This bill replaces the Private Investigators and Private Guards Act with a new Security and Investigative Services Act that creates a detailed provincial licensing framework for security agencies, security agents (security guards, private investigators, armed guards), armoured-vehicle services and guard-dog operations. It mandates minimum eligibility (including a clean criminal record, age requirement and training), requires agency-level registration and insurance, gives the Registrar broad discretionary powers to issue, suspend or revoke licences, and empowers compliance officers with peace-officer authorities to inspect, seize and enforce.
The measure matters because it professionalizes and centralizes oversight of private security in Nova Scotia, tightens limits on impersonating police and on services such as bailiff work, and shifts many operational details (training standards, armour levels, insurance amounts, allowed equipment, recordkeeping) to the regulations. For private security firms, insurers, employers using in-house security and investigators, the bill raises compliance costs and creates new administrative and reporting obligations; for the public it creates clearer accountability and complaint pathways but delegates many substantive rules to future regulations.
At a Glance
What It Does
The Act requires licensing for any person or business carrying on security services in the province, sets minimum applicant qualifications and agency standards, and creates a Registrar and Deputy Registrar to administer licences. It equips appointed compliance officers with peace-officer powers for inspections, warrants and seizures, and makes a wide range of offences and penalties for non-compliance.
Who It Affects
Security agencies, armoured-vehicle services and private investigators operating in Nova Scotia; businesses that employ in-house security; out-of-province security personnel seeking temporary exemptions; and the provincial Justice Ministry and Registrar's office responsible for enforcement and regulation drafting.
Why It Matters
By consolidating licensing, enforcement and codes of conduct under one statute and delegating many technical matters to regulation, the bill changes where detailed rules are set and enforced — increasing administrative discretion, standardizing expectations for training and insurance, and potentially raising operating costs and liability exposure for providers.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Act opens with expansive definitions that identify what counts as security services (armoured vehicle services, private investigation and security guard services) and defines the roles that will be regulated, including armed guards, private investigators and guard-dog services. It then sets the core rule: individuals cannot act as a security agent nor can business entities provide security services in Nova Scotia unless licensed.
The statute distinguishes agency-level licences from individual agent licences and requires an agency to have a registered Nova Scotia location, an in-province manager who meets licence criteria, and proof of liability insurance as required in regulations.
Licensing requirements include being at least 19 years old, possessing a "clean criminal record" as defined in the Act (with prescribed offences identified in regulation), and meeting training and other eligibility criteria set out in regulations. Armed guards must also hold a federal Authorization to Carry under applicable firearms laws.
The Registrar may require fingerprints, photographs and immigration status consent and may attach conditions or endorsements to licences; licences are non-transferable and remain Crown property.Enforcement is centralized in the Registrar and in compliance officers appointed by the Minister. Compliance officers have the powers and immunities of a Criminal Code peace officer for the purpose of this Act: they can inspect premises, seize material, require production of records, obtain warrants under the Summary Proceedings Act and issue immediate suspensions where public safety concerns arise.
The Act sets out complaint, reconsideration and appeal steps (including 15-day and 20-day windows for requests and responses) and grants the Registrar discretion to refuse, suspend or revoke licences for specified fitness and public-interest reasons.Operational limits and reporting duties are explicit: licensees may not advertise or hold themselves out in a way that suggests police status; security agents may not perform bailiff work, collect accounts or execute residential tenancy evictions; and special rules govern interactions with witness-protection matters. Security agents must carry their licence while working and report criminal charges to the Registrar within tight timeframes (and agencies must report incidents such as use of weapons or serious injury).
The Act also carries criminal and administrative penalties — fines and, for individuals, possible imprisonment — and preserves a one-year limitation on prosecutions measured from when the Registrar became aware of the facts.Finally, the Act delegates extensive detail to regulations: training and testing standards, armour and vehicle protection levels, recordkeeping periods and locations, uniforms and insignia rules, permitted weapons and guard-dog training, insurance minimums, fee schedules, and transitional arrangements. It deems existing licence-holders under the old Private Investigators and Private Guards Act to remain licensed until expiry and sets the new Act to come into force January 1, 2026.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Act requires security agents to be at least 19 years old and to possess a ‘clean criminal record’ as defined in the statute; prescribed offences that disqualify an applicant are set to be named in regulation.
Armed guards must hold a federal Authorization to Carry under the Firearms Act (Canada) in addition to the provincial armed-guard licence.
Compliance officers appointed under the Act have the powers and immunities of a Criminal Code peace officer for enforcement, including inspection, seizure and the ability to obtain warrants under the Summary Proceedings Act.
Security agents must report a criminal charge or conviction to the Registrar and their employer within three days, while agencies and employers must report serious incidents (weapons use, excessive force allegations, serious injury or death) to the Registrar within seven days.
The Act makes licence holders subject to fines of up to $15,000 (and possible imprisonment up to one year) for individuals and up to $250,000 for business entities; prosecutions must be commenced within one year after the Registrar learns of the facts.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Core definitions that set the scope
This section defines the regulated universe: what counts as security services, who is a security agent (armed guard, private investigator, security guard), what an armoured vehicle and armoured service are, and what constitutes a guard dog and a uniform. Those definitions determine whether an activity falls under the Act or into an exemption, and they give the Registrar and courts language to interpret exceptions and regulatory standards.
Exemptions from the Act
A long list of exemptions preserves the authority of police and crown employees, excludes routine reporters and trade-specific investigators (like insurance adjusters within their business scope), and allows limited volunteer security for not-for-profits under tight conditions (no remuneration, no ‘security’ markings, no batons). The detail here will control whether in-house or volunteer arrangements must shift to licensed models; the Governor in Council may also add exemptions by regulation.
Registrar, temporary exemptions and licensing thresholds
The Minister appoints a Registrar and Deputy Registrar who administer licences and may grant temporary exemptions for out-of-province licensed personnel (including during emergencies). Applications must follow Registrar-prescribed forms and fees; agencies must supply proof of required liability insurance. The Act authorizes fingerprinting, photographs and immigration-status consent. The Registrar can refuse, condition, suspend or revoke licences on grounds tied to fitness, criminal history, financial responsibility and public interest.
Who must be licensed and what they cannot do
Individuals cannot act as security agents nor business entities offer security services without a licence, and various activities are expressly prohibited to licensees—collecting accounts, acting as bailiffs or civil process servers, executing eviction notices, or holding themselves out as police. The Act also requires uniforms (with specified exemptions), forbids private investigators from wearing a guard uniform while doing investigative work, and bars security agents from carrying firearms unless licensed as armed guards and federally authorized.
Inspection, enforcement and warrants
Compliance officers have peace-officer powers for Act-related enforcement, can inspect business premises at reasonable hours, seize and copy records, demand production of materials and use organizational IT to produce records in readable form. They can obtain warrants under the Summary Proceedings Act; immediate suspensions without notice are permitted where the Registrar considers them necessary to protect the public. Those procedural powers are matched by administrative reconsideration and appeal procedures with short statutory timelines.
Operational duties: licences, records and reporting
Agencies must post licences in conspicuous locations; security agents must carry their individual licence and produce it on demand. The Act prescribes tight reporting windows: agents must report charges within three days and other changes within seven days; agencies must notify the Registrar about branch offices and incidents including weapon use, alleged excessive force, serious injury or death. Licensees must maintain books and prescribed insurance, and licences are non-transferable and property of the Crown.
Extensive regulation-making power and transition
The Governor in Council can make regulations on almost every operational detail — training, testing, armour standards, equipment, uniforms, insurance minimums, record retention and fee schedules — and may adopt external standards by reference. The Act deems existing licence-holders under the old Private Investigators and Private Guards Act to remain licensed until expiry and repeals that Act, with the new law effective January 1, 2026.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Clients and the public — gain clearer licensing, reporting and complaints pathways and a statutory framework that limits police impersonation and requires agencies to carry prescribed insurance and maintain records.
- Licensed security agencies with robust compliance programs — benefit from higher barriers to entry for competitors, clearer endorsement and name-approval rules that protect reputation, and a statutory code of conduct that can standardize expectations across the sector.
- Insurers and corporate purchasers of security services — benefit from mandated proof of liability insurance and recordkeeping that can improve underwriting data and risk assessment.
- Law enforcement and emergency managers — receive clearer legal distinctions between private security and police powers, plus statutory authority to authorize out-of-province firms during declared emergencies.
Who Bears the Cost
- Small and local security firms and sole proprietors — face added costs for licensing fees, mandated insurance, training, fingerprinting and recordkeeping, plus administrative burdens for branch registration and incident reporting.
- Businesses that rely on informal or volunteer security arrangements — may need to change practices or seek regulatory exemptions to avoid licensing obligations (for example, not-for-profits using volunteers under narrow conditions).
- The provincial Registrar and Justice Department — will need additional staff, training and systems to process licences, manage appeals and run compliance and inspection programs, particularly because the Act grants wide discretionary powers requiring active oversight.
- Out-of-province contractors and short-term bodyguards — must navigate temporary-exemption processes and equivalency determinations and may be restricted from soliciting business while present in Nova Scotia.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between professionalizing and safeguarding security services (stricter licensing, inspection powers and public protections) and imposing broad administrative discretion and compliance costs that risk pushing small providers out of the market and creating opaque enforcement practices whose contours will be set largely by regulation rather than statute.
The Act centralizes a great deal of substantive rulemaking in the regulations, leaving many consequential choices (training curricula, criminal disqualifiers, armoured-vehicle protection levels, insurance minimums, permitted equipment) to the Governor in Council. That approach speeds legislative passage but places heavy weight on administrative rulemaking and standard adoption processes; stakeholders will need to watch regulatory consultations closely because the regulations will determine practical compliance costs and thresholds.
The bill also gives compliance officers the powers and immunities of peace officers for Act enforcement, while the Registrar retains broad discretion to refuse, suspend or revoke licences on public-interest or fitness grounds. Those twin features raise accountability questions: what oversight, reporting or review will apply to compliance officers exercising coercive powers, and how will the Registrar apply subjective standards (e.g., "public interest") consistently?
The Act further carves out an FOIP exception permitting the Registrar to disclose licence status publicly, which reduces privacy protections for applicants and licensees. Finally, the Act's prohibitions (no police impersonation, no bailiff work, limits on advertising) clarify scope but also create bright-line risks for hybrid practitioners (e.g., a security-trained employee who sometimes performs private investigatory tasks) that will turn on regulatory detail and Registrar guidance.
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