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 Service (HRFES). 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.

HRM Integrated Emergency Services

HRM Integrated Emergency Services operates a single dispatching centre in Woodside for fire (HRFES) 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.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service

After the creation of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in 1996, all fire services within Halifax County came under one department, Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service (HRFES).

The HRFES consists of two response areas, core and rural:

• Core stations are those in the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, Town of Bedford and Sackville. These stations are staffed by full crews, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
• Rural stations are those in the former Halifax County. Some stations in more densly populated areas have a mixture of career firefighters during the day Monday to Friday, and volunteer firefighters covering the rest of the time. Stations in more rural areas are covered entirely by volunteers.

Core Stations

Note, station 1 is actually the headquarters at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, not an actual working station.

Stn No.	Station Name	Area covered	Apparatus
2	University Avenue	Downtown Halifax	Engine 2
3	West Street	Downtown Halifax	Engine 3 Aerial 1
4	Lady Hammond Road	North-end Halifax	Engine 4
5	Bayers Road	West-end Halifax	Quint 5 Decon 1
6	Herring Cove Road	Spryfield	Engine 6
7	Knightsridge Drive	Fairview/Clayton Park	Quint 7
8	Convoy Run	Bedford	Engine 8 Tactical 2
9	Metropolitan Boulevard	Lower Sackville	Engine 9 Engine 9-A
10	Sackville Drive	Middle Sackville	Engine 10 Engine 10-A
11	Patton Road	Upper Sackville	Engine 11 Tanker 11
12	Highfield Park	North-end Dartmouth	Quint 12 Tactical 1
13	King Street	Downtown Dartmouth	Quint 13 Boat 1
14	Second Street	Westphal	Engine 14
15	Pleasant Street	Woodside	Engine 15
16	Caldwell Road	Eastern Passage	Engine 16
17	Cole Harbour Road	Cole Harbour	Engine 17 Engine 17-A Tanker 17
18	Hwy #7	Westphal	Engine 18 Engine 18-A

Rural Stations

The rural area stations are further devided into 5 emergency response zones: 1, 2, 3, 4 and the western region.

Zone 1

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
19	Lawrencetown	Engine 19 Tanker 19 Rescue 19	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
20	Lawrencetown	Engine 20 Tanker 20 Rescue 20	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
21	Lake Echo	Engine 21 Tanker 21 Rescue 21 Tactical 21	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
22	North Preston	Engine 22	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
23	Chezzetcook	Engine 23 Tanker 23 Rescue 23	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
24	Musquodoboit Harbour	Engine 24 Tanker 24 Rescue 24	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
25	Ostrea Lake	Engine 25 Tanker 25 Rescue 25	Volunteer only
26	Oyster Pond	Engine 26 Tanker 26	Volunteer only

Zone 2

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
28	Sheet Harbour		Volunteer only
29	Moser River		Volunteer only
30	Tangier		Volunteer only
31	East Ship Harbour		Volunteer only
32	Mooseland		Volunteer only
33	Three Harbours		Volunteer only
34	Mushaboom		Volunteer only

Zone 3

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
35	Cooks Brook		Volunteer only
36	Meagher's Grant		Volunteer only
37	Elderbank		Volunteer only
38	Middle Musquodoboit		Volunteer only
39	Upper Musquodoboit		Volunteer only
40	Dutch Settlement		Volunteer only

Zone 4

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
41	Waverley	Engine 41 Aerial 41	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
42	Wellington - Fletcher's Lake		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
43	Grand Lake - Oakfield		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
45	Lakeview/Fall River/Windsor Junction		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
47	Goffs		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
48	Beaverbank - Kinsac		Volunteer only

Western Region

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
50	Hammonds Plains		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
51	Upper Hammonds Plains		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
52	Prospect Bay Road		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
53	Terrence Bay		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
54	Shad Bay		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
55	Seabright		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
56	Black Point		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
57	Head of St. Margarets Bay		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
58	Lakeside		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
59	Bay Road/Lewis Lake		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
60	Herring Cove		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
61	Ketch Harbour		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
62	Harrietsfield		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
63	Sambro		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time

Halifax Regional Police

Prior to amalgamation in 1996, the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, as well as the former Town of Bedford, each had their own police service. Upon amalgamation, those three services merged to become Halifax Regional Police (HRP), and are dispatched from the HRM Integrated Emergency Services dispatch centre in Woodside.

HRP is divided into three response zones:

• East - Dartmouth, Burnside, Eastern Passage
• Central - north and south-end Halifax, downtown Halifax
• West - Mainland Halifax, Herring Cove, Bedford

Communications

Talkgroups can be found in the RadioReference database under the Aliant Trunked Mobile Radio System.

Communications are divided between the three response zones above. Each zone has a corresponding primary and secondary talkgroup, with all communications occurring on the primary talkgroup, and the secondary being used for major incidents, or for conversations that don't want to tie up the primary talkgroup. In addition, each zone has at least one dispatcher assigned to it, sometimes two during busy periods or major incidents.

There is also a CPIC talkgroup, which has its' own dedicated dispatcher and is used for criminal records checks and requesting other services such as toe trucks. Often this dispatcher gets backed up, and a queue is formed.

In addition there are three common-use talkgroups, COMM 1-3, which are used for major events such as concerts or festivals, or coordinated events such as speed traps. These are not normally monitored by dispatchers, but they can be if requested.