Halifax asks residents what city should prioritize for next four years

The Halifax Regional Municipality wants to know what residents value most from the city, and what public dollars should be spent on over the next four years.

HRM is building its new strategic plan for 2026-2030 as the current 2021-2025 plan is in its final year. This plan will guide municipal spending, and staff and council decisions for the next four years.

Residents can take part in an online survey on the draft plan until April 23.

"It's important for us to get those strategic objectives or goals right," Cathie O'Toole, Halifax's chief administrative officer (CAO), said on Thursday.

"It's important for us to have a good, overarching plan that reflects what the citizens want."

The draft plan is focused on supporting Halifax's population growth and is based on the 2024 resident survey, workshops with staff and councillors, and themes that emerged from the recent municipal election.

There are three council pillars of priorities. First is "enabling prosperity," which includes increasing housing supply and adapting infrastructure to climate change. "Strengthening communities" covers emergency planning, protecting green space and alternative first-responder models. 

"Moving better" includes goals like improving transit reliability, traffic congestion and the safety of all transportation modes including vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles.

O'Toole said it's important to hear from residents about where municipal dollars should be prioritized, and what they could do without, in light of tough decisions ahead.

Mayor Andy Fillmore and the new regional council had lengthy debates throughout this 2025-26 budget season and made various cuts to keep the property tax rate flat. But financial staff have warned that more dramatic changes to municipal services will be needed by next budget season if council wants to keep taxes from rising.

"If, for instance, improving public transit emerges, as in our top three goals … it may result in us having more confidence to go forward and suggest that, 'OK, we need to focus more resources — people and money — at transit for a few years,'" O'Toole said.

"[And] here's where we're going to be making service reductions, or here's where we're going to be pausing service expansion."

Feedback from the public survey will be factored into the strategic plan, which will be finalized by regional council this summer.

The 2026-2030 plan will come into effect next April.