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Death Review Committee Regulations

made under Section 41A of the

Fatality Investigations Act

S.N.S. 2001, c. 31

N.S. Reg. 138/2021 (effective October 26, 2021)



Table of Contents


Please note: this table of contents is provided for convenience of reference and does not form part of the regulations.
Click here to go to the text of the regulations.

 

Citation

Definitions

Composition of Committees

Quorum of Committee

Term of membership

Remuneration and reimbursements

Duties of Chair

Duties of Vice-chair

Meetings

Agreements to facilitate work of Committee

Publication of portion of review reports

Child Death Review Committee annual report

Assessment of available data on critical injuries

Domestic Violence Death Review Committee annual report

Records of reports


 


Citation

1        These regulations may be cited as the Death Review Committee Regulations.


Definitions

2        In these regulations,

 

“Act” means the Fatality Investigations Act;

 

“Chair” means the Chief Medical Examiner, designated as Chair of all Committees by subsection 39E(5) of the Act;

 

“member” means a person appointed under Section 3 to serve on a committee;

 

“review report” means a written report of a Committee prepared under Section 39G of the Act;

 

“Vice-chair” means the Vice-chair of a Committee designated by the Minister under subsection 39E(6) of the Act.


Composition of Committees

3        (1)    A Committee may consist of any of the following members in addition to the Chair:

 

                   (a)      employees of the public service, who must be appointed to the Committee by the Deputy Minister of the department in which they are employed;

 

                   (b)     persons not employed in the public service, who must be appointed to the Committee by the Chair.

 

          (2)    A Committee must have a minimum of 5 members, including the Chair.


Quorum of Committee

4        (1)    Two-thirds of the members of a Committee constitute a quorum.

 

          (2)    A Committee must not approve the Committee’s final report in the absence of a quorum.


Term of membership

5        (1)    Members are appointed for a 3-year term and may be reappointed.

 

          (2)    There is no limit on the number of terms a member can serve.

 

          (3)    A member’s appointment may be revoked by the person who made the appointment or that person’s successor.


Remuneration and reimbursements

6        (1)    Members not employed in the public service or not otherwise receiving compensation from their employer for their participation on the Committee must be paid $125 for each half day or $250 for each full day of participation in duly called Committee meetings.

 

          (2)    Members are entitled to be reimbursed for actual and reasonable expenses they incur in the discharge of their duties, but reimbursement for those expenses must not exceed that normally payable to members of the public service.

 

          (3)    Members described in clause 3(1)(a) must submit their expense claims in accordance with government policy and procedure.

 

          (4)    Members described in clause 3(1)(b) must submit their expense claims to the Chair.


Duties of Chair

7        (1)    The Chair has general supervision and direction over the conduct of a Committee and is responsible for the administration of all Committees.

 

          (2)    The duties described in subsection (1) include the performance of all of the following tasks:

 

                   (a)      reporting to the Minister, as required, respecting the activities of a Committee;

 

                   (b)     consulting with the Minister regarding the appointment of a Vice-chair of a Committee;

 

                   (c)      convening Committee meetings;

 

                   (d)     in consultation with members, determining the procedure to be followed by a Committee in carrying out its responsibilities;

 

                   (e)      liaising with the Public Prosecution Service to ensure the review of a specific death does not interfere with a criminal investigation or prosecution in accordance with Section 39F of the Act.


Duties of Vice-chair

8        The Vice-chair must exercise any duties the Chair assigns to the Vice-chair.


Meetings

9        A Committee must meet a minimum of 2 times per year.


Agreements to facilitate work of Committee

10      With the approval of the Minister, the Chair may enter into agreements to facilitate the work of a Committee.


Publication of portion of review reports

11      (1)    Within a reasonable time after receiving a review report, the Minister must make public the portion of the report that details the Committee’s advice and recommendations to the Minister on preventing similar deaths.

 

          (2)    The Minister must ensure that any personal information or other information that would identify or enable the identification of the following is removed from any portion of a review report before it is made public under subsection (1):

 

                   (a)      the persons whose deaths were the subject of the report;

 

                   (b)     persons referred to in Section 94 of the Children and Family Services Act.


Child Death Review Committee annual report

12      (1)    The Child Death Review Committee must provide the Minister with an annual report for publication that includes all of the following:

 

                   (a)      descriptions of trends in deaths of residents of the Province who are under age 25;

 

                   (b)     the Committee’s recommendations for system improvements aimed at reducing the number of deaths of residents of the Province who are under age 25;

 

                   (c)      a summary of the Committee’s recommendations for system improvements arising out of its review of individual child deaths during the year.

 

          (2)    Publication of the report described in subsection (1) may include publication by electronic means.


Assessment of available data on critical injuries

13      (1)    No later than 18 months after the date these regulations come into force, the Child Death Review Committee must provide the Minister with an assessment of available data on critical injuries sustained by children in Nova Scotia and a recommendation as to how the available data may inform the committee’s work.

 

          (2)    The assessment of available data described in subsection (1) must include all of the following:

 

                   (a)      the proposed definition of “critical injuries”;

 

                   (b)     the age range to be utilized in the analysis of critical injuries data;

 

                   (c)      a list of sources of available data and information on critical injuries that could be used by the committee to inform its work and a determination of the authority of the committee to collect and utilize that data and information;

 

                   (d)     a list of additional resources or types of expertise required to enable the committee to obtain and analyze critical injuries data;

 

                   (e)      the proposed mechanism and frequency of public reporting of critical injuries data (e.g., through inclusion in the Committee’s annual report);

 

                   (f)      any additional information the Committee determines it is necessary to include.


Domestic Violence Death Review Committee annual report

14      (1)    The Domestic Violence Death Review Committee must provide the Minister with an annual report for publication that includes all of the following:

 

                   (a)      descriptions of trends in deaths reviewed by the Committee;

 

                   (b)     a summary of the Committee’s recommendations for system improvements arising out of its review of individual domestic violence deaths during the year.

 

          (2)    Publication of the report described in subsection (1) may include publication by electronic means.


Records of reports

15      The Chair must maintain electronic records of the reports of all Committees.



 

 


Legislative History
Reference Tables

Death Review Committee Regulations

N.S. Reg. 138/2021

Fatality Investigations Act

Note:  The information in these tables does not form part of the regulations and is compiled by the Office of the Registrar of Regulations for reference only.

Source Law

The current consolidation of the Death Review Committee Regulations made under the Fatality Investigations Act includes all of the following regulations:

N.S.
Regulation

In force
date*

How in force

Royal Gazette
Part II Issue

138/2021

Oct 26, 2021

date specified

Nov 5, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following regulations are not yet in force and are not included in the current consolidation:

N.S.
Regulation

In force
date*

How in force

Royal Gazette
Part II Issue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*See subsection 3(6) of the Regulations Act for rules about in force dates of regulations.

Amendments by Provision

ad. = added
am. = amended

fc. = fee change
ra. = reassigned

rep. = repealed
rs. = repealed and substituted

Provision affected

How affected

..........................................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that changes to headings are not included in the above table.

Editorial Notes and Corrections

 

Note

Effective
date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Repealed and Superseded

N.S.
Regulation

Title

In force
date

Repealed
date

 

 

 

 

Note:  Only regulations that are specifically repealed and replaced appear in this table.  It may not reflect the entire history of regulations on this subject matter.