Regional Canada

Halifax Regional Municipality, commonly referred to as HRM, is a Canadian regional municipality, the largest population centre in both the Province of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic region, the provincial capital, and a major economic centre of Canada's east coast. more...

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History

Halifax Regional Municipality (2001 population, 359,111) was created in 1996, through the amalgamation of the Municipal services and councils of cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford, and the Municipality of the County of Halifax. The regional municipality's boundary includes all of Halifax County except for several First Nation reserves. All of the 188 communities within HRM retained their place names for legal, mapping, Mail, 9-1-1 and other services. The name \"Halifax Regional Municipality\" is used to refer to the entire region, or frequently, the municipal government.

The urban core area of HRM is located in the western end of the municipality, fronting on Halifax Harbour in the Halifax - Dartmouth and Bedford area and constitutes the most populous urban area on Canada's Atlantic coast, and the second largest coastal population centre in the country, after Vancouver, British Columbia. HRM currently accounts for 40% of Nova Scotia's population, and 15% of that of the Atlantic provinces. The western and most of the eastern parts of the municipality are mostly rural. The community of Hubbards is actually in both HRM and Lunenburg County. Enfield is shared with County of Hants.

The area prior to amalgamation

In 1993, the Conservative provincial government of Nova Scotia began to consider merging the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth with the town of Bedford and Halifax County. Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford were densely populated while Halifax County was largely rural with large areas of wilderness. Amalgamating these regions had been proposed as far back as 1974.

Expectations and reactions

Bill Hayward was hired by the Conservative government to prepare a report on the potential savings resulting from the merger. Before the report was completed, the Conservatives were defeated in the provincial election and the Liberal Party took power. John Savage became the Premier at this time, and he had previously declared the Halifax regional amalgamation a crazy idea. However, he imposed amalgamation on Cape Breton in 1994 as a means to prevent the bankruptcy of several Cape Breton towns. This merger went relatively smoothly and seemed to achieve the predicted economic goals. Savage's government decided to proceed with the Halifax merger, with Bill Hayward overseeing the process. Hayward's report predicted that Halifax regional amalgamation would save over $20 million annually, through reductions in duplication of services and the elimination of many high-level administrative positions. Many residents of the affected areas were against the merger. Rural areas tended to generate the most opposition, with people fearing that they would be forced to pay higher taxes and follow urban standards without receiving higher service. Hayward's predicted cost savings were widely criticized as unrealistic, with a general feeling that he had arbitrarily determined the figures. Politicians were also divided on the merger, as many saw the influence of their localities being much reduced in the new municipality which would be dominated by the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth. Many of the positions occupied by these rural politicians would be eliminated by the merger. Actual debate of the planned amalagamation was minimal, with a few sparsely attended public information sessions and some political discussion. The prevailing attitude was that amalagamation was inevitable and could not be stopped. The New Democratic Party called for a plebiscite, which did not happen.

Read more at Wikipedia.org