The call for a public inquiry into allegations of abuse at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children is now getting support from the board of directors which runs the home.

The board said it is disturbed by the allegations of physical and sexual abuse by former staff at the home dating back to the 1960s and 70s. Allegations surfaced a decade ago, but no charges have been laid.

“If anybody associated with the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children abused children, while in our care, we hope and expect that they are brought to justice,” said board chair Sylvia Paris in a written statement Monday. “To that end, we have no objection if the Nova Scotia government decided to hold a public inquiry into these serious allegations, so long as it does not impede or delay the prosecution of these serious criminal charges, or the disposition of the civil lawsuits filed against the home.”

However the statement has not changed the stance of the provincial government.

Premier Darrell Dexter continues to say he’s not ready to call a public inquiry until the legal proceedings have run their course.

“At this point, we want to make sure that whatever additional response there is to the due process of law that is there, that it is appropriate,” Dexter told the Canadian Press.

Dexter said his government isn’t ruling an inquiry in or out at this time.

Lawyer Ray Wagner represents dozens of former residents who are launching a class action lawsuit against the home. He said he had 57 trials scheduled starting in 2014 and is expecting the process to be lengthy.

Wagner said a public inquiry will not impede the legal process.

“The simple fact is that you have a commission of the inquiry who is schooled in the law, who understands the differences and the separations between issues of criminal and civil law, and those that relate to general societal issues that we have to get to the bottom of,” Wagner told the Rick Howe Show. “They restrict anything within the inquiry to insure that there is no overlap.”

Both opposition parties say with the board now speaking out, it’s time for the province to call an immediate inquiry.

The Liberal Party says time is a critical element because some of the people involved in a civil action could die by the time the process is concluded.

“Some of the people who have come forward may not be alive at the end of this civil process,” said MLA Kelly Regan. “This could take until 2020. We think it is incumbent upon the government to move now.”

The Progressive Conservative leader also says he doesn’t believe it’s right to make people wait years while the judicial process plays out.

“To tell victims and their families that they have to wait, for what could be years, while that process unfolds before they can get to the root of why it happened and whatever underlying issues were there, that’s not right in my opinion,” said PC leader Jamie Baillie.