Notifications and new releases

What is new with Open Data?

March 30th, 2022 – today we have released three more datasets: Benefits Estimate Calculator, Horticultural Beds and Litter Bins, as part of our ongoing commitment to provide public access to data created and managed by the municipality. Also, all the HRCE School Boundary datasets have been updated as part of our partnership with Halifax Regional Centre for Education to share the data through our Open Data Catalogue.

February 9th, 2022 – three new datasets have been released today, they are: 2031 Commuting Mode Share Targets, EMO Sectors and Open Data Catalogue. These datasets have been released to improve transparency and to support the future roll-out of new dashboard initiatives.

November 29th, 2021 – In coordination with Planning & Development, eight new datasets have been released to the Open Data Catalogue supporting the Regional Centre Plan. The Regional Centre Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy and the Regional Centre Land Use By-Law (Package B) were approved by Council on Oct. 26, 2021 and came into effect on Nov. 27, 2021. The new planning documents will guide the growth and development of the Regional Centre including housing, business, institutions, parks, heritage, and the environment.

The new datasets include: RC Accessory Parking Prohibited Areas, RC Bonus Zoning Rate Districts, RC Landmark Building Sites, RC Maximum Streetwall Heights, RC LUB View Corridors, RC SMPS Precincts, RC SMPS View Corridors and RC Transportation Reserves

The following datasets have been modified to include additional information as a result of Package B: Active and Proposed Heritage Conservation Districts, Community Plan Generalized Future Land Use, RC Citadel Ramparts, RC Maximum Building Heights, RC Shadow Impact Assessment Areas and RC Special Area Boundary

And these datasets have been archived for historic purposes: RC Downtown Dartmouth Precincts, RC Site Plan Approval Areas, RC Transition Lines and RC View Corridors

November 24th, 2021 – Five new datasets have been released to the open data catalogue as part of an ongoing commitment to provide public access to data created and managed by the municipality.
The datasets include: Bike Amenities, Cityworks Service Requests, Cityworks Service Requests Custom Fields, Road Safety Countermeasures Tracking and Traffic Calming Infrastructure.
Additionally, the following datasets have been updated: PPL&C Issued Building Permits, PPL&C Issued Construction Permits and HRM Tax Rates.

September 22nd, 2021 - In support of our HalifACT 2050 initiative, we are excited to release HRM Building Energy Usage which includes electric, natural gas, fuel oil and propane usage and costs for a number of municipal facilities.

We are also releasing building and construction permit from our new Planning Permitting Licensing & Compliance application, PPL&C Issued Construction Permits and PPL&C Issued Building Permits. The previously released dataset, PPL&C Issued Building Permits - INTERIM REPORT has been removed, as more recent data is now available.

August 18th, 2021 - Over the past year we have been working on ways to communicate to the public the progress of initiatives that the municipality has implemented. The municipality will be releasing dashboards soon to showcase Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for various projects, of which the underlying data has been released out to our Open Data program.

Some of this data includes: Commuting Mode Share by Region, IMP Key Performance Indicators, Speed Display Signs, Traffic Control Locations.

A number of other changes have also taken place: Census Journey to Work has been renamed to Commuting Mode Share by Census Tract and the Policy field was removed from the Transit Priority Corridors dataset. Also, the following datasets have been changed from weekly to daily refresh in the catalogue: Bicycle Counts, Transit Automated Passenger Counts, Transit Ferry Passenger Counts.

June 24th, 2021 - we are experiencing some issues with our Open Data site where some fields within the datasets appear to be hidden. The full list of fields are listed within the metadata documents and all the data is available when downloaded. We are working at resolving the issue and will update when more information is available.

June 23rd, 2021 – today’s release includes a number of datasets supporting the Integrated Mobility Plan: Bicycle Counts, Mobility Counters, Transit Ferry Passenger Counts, Transit Priority Corridors, Transit Priority Measures (Operational), Transit Signal Priority (Operational). Updates have been made to the Transit Automated Passenger Counts to change the data from weekly to daily. Also, we are releasing HRM Traffic Studies to show locations where HRM staff have conducted traffic studies.

June 4th - We have released PPL&C Issued Building Permits - INTERIM REPORT. This dataset is a static report of all the building permits that have been issued in the new permit and licensing application (PPL&C) since go-live (December 15th, 2020 until May 31st, 2021). This dataset is intended as a temporary release and will be replaced once the permanent product is developed and released in Open Data.

April 21st, 2021 - HRM Tax Bill Info was released today to provide the public with access to a table of tax rates and dollar amounts for tax bills that will support a future initiative for a Tax Bill lookup tool. We have also made updates to existing datasets: a new field for Terminal ID for Card Reader was added to Parking Pay Stations, and new data was added for Fairview Lawn Cemetery within our Municipal Cemeteries Interred & Municipal Cemeteries Mapping datasets.

March 31st, 2021 – We are very pleased to announce that Halifax has ranked 6th of North American's most open cities by the Open Cities Index. We are also happy to release 5 new datasets to our catalogue: Historical Aerial Photographs Index, Outdoor Recreation Polygon Uses, Outdoor Recreation Polygons, Parking Pay Stations, Street Lights. As Outdoor Recreation Polygons replaces Outdoor Recreation Areas, it will be removed from the catalogue on May 1, 2021.

December 16th, 2020 - The Halifax Regional Municipality has released a new dataset on Traffic Collisions as part of an ongoing commitment to providing public access to data created and managed by the municipality.

November 25th, 2020 – A number of new dataset have been added to the Open Data Catalogue and there are some updates to existing datasets.
New Datasets
Naturalization Initiatives
Bridges
Steps
Parking Pay Zones
Permit Parking Zones

Updated Datasets
Accessible Parking Spots – new winter maintenance fields have been added
Active Travelways – new winter maintenance fields have been added
Bus Stops – new winter maintenance fields have been added
Street Centrelines – new field for Lane Count has been added
HRM Tax Rates – new rates for 2020 have been added

Removed Dataset
Residential Parking Zones

October 28th, 2020 – We are releasing Heritage Properties, HRM NSTIR Exchange Boundary and Public Trees to provide the public with more information regarding municipal services.

October 21st, 2020 - We have been experiencing issues downloading the Solar City Program - Solar Energy Generation with Micro-Inverters dataset. It has recently come to our attention that the feature service name exceeds the character limit restrictions and is the cause of the issues. To remedy this, we will be renaming the feature service on October 28th, 2020.
Current: https://services2.arcgis.com/11XBiaBYA9Ep0yNJ/arcgis/rest/services/Solar_City_Program_Solar_Energy_Generation_with_Micro_Inverters
New: https://services2.arcgis.com/11XBiaBYA9Ep0yNJ/arcgis/rest/services/Solar_City_Program_Generation_Micro_Inverters
As this will break applications links associated with the current feature service, please redirect to the new feature service. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

September 2nd, 2020 - A new dataset, Residential Standards Violations, listing violations under Bylaw M-200 (Respecting Standards for Residential Occupancies) has been added to the Halifax Open Data Catalogue. The dataset includes calls for inspection for building maintenance and safety violations as a result of inspections performed by Planning & Development and Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency.

September 1st, 2020 - We have updated our Open Data site address from http to https. If you have bookmarks saved for our Open Data site, please update to the new site address https://catalogue-hrm.opendata.arcgis.com/

August 18th, 2020 - Parking Meters are being phased out due to the installation of new Parking Pay Stations, therefore this dataset will no longer be updated and will be removed from the Open Data Catalogue on September 30th, 2020.

August 12th, 2020 - In response to the Corona virus pandemic, public washrooms that are maintained by Halifax Regional Municipality have been made public through a new dataset called HRM Public Washrooms. This dataset currently includes washrooms that are located in Parks, Transit & Ferry Terminals and Halifax Public Libraries.

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.

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