The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has approved a $7.5-million settlement for youth jail workers wrongly accused of abusing children in their care.
The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by former workers at the Shelburne Youth Centre in Shelburne, N.S., and the Nova Scotia School for Girls in Truro, N.S.
Earlier reports put the settlement amount at $8.5-million, but a spokeswoman for the Public Service Commission says that total was wrong.
Michelle Lucas said Tuesday that the settlement includes $5.5-million in general damages and $200,000 in special damages.
About $1 million will cover the cost of the employees' legal fees and about $525,000 in pensions.
The allegations of abuse at the two institutions stem back to the 1960s and '70s.
A compensation scheme for former inmates at the youth jails was created in the mid-1990s that eventually cost the government about $60-million in compensation, counselling and legal fees.
Former workers at the centre lost their jobs, reputations were destroyed and several of the former employees committed suicide.
Former youth worker Lee Keating said he spent the past four years fighting the legal battle, and the settlement shows the province believes he did nothing wrong.
“It tells me what I knew right from the beginning, that the allegations were false,” Mr. Keating told CTV on Monday.
Mr. Keating led the original lawsuit in 2002, suing the province for emotional and financial losses on behalf of himself and other employees who received an apology and settlement offers.
The province filed its defence in November, 2003.
The settlement isn't the first indication the compensation process was abused.
The Progressive Conservative government commissioned retired Quebec judge Fred Kaufman to probe the institutional compensation program begun by the Liberals.
Judge Kaufman's review said the provincial compensation program was flawed from the start, tarnishing both true survivors and blameless youth centre workers.
About a month after the Kaufman report was issued, former Tory Justice Minister Michael Baker issued a statement saying the government accepted his findings, and on Oct. 30, 2002, the province issued a series of apologies to maligned youth centre workers.