{"id":25035,"date":"2021-11-18T11:50:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=25035"},"modified":"2021-11-18T11:50:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:50:57","slug":"province-increasing-fines-new-offence-category-created-under-health-protection-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=25035","title":{"rendered":"Province increasing fines, new offence category created under Health Protection Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;93&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;95&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HALIFAX:<\/strong> Individuals and organizations hosting events or gatherings that ignore public health orders are now subject to penalties under the Health Protection Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a new category of offence that will hold organizers directly responsible for contravening the act and putting themselves and others in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fines will start at the highest maximum penalty under the act of $2,422 for a first offence and increase to $11,622 for individuals who either organize or attend an illegal gathering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organizations will be fined the highest maximum penalty under the act of $11,622 for a first offence and $57,622 for the second and each subsequent offence. Individuals can also face jail time. The fines include victim surcharge and other court fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;6&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;34&#8243;]<br \/><br \/>The new fines are effective immediately.<br \/><br \/>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want any more loved ones being lost due to this type of reckless behaviour and the fines that were in place were not enough to discourage it,&#8221; said Premier Tim Houston. &#8220;My hope is that by substantially increasing fines and increasing enforcement we can save lives.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>Quick Facts:<br \/>&#8212; police and provincial inspectors are authorized to enforce orders under the Health Protection Act<br \/>&#8212; fines were last increased in April<br \/>&#8212; more than 1,375 summary offence tickets have been issued under the Health Protection and Emergency Management acts since the provincial state of emergency was declared<br \/>&#8212; fines issued under the Health Protection Act total $1.7 million<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;31&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;123&#8243;]<br \/><br \/>Additional Resources:<br \/>Nova Scotia gathering limits and other COVID-19 restrictions and guidance: <a href=\"https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/coronavirus\/restrictions-and-guidance\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/coronavirus\/restrictions-and-guidance\/<\/a><br \/><br \/>Nova Scotia&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine plan: <a href=\"https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/vaccineplan\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/vaccineplan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;92&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;84&#8243;]<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;93&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;95&#8243;] HALIFAX: Individuals and organizations hosting events or gatherings that ignore public health orders are now subject to penalties under the Health Protection Act. This is a new category of offence that will hold organizers directly responsible for contravening the act and putting themselves and others in danger. Fines will start at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[2862,2863],"class_list":["post-25035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-covid-19-fines","tag-premier-tim-hosuton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}