Thank you for your continued interest in the Halifax Regional Municipality’s Suburban Plan!

January marked the kickoff of engagement events for the Halifax Regional Municipality's Suburban Plan! This issue of the newsletter is to provide an update on what we are hearing so far and share upcoming opportunities to participate. Events and activities for this first phase of public engagement will be running until June 2026.

January Engagement Events

While Mother Nature was not on our side with three snow days in January, we were still able to host open houses in three communities, and several more in February (please stay tuned for our next newsletter for summaries on those). At each event, residents had a chance to learn more about the Suburban Plan, listen to a presentation on the project, provide feedback, and ask questions to planning staff.

• Our first stop was Eastern Passage at Horizon Recreation Centre where we heard from 35 community members about the importance of the community’s history and traditional character, protecting environmental features, and the pressure on community services and infrastructure.

• Our second stop was Clayton Park at the Canada Games Centre where about 60 residents from Fairview and Clayton Park communities shared with us the importance of their neighbourhood character, the value of the community’s many parks and open spaces, and challenges traveling through the community.

• Our final stop in January was Spryfield at Captain Spry Public Library. The community ended our January sessions strong, with 160 residents attending to discuss the importance of protecting the natural environment, the demands on infrastructure from a growing community, increasing traffic challenges, as well as the need for better public transit and active transportation options. We will need to book a bigger room for our future events!

Overall, across the three open houses, we heard that community members are interested in complete communities, where there is a range of housing and close access to the services and amenities that make up great communities.

The Suburban Plan team would like to express our thanks to everyone who has come out to our events. We really appreciate residents taking the time to help us understand the vision and needs of each community.

Online Engagement

Our online engagement continues! Since launching the project website in December 2025, we received over 600 survey responses and nearly 200 pins were placed on our interactive map.

The two most prominent themes from the survey are opportunities and concerns related to housing and mobility. Our What We Heard Report, which will be published after this phase of engagement is completed, will provide a full analysis of all engagement feedback collected. Thank you to everyone who has participated!

If you haven’t had a chance to participate in our online engagement, please visit our project website. A short recorded presentation from the open houses will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Engagement Opportunities

If you haven’t made it to an open house yet, there are still plenty of opportunities to come and engage in person. We have already hosted open houses in February! Our final Kick Off Open House will be in Bedford, see the details below:

Bedford Kickoff Open Houses

Date: February 23rd

Time: 2-4 pm and 5:30-8 pm

Location: Bedford Legion

In addition to our open houses, the Suburban Plan team will be “popping up” with a mobile display at existing community spaces or events for people to stop by and learn about the project. We may “pop up” on short notice but will be sharing updates on where to find us on HRM’s social media channels and our project website!

Have an event or venue in your community where you’d like to see our team? Let us know!

If you’d like to visit us at one of our upcoming pop-up events you can find us at:

Sackville Snow Days at Acadia Park

Date: February 14th

Time: 1-3 p.m.

Woodlawn Public Library

Date: February 17th

Time: 11-1 p.m.

Bedford Hammonds Plains Community Centre

Date: February 19th

Time: 5-8 p.m.

Keshen Goodman Library

Date: February 21st

Time: 10-12:30 p.m.

Stay tuned for our next newsletter on February engagement events and more opportunities to participate!

How can you stay in touch with us?

Email: suburbanplan@halifax.ca

Phone: (902) 499-0607

Website: www.engagehalifax.ca/suburban-plan

Instagram: Halifax Regional Municipality Instagram

Facebook: Halifax Regional Municipality Facebook