HALIFAX — A disability rights advocate is raising questions about the Nova Scotia government’s assertion today that it is making substantial progress in implementing a five-year plan to ensure people with disabilities receive better support.

Vicky Levack, who sits on the board of the Disability Rights Coalition, says the government’s one-year progress report shows it is moving in the right direction, but she says the province can’t ignore the fact that it failed to reach a key deadline earlier this year.

Under the five-year plan approved last June, the province agreed to stop admitting people with disabilities into large institutions as of March 31 of this year, but the government recently confirmed that the deadline has been extended to Jan. 1, 2025.

Levack says that failure has cast a shadow over the government’s other accomplishments, saying provincial officials are “patting themselves on the back a little too hard.”

Community Services Minister Brendan Maguire says the plan represents “generational change” for people with disabilities.

He says the plan included 90 “targets” for the first year, which the province has either met or made substantial progress on reaching.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2024.

The Canadian Press