What is Active School Travel?

Active School Travel refers to any human-powered way to get to or from school, including walking, biking, and rolling with scooters or mobility devices. Every school community and every student can benefit from AST.

What is the study and why does your input matter?

Halifax Regional Municipality is exploring the opportunity to initiate a collaborative AST program with Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) and community groups with mandate or interest to support AST initiatives/projects in schools.

To establish a collaborative AST approach, the municipality contracted a consultant to conduct this study to gather information, lived experience, and opportunities to develop an inventory of all schools in Halifax where AST is feasible. The final report will assess feasibility at all Halifax schools and provide recommendations on AST initiatives and next steps to formalize and execute AST programming within Halifax.

The AST Baseline & Program Options Study looks at how and where AST can happen across the Halifax region. It gathers input from students, parents, school and city staff, and community partners to develop a clear method to assess where AST is most feasible through an evidence-based inventory of schools and their surroundings. The study will also identify potential improvements to support safe and convenient routes to school and outline practical next steps for developing long-term AST programs across Halifax.

1. Complete the community survey

The municipality is seeking input from students, parents, teachers, and community members to share their lived experience and insights through an online survey in May.

The survey will gather neighbourhood and school-level perspectives, experiences with past programs and ideas for improvement which will help to inform what the programs will look like in the future.

2. Engage your students

The municipality is creating three student activities for HRCE, CSAP and regional independent schools, designed for teachers to connect with and share the perspectives of their students:

#1: Hands-up Mode Poll
30-second tally for all grades using a simple digital tool. Completed in class by teachers, each morning for one week.

#2: Interactive AST Lesson
For Grade 4-12 teachers who complete Activity 1 and want to go deeper with their students.

#3: Experiential Mapping Project
Community walk and activity for Grade 4-12 classes who complete Activities 1 and 2, to explore and analyze concepts like safety & neighbourhood design.

A sign-up form for interested teachers and school staff will be published soon. Stay tuned!

After the engagement activities are complete, feedback will be analyzed for trends and thematic insights. A What We Heard report will be drafted by the consultant team and reviewed by the municipal staff. Please follow this page to stay informed.

Prizes: Halifax Shopping Centre or Mic Mac Mall $25 gift card to 20 prize winners.

To enter, read the rules below and fill the survey.

Active School Travel Baseline Study Prize Draw (the “Draw”) Official Rules

  1. ELIGIBILITY
    a) The Draw is free to enter (no purchase necessary) and open to all residents of the Halifax Regional Municipality (the “Municipality).
    b) Employees of the Municipality, and members of their household (whether or not related) are not eligible for prize draw entry.
    c) The Municipality will have the right at any time to require proof of identity and eligibility to participate in the Draw. Failure to provide such proof within a reasonable period of time may result in disqualification. All information supplied to the Municipality for the purpose of this Draw must be truthful, complete, accurate, and in no way misleading. The Municipality reserves the right to disqualify any entry or entrant in its sole discretion should any entry or entrant at any stage supply untruthful, incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading personal details or information.
  2. HOW TO ENTER
    a) The Draw period begins on May 4, 2026 and ends on May 29, 2026 (the “Draw Period”).
    b) Limit of one entry per person. Where more than one entry is received, only the first entry received from that person will be considered.
    c) To enter the contest:
    Complete and submit the survey questionnaire online at https://engagehalifax.ca/AST-baseline-study or https://engagehalifax.ca/etude-de-reference-transport-scolaire-actif.
    d) All entries must be received by the Municipality no later than the end of the Contest Period. The Municipality assumes no responsibility for lost, late, or misdirected entries, or for any human, computer, online, telephone, or technical malfunctions that may occur, or for any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Contest.
  3. RELEASE AND INDEMNIFICATION
    a) By entering this Draw, each entrant agrees, and by accepting the prize each winner agrees, (or if the entrant or winner is under the age of 19, their parent or guardian agrees) to release, indemnify, and hold harmless the Municipality, its Mayor, Councillors, employees, and representatives from any and all liability for any loss, harm, damages, damages to or loss of property, expenses, or personal injury, arising in whole or in part from the entrant’s participation in the Draw, the acceptance, possession, use, or misuse of the prize, and claims including those based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy.
  4. CONSENT TO PUBLICATION
    a) By entering this Draw, each entrant agrees, and by accepting the prize each winner agrees (or if the entrant or winner is under the age of 19, their parent or guardian agrees) to the use of their name, contact information, photograph and/or digital image or image on videotape for publicity purposes in the media, including on the Municipality’s websites, without additional compensation. Each entrant, including the winner of any prizes also waives (or if the entrant or winner is under the age of 19, their parent or guardian waives) any right to inspect or approve the finished product and understands that the Municipality may also change, alter or otherwise manipulate the image as the Municipality may deem necessary. Each entrant, including the winner of any prizes, hereby releases (or if the entrant or winner is under the age of 19, their parent or guardian releases) the Municipality from any claims arising from the use of the promotional material as outlined above and releases all rights and claims to any fees therefore.
  5. PRIZES & ODDS OF WINNING
    a) The prizes: $25.00 gift card for Halifax Shopping Centre or Mic Mac Mall for 20 prize winners.
    b) Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received for the Draw.
    c) Prizes must be accepted as awarded. No assignment, transfer, or substitution of prizes is permitted, except that the Municipality reserves the right to substitute a prize of comparable or greater value at its sole and absolute discretion, for whatever reason.
    d) Prizes may not be exactly as advertised and are provided “as is” without further warranty of any kind.
  6. AWARDING OF PRIZES
    a) Twenty potential winners will be selected by random draw on or after May 29, 2026 from all eligible submissions received.
    b) Each potential winner will be contacted by email (using the contact information provided by the entrant at the time of entering the contest) to determine if they are eligible in the sole discretion of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
    c) In the event that any potential winner does not respond to such notification within two business days or declines a prize for any reason, they will be disqualified and have no recourse against the Municipality. The prize will be forfeited, and, at the Municipality’s discretion and time permitting, an alternate potential winner may be selected by random draw from among all remaining eligible entries.
    d) To be declared a winner and claim the prize awarded, each potential winner must be eligible according to these Official Rules and comply with all terms and conditions contained herein, including but not limited to the sections above entitled RELEASE AND INDEMNIFICATION and CONSENT TO PUBLICATION.
  7. GENERAL CONTEST TERMS AND CONDITIONS
    a) The Municipality reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, amend, modify or terminate all or any portion of this Draw at any time for any reason without prior notice.
    b) By participating in this Draw, the entrant agrees (or if the entrant is under the age of 19 then their parent or guardian agrees) to these Official Rules and the decisions of the Municipality, which are final and binding in all respects.
    c) The Municipality reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Draw, or to be acting in violation of the Official Rules. Any use of robotic, automatic, programmed, or like entry methods will void all such entries by such methods.
    d) This Draw is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with any social media platform. Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the contest should be directed to the Municipality and not to a social media platform.
    e) This Draw is governed by, and these rules will be interpreted pursuant to, the laws of the Province of Nova Scotia and the laws of Canada applicable therein.
    f) In accordance with Section 485 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), any personal information collected in this form will only be used by municipal staff and, if necessary, individuals and/or organizations under service contract with the Municipality for purpose relating to Active School Travel Baseline & Program Option Study and for prize selection. If you have any questions about the collection and use of your personal information, please call 311 or email contactus@311.halifax.ca.

The goal of AST is to encourage students, parents and other members of the school community to actively travel (e.g. walk, roll, or cycle) to/from school through programming, policy and strategic infrastructure investment.

In Canada, cities such as Vancouver and Hamilton have AST implemented by the municipalities, the school boards, non-profits or as a collaborative partnership between all three. In Halifax, some schools implemented or are implementing AST projects informally, and others have partnered with non-profits or the municipality. Examples include:

In 2022, Walk n’ Roll initiated AST roundtable discussions. Through a series of roundtables with interest holders, an option for a governance structure for AST was proposed. The report of the roundtable discussions was brought to the Active Transportation Advisory Committee (July 20, 2023) and led to the Transportation Standing Committee direction in November 2023.

In Halifax Regional Council – Dec 12, 2023, the Regional Council directed the Chief Administrative Officer to initiate a municipality-led program to facilitate active and safer transportation for school-based trips that include an assessment of all schools in Halifax to establish a list of schools sorted by priority, which led to the initiation of the AST Baseline & Program Options Study.

The development of the municipality-initiated AST aligns with recommendations and actions presented in various municipal and provincial priorities plan, strategies and frameworks including: