We want to hear from you!

blue background with the text Senior's Recreation Services Plan and the REC logo in red, blue and green circles behind the letters.

Parks & Recreation is in the process of developing a Seniors Recreation Services Plan. This project is aimed at shaping the municipality's recreation programs and services for seniors for the next five years. Seniors' groups and individuals will be actively involved in creating this plan and a Seniors Recreation Advisory Group will be established to provide leadership and support to staff during the strategic planning process.
 

Seniors Recreation Services Plan Survey

The survey closed on June 4, 2025. 

The Seniors Recreation Survey is now closed. Thank you to the more than 2,000 people who provided their feedback. The survey was available in both English and French, in online and paper formats, to ensure broad accessibility. Your input will play an important role in shaping the Seniors Recreation Services Plan.
 

Survey Contest!

By completing the survey, you can enter a contest to win! 

  • Grand Prize: Win 1 of 2 $100 grocery store gift cards
  • Other prizes: Win 1 of 20 $10 Tim Hortons gift cards

The prize draw will take place on June 26, 2025. 

Survey Completion Contest Details, Rules & Regulations

If you have completed the online survey, you'll be prompted to participate in our contest. If you fill out a paper copy, you can still enter the contest by filling out the contest details page. 

  • Grand Prize: Win 1 of 2 $100 grocery store gift cards
  • Other prizes: Win 1 of 20 $10 Tim Hortons gift cards

The prize draw will take place on June 26, 2025.

  1. Eligibility

    1. The contest (the “contest”) is free to enter (no purchase necessary) and open to all residents of the Halifax Regional Municipality, 60 years of age and older (as of March 31, 2025), who have completed the 2025 Seniors Recreation Services Plan Survey (the “survey”).
    2. Employees of Halifax Regional Municipality (the “municipality”) and members of their household (whether or not related) are not eligible for contest entry.
    3. The municipality will have the right at any time to require proof of identity and eligibility to participate in the contest. Failure to provide such proof within a reasonable period of time may result in disqualification. All information supplied to the municipality for the purpose of this contest must be truthful, complete, accurate. The municipality reserves the right to disqualify any entry or entrant in its sole discretion should any entry or entrant at any stage supply untruthful, incomplete, inaccurate or misleading personal details or information.

  2. How to enter

    1. The contest period (the “contest period”) begins on March 31, 2025 and ends on June 25, 2025.
    2. Limit of one entry per person for the Survey. Where more than one entry is received, only the first entry received from that person will be considered.
    3. To be automatically entered into the contest:
      1. Complete a paper copy of the Survey between March 31, 2025 and June 25, 2025 then provide the completed Survey to your nearest municipal recreational centre or public library; or,
      2. Go to the Seniors Recreation Services Plan web page (halifax.ca/seniors) and complete the Survey between March 31, 2025 and June 25, 2025 then follow the online instructions to submit your completed survey.
    4. Only those entries that have completed all fields and submitted all information requested by the survey will be eligible to win one of the prizes. Incomplete entries will not be included.
    5. All entries must be received by the municipality no later than the end of the contest period. No responsibility is assumed by the municipality for lost, late or misdirected entries, for any human, computer, online, telephone or technical malfunctions that may occur or for any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the contest.

  3.  Publication, release and indemnification

    1. By entering this contest, each entrant agrees to release, indemnify and hold harmless the municipality, its Mayor, Councillors, employees and representatives from any and all liability for any loss, harm, damages, expenses or personal injury, arising in whole or in part from the entrant’s participation in the contest, the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize and claims including those based on publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy.
    2. By accepting a prize, each winner consents to the use of their name, contact information, photograph and/or image on videotape for publicity purposes in the media, including on the municipality’s websites, without additional compensation.

  4. Prizes and odds of winning

    1. There is a grand prize to win one of two, $100 grocery store gift cards. Other prizes to be won are 1 of 20, $10 Tim Hortons gift cards.
    2. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received for the contest.
    3. Prizes must be accepted as awarded. No assignment, transfer or substitution of prizes is permitted, except that the municipality reserves the right to substitute a prize of comparable or greater value at its sole and absolute discretion, for whatever reason.
    4. Prizes may not be exactly as advertised and are provided “as is” without further warranty of any kind. Prize winners may need to resolve issues directly with the manufacturer or provider of the prizes.

  5. Awarding of prizes

    1. All entries will be submitted to a random draw.
    2. Each potential winner will be contacted by telephone (using the contact information provided by the entrant at the time of entering the contest) to determine if the entrant is eligible. The eligibility of the entrant is at the sole discretion of the municipality. The two grand prize winners will be given the opportunity to choose the grocery store to which the $100 gift card will apply.
    3. In the event that any potential winner does not respond to such notification within five business days or declines a prize for any reason, they will be disqualified and have no recourse against the municipality. The prize will be forfeited and, at the municipality’s discretion and time permitting, an alternate potential winner may be selected by random draw from among all remaining eligible entries.

  6. General contest terms & conditions

    1. The municipality reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, amend, modify or terminate all or any portion of this contest at any time for any reason without prior notice.
    2. By participating in this contest, the entrant agrees to these official rules (the “official rules”) and the decisions of the municipality, which are final and binding in all respects.
    3. The municipality reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the contest or to be acting in violation of these official rules. Any use of robotic, automatic, programmed or like entry methods will void all such entries by such methods.
    4. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by or associated with any social media platform or manufacturer or provider of prizes. Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the contest should be directed to the municipality and not to a social media platform or manufacturer or provider of prizes.
    5. This contest is governed by and these rules will be interpreted pursuant to, the laws of the Province of Nova Scotia and the laws of Canada applicable therein.
    6. In accordance with Section 485 of the Municipal Government Act, SNS 1998, c 18, the personal information collected to administer this contest will only be used by municipal staff and, if necessary, individuals under service contract with the municipality for purposes relating to prize selection. If you have any questions about the collection and use of your personal information, please contact call 311 or email contactus@311.halifax.ca.

Drop-In Engagement Sessions

All drop-in engagement sessions have now concluded. These sessions offered community members a chance to share feedback on key topics, including recreation programs, social connection, accessibility and inclusion, transportation, and affordability.

Below is the list of locations where these took place. 

District 1: Waverley - Fall River - Musquodoboit Valley 
  • Friday, April 11 | 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Gordon R. Snow Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (1359 Fall River Rd)
  • Saturday, April 26 | 10 a.m. to noon | Carrolls Corner Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (9 Milford Rd)
  • Wednesday, June 4 | 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Musquodoboit Valley Bicentennial Theatre (12390 Highway 224)
District 2: Lawrencetown - The Lakes - Chezzetcook - Eastern Shore
  • Saturday, May 17 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Lake Echo Community Centre, Gymnasium (3168A Highway 7)
  • Thursday, May 29 | 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Musquodoboit Harbour Community Centre, Recreation Office (7900 Highway 7)
  • Monday, June 2 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Sheet Harbour Lion's Centre (183 Pool Rd)
District 3: Dartmouth South - Woodside - Eastern Passage 
  • Thursday, April 10 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Horizon Recreation Centre, Multi-purpose room (168 Redoubt Way)
District 4: Cole Harbour - Preston - Westphal - Cherry Brook 
  • Wednesday, May 28 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. North Preston Community Centre, multi-purpose room (44 Simmonds Rd)
District 5: Dartmouth Centre
  • Thursday, April 24 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Zatzman Sportsplex, Thistle room (110 Wyse Rd)
District 6: Dartmouth East - Burnside
  • Saturday, May 24 | 1 to 4 p.m. | East Dartmouth Community Centre, Meeting room A/B/C (50 Caledonia Rd)
District 7: Halifax South Downtown
  • Thursday, April 17 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | St. Mary ‘s Boat Club (1641 Fairfield Rd)
District 8: Halifax Peninsula North
  • Monday, April 14 | 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. | Needham Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (3372 Devonshire Ave)
District 9: Halifax West Armdale
  • Tuesday, April 22 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | St. Andrews’s Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (6955 Bayers Rd)
District 10: Halifax - Bedford Basin West
  • Wednesday, May 14 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Rockingham United Church (12 Flamingo Dr)
District 11: Spryfield - Sambro Loop
  • Wednesday, May 21 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Captain Spry Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (10 Kidston Rd) 
District 12: Timberlea - Beechville - Clayton Park - Wedgewood
  • Thursday, May 22 | 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. | Keshen Goodman Public Library, Thomas Raddall Room (330 Lacewood Dr)
District 13: Prospect Road - St. Margarets
  • Monday, April 7 | 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Prospect Road Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (2141 Prospect Rd)
  • Tuesday, April 29 | 1 to 3 p.m. | Tantallon Library, Program room (3646 Hammonds Plains Rd) 
District 14: Hammonds Plains - Upper Hammonds Plains - Lucasville - Middle & Upper Sackville
  • Monday, May 12 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Hammonds Plains Community Centre, Firefighters Hall (2041 Hammonds Plains Rd)
  • Tuesday, June 3 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Sackville Heights Community Centre, 50+ room (45 Connolly Rd) 
District 15: Lower Sackville - Beaver Bank
  • Monday, April 28 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Sackville Sports Stadium, Multi-purpose room (409 Glendale Dr)
  • Tuesday, May 20 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Beaver Bank Kinsac Community Centre, Multi-purpose room (1583 Beaver Bank Rd)
District 16: Bedford - Wentworth
  • Tuesday, May 27 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Bedford Hammonds Plains Community Centre, Innovation room (202 Innovation Dr)

 

Additional project information: 

Seniors Recreation Advisory Group

The Seniors Recreation Advisory Group is a team of residents aged 60 and above from all over the Halifax region. This group is leading the development of the Seniors Recreation Services Plan and ensuring that the key priorities accurately reflect the needs of the senior population in the municipality. This group will help in the creation of a municipality-wide survey, analyze data to determine key issues and guide the recommendations that will make up the final plan. The group will meet regularly throughout the engagement process. 

Applications to join the Seniors Recreation Advisory Group have now closed.

Project timeline

Where are we right now?
We are currently in Phase 3. 

PHASE 0: Research (Complete)
Conduct research on senior recreation services in the Halifax region by interviewing local service providers and analyzing national trends.

PHASE 1: Interviewing seniors groups and service providers (Complete)
Do you know of a group or organization that supports older populations (60+)? We want to talk to them! Email your suggestion to seniors@halifax.ca 

PHASE 2: Seniors Recreation Advisory Group (Complete)
The Seniors Advisory Group has been formed. This group will create a survey based on input from the community, service providers and research. They will also interpret the data collected to create the final plan. 

PHASE 3: Public Engagement & Survey (Complete - Survey closed on June 4) 
The Seniors Recreation Advisory Group will meet with seniors from different parts of the Halifax region. These meetings will give us feedback on key issues and identify the goals and actions that should be taken to address these key issues.

The Seniors Recreation Survey was distributed to seniors in HRM through various methods, including paper, electronic / online, and in-person engagements.

PHASE 4: Seniors Recreation Services Plan draft document (June - August 2025)
Once all the data is collected, the Senior Recreation Advisory Group will identify the key issues, vision, mission, objectives and action items for the creation of the Senior Recreation Services Plan.

PHASE 5: Final Document, implementation & evaluation plans (Late 2025)
The plan will be developed and shared with stakeholders for feedback, followed by the implementation and evaluation plan by municipal staff.

PHASE 6: Public launch (Late 2025)
There will be an open house launch event for the Seniors Recreation Services Plan.

Questions?

Please contact the Community Developer, by emailing at seniors@halifax.ca or calling/texting 902.233.8129.

Senior's Recreation Services Plan / Please contact the Community Developer, by emailing at seniors@halifax.ca, calling 902-233-8129 or visiting our Facebook page @hfxREC