commanding Officer of the Nova Scotia RCMP, provided an update on the RCMP’s ongoing work to address the recommendations outlined in the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report: https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/news/2024/rcmp-progress-update-recommendations-mass-casualty-commission-final-report
A/Comm. Daley’s remarks are below.
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Good morning. As Commissioner Duheme noted, I’m Dennis Daley, the Commanding Officer of the Nova Scotia RCMP. Thank you for being here.
I appreciate the opportunity to outline some of the changes we’ve made and will continue to make to improve our service to Nova Scotians and help create stronger, safer communities.
I’ve touched on some of this work in previous media interviews and spoken about it with partners and stakeholders, including the Progress Monitoring Committee. My intent today is to summarize key changes in critical incident response, public communications, situational awareness, intimate partner violence, and employee wellness – all topics addressed in the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report.
Our Division has been making changes and improvements in the time since the April 2020 incidents. We fully recognize that while we can’t change what happened in 2020, we can learn from it.
To be the police service Nova Scotians expect of us – and we expect of ourselves – we must constantly examine our work, learn from it, and make the important changes that need to be made. This is what we’ve been doing, and this is what we’ll continue to do.
In the area of critical incident response, we’ve revised operational policy and procedures to improve the transition of command, ensure clarity around decision-making, and enhance training. With funding from the Province of Nova Scotia, we’ve also increased the size of our Emergency Response Team to be a full-time 18-person unit.
We’ve worked with our partners in the government and private sectors to ensure that when air support is needed, it’s available.
We’ve established an Operational Communications Centre with the most advanced equipment and highly trained operators in the country.
And located beside the Operational Communications Centre is our Critical Incident Operations Room. This is a command post where the Critical Incident Commander, leads of the Emergency Response and Crisis Negotiation Teams, and dedicated senior police dispatcher are located – with full awareness of the incident and police officer locations.
We now activate a Strategic Communications resource at the outset of a critical incident too.
And we’ve increased opportunities to conduct and participate in training exercises with our policing partners and other agencies. These exercises strengthen not only our interoperability, but our relationships as well.
I mentioned that strategic communications is now a standard part of our critical incident deployment. We’ve also made additional changes to public communications, paramount among those is use of the Alert Ready public alerting system.
The RCMP in Nova Scotia has direct access to issue emergency alerts in a critical incident, and has issued 24 alerts since being granted this access in August 2021.
To support responsible, effective use of the system, we’ve established a divisional alerting policy, a robust training model and, after each incident for which an alert has been issued, we submit an after-action report to Nova Scotia Emergency Management.
The ability for responding police officers to know the locations of their fellow responding officers and for commanders to know the locations of all who are responding – what we refer to as situational awareness – is another key aspect of keeping people safe in a critical incident. It was also an area of focus for the Mass Casualty Commission.
We have overhauled our training on Trunk Mobile Radios, which is now mandatory, easier for officers to access, and incorporated into our annual training schedule. This ensures all officers are fully able to use the radios in any scenario they face.
The Commissioner referenced Blue Force Tracking. This technology allows for officers’ exact locations to be identified and tracked in the Operational Communications Centre and the command post. This technology has been fully implemented in our Division, as has mapping software – increasing awareness of the situation and officer and public safety as a result.
With regard to intimate partner violence, our efforts have focused on working with multiple agencies at many levels to advance stronger, more supportive programs and services for survivors and their families.
Our victim services team is leading, or participating in, provincial working and task groups, which include service providers from across Nova Scotia on topics including coercive control; high-risk case conferencing; information sharing; mandatory arrest and charge; intimate partner violence alarm management; and case conferencing models, among others.
These are the collaborative, complex discussions that will result in the fundamental changes the Mass Casualty Commission called for – the changes that improve the lives of survivors and their families, and help make our communities stronger and safer.
While our focus is on working with others, specific to our Division, we’ve taken steps to increase the number of intimate partner violence investigators and case coordinators as well.
Our efforts to address the Mass Casualty Commission recommendations with the goals of preventing crime and creating stronger, safer communities, also includes continuing to build and foster relationships with our partners in policing, public safety, community services, health, and with community leaders.
We’re making progress in this area. The number of multi-agency, multi-disciplinary initiatives we’re participating in is growing, as is our outreach in communities, including African Nova Scotian communities and First Nations, at every level. And there’s the collaborative work on intimate partner violence that I referenced moments ago.
The recommendations also call for us to do a better job of supporting our employees.
In Nova Scotia, we’ve increased wellness supports and improved mental health screening. This, along with our aggressive recruitment and retention efforts, is what will keep police officers on the front line and all employees working together to serve and protect Nova Scotians.
We’ve learned from the April 2020 incidents and we’re making the important changes that need to be made to protect public safety and create stronger, safer communities.
Thank you.
On April 18 and 19, 2020, the lives of 22 people were taken and three others were injured in several communities across Nova Scotia
What took place was unimaginable and will have a lasting impact on the victims and their families, the citizens of Nova Scotia and all Canadians.
The Mass Casualty Commission was struck to examine the incident, and make meaningful recommendations to make communities safer in the future. Its Final Report outlines 130 recommendations that call for significant changes to not only the RCMP, but how we, as Canadians, approach community safety and policing across Canada.
The RCMP is taking a holistic, organization-wide approach to respond to the report and implement its recommendations. We have committed to improving our police services to enhance the safety of Nova Scotians and all Canadians. Getting this right will take time, but we will keep you updated on our progress.
**** CNS Media Release
Action on Mass Casualty Commission Recommendations
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NOTE: The following is a statement by Premier Tim Houston, read in the legislature today, March 27.
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This week marks one year since the Mass Casualty Commission released its final report, Turning the Tide Together.
We will always remember the lives lost on April 18 and 19, 2020, and reflect on how our province was deeply impacted by this violence and the resulting sorrow. We also reflect on the strength and courage shown by families, survivors and communities that have come together to support each other in moving forward.
I want to reaffirm Nova Scotia’s commitment to the report’s recommendations and to reassure the families, survivors and communities that we are acting and we are doing things differently.
This past year has been one of action, of listening and of determination to work across departments, with all levels of government and with community to make progress on the recommendations outlined in the final report.
As I said on the day the inquiry final report was released, our main goal is safer communities. Government has launched a provincewide policing review that will include public engagement. This is important work and will be of great interest to Nova Scotians as it takes shape.
We are investing in community groups working on the front lines to prevent gender-based violence so they can continue to support those who are impacted. As we strive to make communities safer, 16 community-based organizations have received $7.1 million in funding for projects to help address gender-based violence.
We have also made progress on a number of the recommendations in the report, including:
– committing $9 million over two years as part of an $18-million initiative with the federal government to design and deliver mental health, grief and bereavement services in Cumberland, Colchester and Hants counties
– adding new positions in mental health and addictions in front-line and system support roles, including outreach, wellness navigation, health promotion, public engagement and grief and bereavement
– adding a new mental health role to mobile primary care clinic teams, which visit communities in Colchester, Cumberland and Hants counties three days a week
– providing close to 2,000 more new trunked mobile radios to volunteer emergency responders by the fall of 2024, improving their ability to communicate as they help Nova Scotians in times of need.
As a Province, we are working with our federal colleagues to advance work on recommendations that require collaboration. We were pleased with the efforts of the Progress Monitoring Committee who – together with founding Chair Linda Oland – are playing an important role monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the recommendations from the final report.
Our province was deeply impacted by this tragedy. Our resolve to change, to be stronger and to make a difference so that no family or community has to experience what occurred in April 2020 stands firm. We are Nova Scotia strong.
