Communities in Halifax Regional Municipality have an opportunity to make more sustainable, active and accessible transportation choices through the latest round of the Nova Scotia Moves program.
Through Nova Scotia Moves, the province offers grants of up to $200,000 to groups supporting sustainable transportation at the local level, including municipalities, band councils, community benefit organizations and social enterprises.
Twelve successful applicants around HRM were awarded grants in this round, totalling $570,976.
“I congratulate the applicants from HRM on their successful Nova Scotia Moves projects,” said Communities, Culture, and Heritage Minister Leonard Preyra, on behalf of Energy Minister Charlie Parker. “These are local initiatives that will encourage and educate the public on a broad range of sustainable transportation issues including active transportation, public and community transit, land use planning, efficient vehicles and public engagement.”
The successful applications from HRM are:
— Shubenacadie Canal Commission, to further develop the Lake William Trail
— Co*lab, for community engagement to re-envision main streets in HRM
— Ecology Action Centre, to further develop the Go Maritimes database, promote active transportation in schools, and pilot a bike trailer rental service.
— Halifax Regional Municipality, to investigate transit priority measures in HRM, engage residents around Metro Transit’s Five Year Plan, build an active transportation connection in Highfield Park, and improve ferry access at the Dartmouth ferry terminal
— Planning and Design Centre, for further developing of the Switch! Open Streets events
— Genuine Progress Index Atlantic, for youth engagement around transit in St. Margarets Bay
— Halifax Association for Community Living, to educate people with disabilities to use transit
— Public Good Society of Dartmouth, in support of a shared van service for non profits in North Dartmouth
— Institutional Transportation Demand Management Committee (Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, Capital Health, IWK), to study the possibility of a Transportation Management Authority
— Beaver Bank Monarch Drive Elementary, to install bike racks
“Thanks to Nova Scotia Moves, the Halifax Association for Community Living will be launching a Transit Training Orientation Program in the fall of 2013,” said Darren Watts, Halifax Association for Community Living. “The Nova Scotia Moves grant will help us to give people with intellectual and developmental disabilities a ticket to freedom by supporting them to independently use transit.
“This program will enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to gain the skills and confidence to increase their independence and to actively participate in life in the community.”
Across the province, 37 successful applications were awarded funding during the latest round, totalling $1.4 million.
The program helps Nova Scotians drive less distance, move more actively and efficiently, use cleaner energy, access a wider range of sustainable transportation options and engage communities around sustainable transportation issues.
In the 2012-13 pilot round, the province awarded more than $900,000 to projects developing ideas from active transportation routes to online information services. Twenty-eight grants were awarded and are now underway.
For more information, visit http://novascotia.ca/sustainabletransportation/.
Source: Release
