Joint Regional Transportation Agency

[q12]

Latest 2024 population estimates released this week show that two out of three Nova Scotians live in the JRTA and growing.

The JRTA area added nearly 15,000 people between July 1st 2023 and July 1st 2024.

Total Population is 727,351 in these counties as of July 1st, 2024.

[gcaven]

The JRTA is becoming "Link Nova Scotia" with an expanded responsibility for transportation in the entire province. Still no sign of the report that was due at the end of last year though

https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2025/02/20/legislation-introduced-help-complete-projects-grow-economy

[q12]

The government is amending the Joint Regional Transportation Agency Act to broaden the agency’s scope, which will help advance efforts to ease congestion and provide transportation solutions for the entire province.

WTF.

I wasn't aware of congestion issues in Yarmouth or Meat Cove.

[Drybrain]

Weird to be expanding its mandate when it hasn’t even visibly done anything to fulfill its initial mandate.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Weird to be expanding its mandate when it hasn’t even visibly done anything to fulfill its initial mandate.

The new minister is from Cape Breton, you know that "other" province within the Main one. I can see this change as a way for some rural projects to get Fed money as Ottawa politicians tend to cut ribbons in Citys. NOTHING gets done in Cape Breton unless the vast majority of the funds come from other Governments. No such thing as private investment up there.

[IanWatson]

Yeah, that seems like a political move to make the existence of the agency pallatable to the whole province.

Related to this, the government has introduced legislation to give the Minister the authority to order municipalities to build or remove transportation infrastructure, on the municipality's dime. If a municipality refuses to comply, the Province will have the power to do the work and bill the municipality.

The optimist in me hopes that this will be used to ease coordination of things like regional rail or making improvements to interchanges where they transition to municipal roads (e.g. 102 into Joe Howe).

The pessimist in me worries this will be used to go Doug Ford on bike lanes and other infrastructure that has traditionally been squarely within municipal responsibility.

[gcaven]

I'm fully expecting the new powers to be used to force through the WSX design that council rejected

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

The pessimist in me worries this will be used to go Doug Ford on bike lanes and other infrastructure that has traditionally been squarely within municipal responsibility.

That's pretty outrageous. I would be worried about that too. I don't think any bike lanes in Halifax have resulted in the kind of hand wringing that the Bloor Street lanes did, which is really what triggered the Ford government's response. The minister also said he's not considering removing bike lanes. But I would never assume the legislation wouldn't be used this way, and these kinds of decisions shouldn't be autocratically dictated by a single minister in any case. (I can also easily see it being weaponized by NIMBY busybodies in all kinds of ways.)

This government is really overstepping reasonable authority in all sorts of ways.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Normally I wouldn’t be a fan of this kind of overreach, but one doesn’t have to look too hard to see how poorly Halifax has managed its own infrastructure in the past. We are currently somewhere around 3 decades behind IMHO, and perhaps some sort of coordination with the province, combined with enforcement powers might be what we need to get things done. Of course you can come up with all kinds of possibilities on how it could go wrong, but if you don’t take a chance to try to improve things, we end up where we are now, already.

[q12]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

The new minister is from Cape Breton

You mean this clown that said about JRTA report that it was (direct quote) "not important to Nova Scotians or not relevant."

N.S. government bill would give sweeping power over transportation to public works minister

Fred Tilley introduced the legislation on Thursday at Province House



Michael Gorman · CBC News · Posted: Feb 20, 2025 3:42 PM AST | Last Updated: February 20

Legislation introduced by the Progressive Conservative government on Thursday would give Nova Scotia's public works minister sweeping powers over transit and transportation infrastructure throughout the province.

Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters during a bill briefing that the changes to the Joint Regional Transportation Agency Act are intended to address traffic congestion and improve transportation options.

"Growing communities need transportation options and improved connectivity. We need a system that is dependable, efficient and safe for all road users," he said.

In order to do that, the changes Tilley introduced would change the name of the Joint Regional Transportation Agency to Link Nova Scotia. Its scope would be broadened to include the entire province, an expansion from the previous focus on Halifax Regional Municipality and areas within an hour of the capital city.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot...ion-fred-tilley-transportation-1.7463983

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by q12

You mean this clown that said about JRTA report that it was (direct quote) "not important to Nova Scotians or not relevant."



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot...ion-fred-tilley-transportation-1.7463983

Yup, things are .... different in C.B.

[OldDartmouthMark]

I can’t really see this meaning that CB will be getting anything more than some extra butter for their bread, to keep the locals happy. HRM and surrounding areas will always be where the heavy lifting needs to, and will, happen.

[gcaven]

HRM's CAO said in council today that the last she heard is that the LinkNS report (the renamed JRTA) is expected at sometime this summer.

[gcaven]

The report is out: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2025/08/06/regional-transportation-plan-released

[Summerville]

Originally Posted by gcaven

The report is out: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2025/08/06/regional-transportation-plan-released

All that time waiting,...for nothing. Someone should let the Premier know that we need problem solvers, not problem stretchers

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by gcaven

The report is out: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2025/08/06/regional-transportation-plan-released

Wow, you would think Mr Trudeau is still P.M.What a bunch of out of date virtue signalling bunk.Not a hint of urgency or imagination but lots about how marginal communities are recognized.Well Mr Tilley was a Liberal in another life and does hail from Cape Breton. Another World.

[Keith P.]

Huh. I read the document and it is an unambitious nothing burger. Lots of planning to plan. More bike lanes, more buses, maybe a replacement for the MacKay bridge, some highway improvements. It is interesting to delve into the JRTA website and look at some of their reports. The head of the agency is someone I met in a previous life. He was a property assessor. I’m sure he’s learned a lot since those days, but jeebus. He knows how to use an expense account though judging from some of those disclosures. Cripes!

[Dmajackson]

Government Response to Link Plan

This pretty well sums up what to expect. I agree with most of the proposed action plan but there are two points that I have trouble accepting.

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes
Connection to Plan:
Enhance the safety and efficiency of the regional transportation system
(1.1.3 Peninsula Core Streets & Access Corridors)
The Government will mandate Link Nova Scotia to investigate prime candidates
for HOV lane placement and enact a pilot program to encourage more people
to rideshare and use fewer vehicles. This could include potential conversion on
Magazine Hill, as well as exploration of opportunities at Cogswell District and
Barrington Street, and Bayers Road and Robie Street, in consultation with HRM
and Halifax Transit.

This seems like a good plan at the surface but I do worry about the Bayers/Robie corridor. This will be the first phase of BRT and opening the lanes up to HOV use could be detrimental to the flow of transit. Heavy enforcement would be needed to keep the lanes clear. I think the first HOV lanes should be away from the BRT network. Maybe convert the transit lane on Windmill Road in Burnside outbound to HOV?

Review Active Transportation Projects to Preserve Existing Road Capacity
Connection to Plan:
Enhance the safety and efficiency of the regional transportation system
(1.1.3 Peninsula Core Streets & Access Corridors)
Pause potential active transportation projects that could impact the capacity of
key routes and intersections and explore options to “future proof” pathways to
allow for safe pedestrian and cycling commuting, separate from high volume
commuter corridors

This is the one I can see causing issue. The province does a horrendous job at active transportation. It's starting to include AT items on some of it's projects but the quality is much lower than HRM currently builds. Their inexperience and unwillingness to talk to HRM about AT projects has already flared up as a problem with the Morris Street project. Through the years of stakeholder consultations and public outreach and numerous council votes the province said nothing until Houston decided to score some political points last month for his "strong mayor" movement. What does the province consider "safe pedestrian and cycling commuting"? Right now the province doesn't build things that would fit that criteria so how can they be the experts on this? At what point does a street become a "high volume commuter corridor"? And how can you separate a high pedestrian corridor from the commuter corridor on a street like Quinpool? Are you going to relocate all of the retail to Pepperrell Street so cars can drive along uninterrupted by pedestrian safety measures like crosswalks?

I'll post more in a few days on this topic. Especially the good things like the interregional transit plan.

[IanWatson]

Do HOV lanes even do anything? Carpooling seems to me to be literally the worst way to commute - all the stress of driving in traffic combined with having to share space with someone and losing the one good thing about driving (solitude). If we're talking about wasting limited right-of-way space, I have to think HOV lanes are at the very top.

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I read the document and it is an unambitious nothing burger. Lots of planning to plan.

Yeah, my feelings exactly. I can't believe the Province was so hesitant to release this document when it says pretty much nothing in it.

[LikesBikes]

IMO it's worse than a nothing burger. There's some laughably bad ideas in here and relatively few that I think would actually make a dent in improving the city's transportation/livability. It's really a shame too since now is the time for a strong vision to aim for - but, this plan obviously does provide that. The Province's response is even worse with mostly short term road adjustments which will just increase driving and inevitably congestion. Also, no surprise but the kneecapping of the AT program is a laughable recommendation that totally goes against all the densification going on in the city and the very recommendations made in the plan.

If this actually results in a rail system or funding for a BRT I'll eat crow, but I have a feeling the only thing to come out of this is a few fights over bike lanes, some AI/musky "traffic solving technology" that does nothing but cost the taxpayer $, and the odd road between sprawling cul de sacs in the sticks. What a shame, this could have been something great.