Residents can help shape municipal projects, policies and services. Public participation helps create strong, healthy and inclusive communities. Through Engage Halifax, the municipality's online engagement platform, residents can learn about current projects, share feedback and participate in decisions that affect their community.
By visiting Engage Halifax website you can:
- review current municipal projects
- complete surveys and polls
- join online discussions
- attend public engagement events
- share your feedback with municipal employees
The online tool complements traditional engagement activities such as open houses and town halls. It helps make public engagement more inclusive and accessible while giving residents additional ways to share feedback through discussion forums, quick polls and surveys.
About Community Engagement Strategy
Community engagement is an integral part of the process to use public feedback to inform project decision-making. Adopted by Regional Council in 2024, the municipality's Community Engagement Strategy (CES) aims to:
- provide a consistent approach to public engagement across the Halifax region;
- enhance the municipality’s diversity and inclusion goals;
- follow recognized public engagement best practices and
- adapt engagement approaches to meet changing community needs.
The CES was informed by:
- the municipality’s previous Community Engagement Strategy (2008);
- the 2023 Planning & Development Public Engagement Guidebook and
- the Diversity & Inclusion Framework and supporting corporate strategies, frameworks and action plans that provide guidance on engaging with diverse communities.
How community engagement works
The municipality has developed an approach to engagement for policies, programs and services that reflects the needs of the project and the community it impacts. There are key steps and considerations for all types of engagements to ensure they are effective, accessible and inclusive, approved by Regional Council, as per Administrative Order 2023-002-ADM (Respecting Public Participation for Planning Documents, Certain Planning Applications, and Engagement with Abutting Municipalities).
There are standard steps/considerations involved in developing an engagement approach. When planning engagement, employees familiarize themselves with the community, identify any barriers to participation and work closely with our Diversity & Inclusion team to ensure underrepresented communities are consulted. At a high-level, this assessment guides how we design the engagement programs and what tools and formats are used to reach residents (e.g. in person, online).
How the municipality plans engagement
- Assessing the need for, and purpose of, public engagement
Project teams complete a series of impact assessments based on legislative requirements, Regional Council direction, the level of impact on the community and the level of influence participants have on the outcome. These assessments help inform the objectives for engagement.
- Familiarizing ourselves with the community
Working alongside the municipality's Office of Diversity & Inclusion/African Nova Scotian Affairs Integration Office, employees seek guidance from the communities that are impacted by the project to help inform the most appropriate forms of engagement. Considerations include community demographics, resources, broad representative participation and appropriate meeting times and locations. Community needs are considered by screening conditions to determine if a more robust or targeted level of participation is required.
As many communities have been historically underrepresented in, and excluded from, participation, engagement strategies aim to centre the voices, interests, values and experiences of underrepresented identities and cultural groups. Project teams actively seek to include diverse community members when planning engagement activities.
Pre-engagement may be necessary for applications or projects that require significant or sensitive engagement approaches. Pre-engagement is an opportunity for informal networking, individual introductions and enhanced communication by bringing together impacted stakeholders to help identify issues and determine how best to engage.- Identifying barriers to participation
Before engagement activities take place, employees work to identify and address barriers to participation by considering the communities who may be impacted. Barriers to participation may be physical, informational, attitudinal, technological, cultural, etc. and include anything that prevents a resident from fully participating in an engagement opportunity. Individual residents, as well as communities, may have less experience, confidence, or capacity to participate; as such, staff work with them to determine the most effective ways to engage inclusively.
Anticipating and addressing barriers to participation means asking critical questions to understand how and why persons are excluded and how we can work to foster more inclusive and accessible engagement.- Designing engagement activities
Engagement activities are designed intentionally to ensure accessibility and build trust with residents.
Online engagement may include making information on halifax.ca, social media, surveys or Engage Halifax, the municipality’s online engagement portal.
In-person engagement events may take various forms to optimize mutual learning and facilitate communication between project teams and residents in real time. Best practices are followed, including consideration of barriers to participation.- Delivering engagement
Project teams continuously monitor the effectiveness of engagements and communicate regularly with key partners to build and foster authentic relationships. Careful consideration is placed on building trust and centering marginalized voices during engagement to ensure feedback is reflective of the community’s needs. This includes offering a welcoming environment and providing adequate resources when facilitating meetings.
Project updates are made available to residents indicating project status and timelines, how feedback was or will be incorporated into the decision-making process, what will happen next and how residents can continue to participate.- Reviewing, analyzing and reporting feedback
Records from engagement activities are maintained to ensure all feedback is considered. A 'What We Heard' report is often used as an effective way to summarize feedback received, contributing to strong and transparent relationships between the municipality and the community.
These summary reports are published online to enable residents to review and validate the findings or bring forward concerns that may not have been addressed. A social lens review is also conducted to ensure the findings are reflective of, and sensitive to, all members of the community.- Evaluating engagement
By evaluating engagement activities, employees are able to identify and address issues, and also inform future municipal engagements. The following indicators are considered in the evaluation of our engagement programs:
Inclusive participation, balanced and complete information, effective process, capacity building and resources.
Please note: The Halifax Regional Municipality is committed to maintaining a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for employees, residents and community members. Disrespectful behaviour, verbal abuse, harassment, discrimination or violence will not be tolerated.