Halifax County (NS)

Background

In 1996, the Province of Nova Scotia merged the former City of Halifax, City of Dartmouth, Town of Bedford and Halifax County into the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Since that time, fire and transit services for the entire county have fallen under the direct control of the HRM's Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency (HRFE). Police service is provided in the urban areas (former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and Town of Bedford) by the Halifax Regional Police (HRP), an amalgamation of those former cities' police services. Policing services in the rest of the municipality is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Public Works services within the urban areas are provided by the HRM, and by the Province of Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in the rest of the municipality.

Integrated Emergency Services

HRM Integrated Emergency Services operates a single dispatching centre in Woodside for fire (HRFE) and police (HRP), as well as dispatching services for the RCMP in the rest of the municipality. This allows for greater levels of cooperation between police and fire, and between the two policing services. In some cases, HRP and RCMP units operate off of the same talkgroup, dispatched by the same dispatcher. This level of cooperation and integration is not usually seen in public safety, between different agencies.

Police

Policing in HRM is provided by a combination of Halifax Regional Police in the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and town of Bedford, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the former Halifax county.

Fire

Since amalgamation, all fire services in HRM (with the exception of airport and military fire) are carried out by Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency.

Public Works

Public Works services within the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and town of Bedford, are handled by HRM department of Transportation and Public Works. They are responsible for street cleaning, plowing, sidewalk maintenance, traffic services, horticultural services, fleet maintenance, real property management, public transit, water and sewer. Public works are dispatched from a building in Woodside (which also houses the Integrated Emergency Services dispatch centre), with the exception of Metro Transit which is dispatched from their transit facility in Burnside.

Public Works services outside of the area above is provided by the Province of Nova Scotia's department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.

HRM Public Works and Metro Transit service supervisors use the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Trunked Radio (P25).

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