Clean air is important to residents of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

Poor air quality can affect our health, lead to increased health care costs and also affect natural resources. We all play a role and have a responsibility to take care of our air, in particular through our own personal choices and actions.

Clean Nova Scotia provides some excellent tips that can help each of us be better stewards of the environment, including how to keep our air clean.

HRM is making major contributions towards improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through environmentally and economically sustainable land use planning, through the Regional Planning process.

Along with these efforts, HRM has produced a Clean Air Strategy. In essence this is a comprehensive, "all in one place" document or framework to help guide HRM towards clean air for all its residents.

Other major components of the HRM Strategy include the HRM Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan, the HRM Community Local Action Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction (PDF, 5.4 MB), and the ClimateSMART strategy.

Air quality standards are set federally by Environment Canada and monitored provincially by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment.

By working together on environmental stewardship we can make a big difference!

Air Quality Comparison: Halifax Harbour looking from Citadel Hill on August 10th and 11th, 2001. Both days were sunny and mostly cloudless.

Left: August 11, 2001 (early afternoon).
Ozone reading: 20 ppb; PM2.5 reading: 3 mg/m3

Right: August 10, 2001 (late morning).
Ozone reading: 50 ppb; PM2.5 reading: 50 mg/m3