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HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government has released its long-awaited plan to address the future transportation needs of Atlantic Canada’s largest city and the surrounding area.
Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters Wednesday that the goal of the Regional Transportation Plan is to transform the transportation system for Halifax and those areas within an hour’s drive of the port city — a region that is home to 63 per cent of the province’s population.
Tilley says the government has identified several projects for study, including an inter-municipal bus service, a core street review in Halifax, options for a new harbour bridge, new ferry terminals, new highway corridors and bus rapid transit.
“Many of these priority actions represent the first steps in significant multi-year projects,” said Tilley.
The minister said work previously announced, such as a passenger rail feasibility study for the Halifax area, will also soon see requests for proposals.
As well, Tilley highlighted several shorter-term projects aimed at easing traffic congestion on the Halifax peninsula over the next 18 to 24 months. He said examples include the use of adaptive light signal technology, which detects when signals need to change, high-occupancy vehicle lanes and an improved road corridor to the existing Macdonald Bridge, which spans the harbour into downtown Halifax.
The government also plans to pause projects such as bike lanes in Halifax that have the potential to affect the capacity of key road routes and intersections, although Tilley couldn’t say whether ongoing bike lane projects would be subject to the move.
“For now we are going to do a review of those street lanes,” he said.
Under legislation passed last spring, the province has the power to set transportation policy for municipalities if it deems it necessary.
Tilley called the overall plan “aspirational” and added that some projects that aren’t high cost can be implemented “fairly quickly.”
“But as you can see in this plan a lot of these things are going to be in the low millions to the potential of billions of dollars and we will have to work through that as we move forward,” said Tilley, who expressed hope that the federal government would become a willing partner on a number of the big-ticket projects.
Tilley wouldn’t say when the government received the plan, although elements of it were referred to by the Progressive Conservatives during last fall’s provincial election campaign.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the government’s document reads like a wish list and will do little in the short term to relieve growing traffic congestion in Halifax. The plan says there are currently over 1.15 million driving trips each day in the city and surrounding area while 14 per cent of commuting trips use existing transit options such as buses.
“This government has sat on this report and now that we see it I have very little faith that any of the short-term identified priorities will make a difference,” said Chender. “We need major investment in bus rapid transit and we have known this for over a decade.”
Interim Liberal leader Derek Mombourquette said the report lacks urgency and is little more than a “study of studies.”
He added that the provincial government will have to develop a strong relationship with Halifax Regional Municipal council in order to get things done.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2025.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
