Nova Scotia·NewNova Scotia Federation of Municipalities president Pam Mood is welcoming a bill that would allow the province to designate any public road as a transportation corridor, but stresses local governments should be consulted.Bill tabled in the legislature would require a permit for any work done near important roadwaysHaley Ryan · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes agoTraffic on Robie Street on April 24, 2025, including a designated bus lane. A new provincial bill aims to preserve important transportation corridors if they need to be expanded for major projects in the future. (Haley Ryan/CBC)The head of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities is welcoming a bill that would allow the province to designate any public road as a transportation corridor, but stresses local governments should be consulted.While municipalities have raised concerns in the past when the provincial government has stepped into their jurisdiction, federation president Pam Mood said she’s pleased to see action being taken on transportation issues.Mood said the bill — which would also require provincial approval for development near important roadways — has the potential to speed up work, but municipalities where corridors are designated should be part of the discussion.”Being able to take care of that so that we’re not colliding, and we’re able to … build on [the corridors] in the future is really important,” said Mood, the mayor of Yarmouth, in a recent interview.The proposed Transportation Corridor Control Act was included in an omnibus bill tabled last week in the Nova Scotia Legislature, and came before the public bills committee Monday.Regional plan lists possible corridorsThe provincial government has not said which corridors might be designated, or when.But Peter Hackett, deputy minister of Link Nova Scotia, has said the Crown corporation’s recent regional transportation plan outlines where the corridors could be, and the infrastructure needed to set them up.The plan includes rapid bus routes for Halifax, expanding the capacity for part of Highway 102, exploring light rail, and inter-municipal transit between the capital city and communities like Truro, Windsor and the Annapolis Valley.”That way, if we … need an extra lane somewhere, or bus rapid transit, whatever it would be in that report, this would sort of help us designate some of those corridors,” Hackett told reporters last Thursday.Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities. (Paul Poirier/CBC)Robie Street may make sense as a designated corridor, for example, because it is a future bus rapid transit route that municipal staff have noted is already zoned for high-density development. The province has partnered with Halifax to buy lands along Robie Street over the past few years to allow for widening that would accommodate bus lanes, with about $17 million spent as of August between both governments on land acquisition.No one responded to a request from CBC News for an interview with Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore.A request for an interview with the municipality’s interim chief administrative officer was declined. A municipal spokesperson said details of the bill and its potential impacts were still being reviewed.Connecting communities ‘a great thing’Abraham Zebian, mayor of the West Hants Regional Municipality, said it’s hard to know what the impact of designating these corridors would be for his area until the locations are announced.The regional transportation plan suggests one of the new inter-municipal transit routes go through West Hants, with new park-and-ride locations around Windsor. Zebian said the municipality has not had any communication from the province about when, and how, that project will roll out.Peter Hackett is deputy minister of Link Nova Scotia. (Dave Laughlin/CBC)”Trying to connect all of our communities, I think it’s a great thing in my opinion,” Zebian said. “When that communication does come through, I’m hoping that West Hants is ready on its end with its own system … and that it’ll just be a seamless tie-in when it does come.”West Hants recently hired engineering firm WSP Canada to create a feasibility study for what a net-zero transit system with electric buses would look like for the municipality. Zebian said he hopes the study will come back to council in early 2026.Jillian Ramsay, sustainable cities co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, said she likes much of the work in the regional transportation plan. But she said the new bill does give the minister of municipal affairs “a lot of power to make decisions on behalf of municipalities … which isn’t a good thing all the time.”Under the legislation, anyone wanting to build upon, alter or develop property within 30 metres of a designated transportation corridor would first need a permit from the minister.Bill has ‘positive elements’Ramsay added that the province’s track record on municipal issues has not inspired confidence for her, and said special planning areas in particular have meant no public consultation and a lack of environmental protection for major developments.”So that doesn’t bode well for other areas where the province is trying to overreach,” Ramsay said Monday.”But … there are positive elements that we’re seeing so far. So we can hope for the best.”The entire bill, called the Municipal Modernization Act, will make its way through a few more steps at Province House before it can become law.ABOUT THE AUTHORHaley Ryan is the municipal affairs reporter for CBC covering mainland Nova Scotia. Got a story idea? Send an email to haley.ryan@cbc.ca, or reach out on Twitter @hkryan17.
Mayor says N.S. municipalities must be part of transportation corridor discussions
