**** HRM Release
Municipality provides further information on restrictions to municipal park spaces
The Halifax Regional Municipality is providing further information on the restrictions placed on municipal park spaces, which were announced yesterday.
Effective Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 4 p.m., restrictions were placed on access to woods in municipal park spaces due to the Fire Proclamation – Travel Ban issued by the Province of Nova Scotia. These restrictions will remain in place until 2 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2025, unless the province’s proclamation is revoked or amended.
Woods, as defined in the provincial Forests Act, include forested land, rock barren, brush land, dry marsh, bog or muskeg.
Municipal park spaces
Parks that are entirely woods are now fully closed. Examples of this include Admiral Cove, Hemlock Ravine and Shaw Wilderness Park.
Parks with non-wooded areas remain open for use. Examples of this include the Halifax Common, the Dartmouth Common, Sullivan’s Pond – as well as municipal playgrounds, sports fields and ball diamonds.
For parks which have both woods and non-wooded areas, the woods are closed and the non-wooded areas remain open. Examples of this include:
· Fort Needham Memorial Park, where the monument, playground and sports field remain open, but the woods are closed.
· Point Pleasant Park, where the Sailor’s Memorial Way remains open, but trails through the wooded areas are closed. Residents are advised that the upper parking lot, from Point Pleasant Drive, is closed.
· Shubie Park, where the campground, ballfield, Fairbanks Centre, pump track and supervised beach remain open. The trails, including the off-leash trail system and off-leash beach area, are closed.
These restrictions apply to trails that are part of any active transportation routes through woods such as the Mainland North Trail and the Chain of Lakes Trail, which are closed.
Supervised beaches in municipal parks will remain open.
The municipality is in the process of installing signage at impacted park spaces. There are over 900 municipal park spaces and signage installation, which is expected to take several days, will not be done for all parks. Regardless of the presence of signage, residents are required to adhere to these restrictions
Residents can contact 311 for more information.
If park users do not follow these guidelines, the municipality may need to put further restrictions in place.
Service impacts
Residents are advised that the grass at municipal park spaces and trails that are closed will not be mowed or maintained at this time. Garbage bins will continue to be emptied at all park locations to support fire safety efforts. Service requests for affected areas may not be processed while these restrictions are in place.
If these restrictions affect any recreation programming, impacted users will be advised.
Enforcement
Residents are reminded that these restrictions will be enforced as necessary and that violating them may result in a provincial fine of $25,000.
Both Halifax Regional Police (HRP) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) members, along with the province’s Department of Natural Resources Conversation Officers, are authorized to issue summary offence tickets when required, which include a fine of $25,000 (+ surcharges).
If residents wish to report any violations of the restrictions, they can do so by contacting 1-800-565-2224.
For the latest information regarding restrictions to municipal park spaces, visit our website. More information on the provincial notice of restricting travel and activities in the woods is available in the Province of Nova Scotia’s news release.
