What is new with Open Data?
June 24th, 2020 - New LiDAR data was captured for the Halifax Regional Municipality's coastal flood mapping project in 2018, as a result, we are releasing three new Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets and three Digital Surface Model (DSM) datasets each at 1,2 & 5 metre resolutions. To complement the suite of LiDAR data, we are also releasing two DSM datasets from 2007 at 2 & 5 metre resolution. We have renamed the existing LiDAR datasets to indicate the year the data was collected. Due to changes to the Bus Routes dataset, Transit Bus Routes will replace the existing Bus Routes which will be retired from the catalogue.
April 22nd, 2020 - Even during a pandemic the show must go on…so we have released a couple new datasets to our Open Data Catalogue: Census Journey to Work, Polling Divisions 2016 and a data update to the existing Polling Divisions. The new Polling Divisions have been released in preparation for the municipal election this fall and the previous Polling Divisions that were valid for 2016 to 2020 have been archived.
November 29th, 2019 - In coordination with Planning & Development, twenty-three new datasets have been released to the Open Data Catalogue supporting the Halifax Green Network Plan (HGNP) and the Regional Centre Plan (Package A). We are also releasing Accessible Parking Spots in support of the Parking Strategy and an update to the HRM Tax Rates to include the new tax rates for 2019.
The datasets included to support the HGNP are: HGNP Ecological Open Space Values, HGNP Essential Corridors, HGNP Important Corridors, HGNP Natural Vegetation Patches Large, HGNP Overlapping Values Ecology Working Socio-Cultural, HGNP Socio-Cultural Landscape Values, HGNP Working Landscapes Open Space Values, HGNP Working Landscapes Overlap Ecology Socio-Cultural.
The datasets included to support the Regional Centre Plan are: Active and Proposed Heritage Conservation Districts, RC Citadel Ramparts, RC Downtown Dartmouth Precincts, RC Maximum Building Heights, RC Maximum Floor Area Ratio, RC Maximum Front and Flanking Yards, RC Minimum Front and Flanking Yards, RC Pedestrian Oriented Commercial Streets, RC Shadow Impact Assessment Areas, RC Site Plan Approval Areas, RC Special Area Boundary, RC Transition Lines, RC View Corridors, RC View Lines and RC View Terminus Sites.
Note: Based on feedback we've received from users, we have been directed to remove Sidewalk Repair Closures from the Open Data Catalogue (and related RoadWorks app) until there is a more complete view of repair work being done on sidewalks across the municipality.
October 30th, 2019 – Open Data is pleased to release three new datasets to our catalogue: Municipal Cemeteries Interred, Municipal Cemeteries Mapping and Fire Response Zones. The release of cemetery data helps reduce information requests and allows the public to do genealogical research and locate interred within the Mount Hermon Cemetery. The Fire Response Zones provides more transparency on fire station coverage. There have also been two new fields added to the Street Junctions dataset related to audible pedestrian signals and buttons.
October 9th, 2019 –In coordination with the Municipal Clerk's Office, polling division results for District 15 have been released for the municipal by-election that was held on Oct 5th, Special Election 2019 - District 15 Polling Divisions Results.
September 25th, 2019 – As part of our ongoing commitment to release the underpinning data presented in public-facing applications, we have released Sidewalk Repair Closures which is presented in the RoadWorks online map.
August 21st, 2019 – In coordination with the Municipal Clerk's Office, new polling divisions boundaries for District 15 have been released for the up-coming special election, Special Election 2019 - District 15 Polling Divisions.
July 31st, 2019 – The Halifax Regional Municipality has released a new dataset, Sackville Rivers Study - Recommended Floodplains, as part of an ongoing commitment to providing public access to data created and managed by the municipality.
May 29th, 2019 – The Halifax Regional Municipality has released four new data sets as part of an ongoing commitment to providing public access to data created and managed by the municipality. The new datasets include: Street Closures, Sidewalk Closures and Disruptions, Bike Infrastructure and Suggested Routes, and Integrated Mobility Plan 2022 Regional Centre Bikeway Network Map.
March 27th, 2019 – This release enables increased transparency on municipal decisions pertaining to Planning & Development. The datasets are: Community Plan Generalized Future Land Use, Detailed Plan Areas, Detailed Plan Sub-Areas, Height Precincts, Height Precincts Interpretation, Land Use Schedules, Post-Bonus Building Height - Downtown Halifax, Pre-Bonus Building Height - Downtown Halifax, and Regional Plan Generalized Future Land Use.
January 30th, 2019 – With a new year comes new datasets to our Open Data Catalogue. We have released three datasets which support education and awareness pertaining to bylaws and our direction to release the underpinning data presented in public-facing applications. The datasets are: Designated Smoking Area Receptacles, Residential Parking Zones, and Youth Advocate Program.
October 31st, 2018 – Our fourth Open Data release of 2018 includes a number of datasets that support transparency about services the municipality provides, as well as, supporting education and awareness pertaining to bylaws and legislation. The datasets include 311 Call Volumes, Active Travelways, Capital Projects, Service Requirements, Transit Automated Passenger Counts, Truck Routes and an enhancement to the HRM Tax Rates.
July 18th, 2018 – For our third release of 2018, we are pleased to add the following datasets to our Open Data Catalogue: Open Data Analytics, Planning Advisory Committee Boundaries and Street Name Routes
March 29th, 2018 – The award winning Halifax Solar City program offered by the Halifax Regional Municipality helps residents reduce their carbon emissions and benefit from solar energy for heating, hot water and electricity. A first of its kind in Canada, Solar City covers the complete, upfront solar installation costs for eligible property owners and allows them to repay over 10 years with an interest rate of 4.75%.
This is the first data set from the Solar City program to be released to the Open Data catalogue. Solar City Program – Solar Electric Generation with Micro-Inverters includes cumulative solar electric generation data readings at 5 minute intervals for solar electric systems installed through the program.
February 28th, 2018 – Our first release of 2018 brings 5 new datasets to the Open Data Catalogue. The new datasets include: Airport Runways, Boat Facilities, Community Plan Areas, Ferry Routes and View Planes. Please stay tuned, more datasets will be released in the up-coming months.
November 29th, 2017 – Halifax is happy to announce the release of 10 new datasets to our Open Data Catalogue. The new datasets released include the current HRM Tax Rates and 2016 Census data that was recently released through the Statistics Canada Census Program, including; Census 2016 Census Tracts, Census 2016 Dissemination Areas, Census 2016 Dissemination Blocks, Census 2016 Population Age Ranges, Census 2016 Population Ages, Census 2016 Population Marital Status Ages and Census 2016 Population Marital Status Sex. In the interests of maintaining our high standards of quality, we have also updated our Area Rate datasets to reflect changes to the groupings and naming as directed by Regional Council. Local Improvements Area Rates, Recreation Area Rates and Residents Association Area Rates have been removed and replaced with Community Facilities and Services Area Rates and Private Road Area Rates.
September 28th, 2017 – We have redesigned our Open Data site with a new look to better showcase data that Halifax has made available to the public. Our hope is that the new design allows users to search for data more easily with the introduction of themes and clearly displayed "feature datasets" that are in high demand or recently released. This is just the start of new exciting things to come for our Open Data program.
June 21st, 2017 – Great news! Three key datasets related to fire assets, winter maintenance and street routing are now available. Fire Services has released the location of Dry Hydrants. Transportation and Public Works has released; Ice Routes for snow clearing and the priority of service; and Street Junctions for locations of intersections and crosswalks.
Furthermore, we are very pleased to announce a collaboration with Halifax Water to host their open data datasets. Halifax Water Hydrant and Halifax Water Catchbasin are now available for download within the Halifax Open Data Catalogue, with the hope of more collaboration in the future.
May 3rd, 2017 – Datasets which experienced a scheme change as a result of the February 8th implementation, identified with the prefix of “Old” in the dataset name, will be removed from the catalogue on May 10th, 2017. In addition, the coordinate system of our datasets has been updated from MTM Zone 5 ATS77 to WGS 84.
February 8th, 2017 – The long awaited release of new datasets to the Open Data Catalogue has finally arrived. We are pleased to release 5 new datasets: Building Details, Outdoor Recreation Areas, Outdoor Recreation Equipment, Polling Districts 2012 and Polling Divisions 2012.
Four datasets in our current catalogue have experienced some changes resulting in new fields being added or deleted. To assist developers with the transition, the former dataset will include (old) after the dataset name indicating that the dataset will be removed from the Open Data catalogue on May 10th, 2017. Developers should redirect their applications to the following datasets as the API keys will change: Bus Stops, HRM Park Recreation Features, HRM Parks and Parking Meters. See Release Changes for a complete list of all the changes. We have also enabled datasets to be downloaded in file geodatabase format, a new feature recently released through ESRI Open Data upgrades.
February 1st, 2017 – Halifax Transit is launching the data feed to developers as a beta release. During this time, our team is monitoring the service for any issues and, only under rare circumstances, it may be necessary to turn off the service to address any technical problems that come up. Users of the real-time data may experience downtime or possible inaccuracies in data quality until our team has resolved any issues that are found.