Province blames board for Talbot House closure
Posted Jun 6, 2012 05:32:26 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia’s Community Services Department is blaming the closure of a Cape Breton addiction recovery house on the board that oversaw the facility.
A legislative committee is asking questions about the closure of Talbot House, which closed its doors in March amid a Community Services investigation.
The committee remains unsatisfied with how bureaucrats handled the situation, and Progressive Conservative member Keith Bain said department officials took no responsibility during the meeting Tuesday.
“They deflected everything onto the board. They were saying it’s the board’s fault, it’s the board’s fault,” said Bain.
Committee member MLA Chris d’ Entremont pressed department bureaucrats for answers.
“I see you’re not taking a whole lot of responsibility for anything that happened except for the report itself and the writing of that report,” said d’Entremont during the meeting. “I see a lot of blame going to the board. I see a lot of blame going to others.”
It was a letter from a former Talbot House resident that lead the department to investigate the facility’s operation.
There were questions regarding the behaviour of the executive director, who was later exonerated by police.
“The board asked for help. They asked to have an interim executive director come in when theirs had stepped back,” MLA Kelly Regan told News 95.7. “When they had a temporary person come in, and when that person resigned, they asked for help from (Community Services) and they didn’t get it.”
The Community Services review concluded Talbot House hadn’t been operating in compliance with the standards set for recovery houses in 2008.
Officials told the committee it was the board’s decision to close the facility, which they said had come as a surprise.
“We would have given them those recommendations, which they got in April. And we would have been in discussions with them on how we move forward,” said Associate Deputy Minister George Savoury.
Bureaucrats admit the Talbot House experience shows the department could have provided better oversight and its members say the department will now conduct annual reviews of recovery houses.
