Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia Paper on Seniors-Only Housing

The Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia has published a discussion paper on Seniors-only Housing:

"This discussion paper considers whether to amend the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act to provide an exemption for seniors-only housing. Under such an exemption, a housing development (nursing home, assisted living facility, mobile home park, public housing, condominium project, subdivision, etc.) which restricted residence to seniors would be immune from a complaint of age discrimination under the Act. Such an exemption has been adopted in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland & Labrador. In Nova Scotia, a private members bill along similar lines was introduced in 2006, but did not pass. The question of whether to introduce such an exemption into the Nova Scotia Act has now been referred to the Commission by the Attorney-General."

"This paper first discusses the potential scope of ‘seniors only housing’ developments, and outlines the current situation in Nova Scotia. It then identifies the problem of age discrimination under the Human Rights Act, and outlines the legislative provisions that some other provinces have adopted to avoid that problem."

"A number of social policy issues are raised by the question of introducing an express amendment into the Human Rights Act. The paper proposes a framework for examining those issues."