The Nova Scotia government is again rejecting calls for a provincial public inquiry into the shooting rampage last month that took 22 lives.

Premier Stephen McNeil responded Thursday to a letter from 33 Dalhousie University law faculty members that was published last Friday.

The faculty members from the Schulich School of Law say a critical review is needed of the decisions made by the RCMP during the 13-hour rampage across northern and central Nova Scotia on April 18 and April 19.

They also want the inquiry to consider broader social and legal issues that may have been contributing factors, including domestic violence.

However, the premier and Justice Minister Mark Furey insisted Thursday that the federal government would be better placed to conduct an inquiry, even though it would be within the province’s jurisdiction to conduct its own.

McNeil says a federal inquiry makes more sense because it would focus on the role of federal agencies, including the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the federal firearms registry.

Five weeks after the mass killings in Nova Scotia, a community at the centre of it all is trying to move on by removing the reminders of the tragedy.

Tom Taggart, the councillor for the community of Portapique, N.S., says he’s been working with the victim’s families to remove what’s left of their burned homes.

“They will be cleaned up and we’re moving on, the community moves on, they want to move on and that’s what we’re going to do,” says Taggart.

The charred wreckage of the shooter’s home at 200 Portapique Beach Road, which was destroyed by fire, has also been bulldozed.

“It’s a reminder every day for the people that live in here,” he says.

Taggart says the cleanup should be complete by the weekend. He says they’ll also be moving the makeshift memorial at the top of Portapique Beach Road to a nearby church.

“We’re going to move everything up and consolidate it together, take everything down, and this is just going to be another road in Colchester County and we’re going to let these folks move on,” he says.

Discussions with affected communities are ongoing about a permanent memorial, but he says it’s too soon to know what that might look like.

“The sooner that we can get this behind us, the better.”

-With files from Global’s Ashley Field 

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