Living

Our annual City Matters Survey, conducted by MQO Research, asked 500 residents to rate Halifax on several indicators on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 10 (excellent).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, mean scores for all indicators of quality of life decreased from 2020 to 2021. The largest drop was in housing affordability, which fell by 0.9 points. This decrease, however, was not an anomaly as this indicator has fallen 1.5 points since 2017. Mean scores for overall quality of life, indoor recreational facilities, and ease of getting around each dropped by 0.2 points. Halifax has always been considered a good place to raise a family, and even though this indicator fell in 2021 to 7.7, it still remains higher than 2019 ratings.

The share of residents who felt “very” or “mostly” safe in the city fell by 10 percentage points from 2020 to 2021 but remains high at 80%. More rural residents (85%) felt safe in their neighbourhood compared to urban residents (80%).

Statistics Canada data show that 87% of Halifax households were satisfied with the quality of their neighbourhood, and 81% were satisfied with the quality of their dwellings.

According to the 2016 census, Halifax had the lowest population density of all benchmark cities. With a larger land area and a sizeable widespread rural community, the average commuting time was longer and the overall share of population living close to transit stops was lower than other benchmark cities. However, the most recent update to the Integrated Mobility Program (IMP)¹implementation reported that 90% of Halifax residents in the Urban Transit Service Boundary live within 500 metres of a bus stop.

High-quality public transit is critical to a city’s thriving economy. Despite pandemic-related restrictions, Halifax Transit increased its hours of service to compensate for decreased seating due to social-distancing regulations. However, transit usage still fell considerably during the pandemic, with the total number of rides falling by 59% in 2020-21.

In comparison to other benchmark cities, Halifax’s transit fares are low. Halifax has the lowest senior and youth fares and among the lowest fares for monthly and single passes. Transit fares were suspended in Halifax between March and August of 2020.

Furthermore, the pilot project that began in 2019 to make public transit free for children 12 years or younger was made permanent early in 2021. This was following a report that estimated children took an additional 500 trips per day since the launch of the project.

Although there has not been a large change in ratings since 2018, MQO Research’s 2021 City Matters Survey found that Halifax residents rate public transit affordability at 6.7 on a 10-point scale. Out of the 4 questions asked, transit affordability was second only to bus stop proximity (7.6). Bus wait times saw the largest improvement between 2020 and 2021, going from 5.9 to 6.2.

The 2021 City Matters Survey results allow us to quantify measures of trust in Halifax. When asked if most people in the community could be trusted, 58% of respondents replied positively. Males reported a slightly higher feeling of trust than did females. Additionally, older and rural respondents were more likely to state that they trust others in the community.

Engage Nova Scotia’s Quality of Life Survey conducted in 2019 asked residents across the province about their perceptions on various quality of life topics. More than 50% of Halifax residents reported being satisfied with most well-being indicators. The results of this survey, though, should be interpreted with caution as residents’ perceptions might have changed over the course of the pandemic.

One community indicator of civic health is voter turnout. Although election turnout varies from federal (higher turnout) to provincial (middle) to municipal (lower) elections, Halifax has experienced reasonably consistent turnout rates over the last decade. As well, municipal elections held in 2020 had increased voter turnout rates: 8 percentage points in the mayoral election and 6 percentage points in the HRM Council election.

Inclusiveness in a community can be measured by the degree to which its leaders reflect the population. Halifax elects 46 representatives², and in 2020, 17 (37%) of the representatives elected were female, an increase from 10 in 2018. However, this still falls short of the share of women in the general population. African Nova Scotians make up 7% of elected leaders while 4% of Halifax residents self-identified as Black in the 2016 Census. There are no elected representatives who identify as Aboriginal, but 4% of the population identified as Aboriginal in the last census.

Health care in Nova Scotia³and Halifax has changed significantly in recent years, especially in the face of a global pandemic. Strong public health measures have kept COVID-19 largely under control. Other statistics related to chronic diseases and health status, however, often compare poorly to other jurisdictions. While low levels of access remain an issue, there has been a staggering decrease in the size of waitlists for a primary care physician in Halifax.

Nova Scotia confirmed its first COVID-19 case on March 18, 2020, and reached its first peak over a month later: On April 23rd, there were 55. Following quick action from the community and public health authorities, the outbreak was contained. It wasn’t until November 11th that case counts rose again to double-digits, and Nova Scotia entered its second wave. This wave peaked two days later hitting 37 cases but was back to single digits within two weeks.

Although access to primary health care has declined in recent years, Nova Scotia’s situation is average compared with other provinces. In 2019⁴, 85.6% of Nova Scotians reported having access to a regular health care provider, essentially equal to the Canadian average of 85.5%. In comparison, both Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador boast higher rates, with 90.6% and 87.5% of residents, respectively, reporting access to a regular health care provider.

Recent data indicates the size of waitlists has declined considerably in Nova Scotia’s Central Region, which includes Halifax. Between 2018 and 2020, the Halifax waitlist has fallen from an average 26,458 to 6,313 people. As a share of the population⁵, this amounts to 6.2% in 2018, falling to 1.5% in 2020. This drop means the Central Region is now below the provincial average of 5.1%.

Atlantic Canadians tend to have higher rates of many chronic health conditions than residents of other provinces, and Nova Scotians are no exception. Among benchmark city provinces, Nova Scotia has the highest rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and higher rates for conditions such as arthritis, asthma, and high blood pressure. Notably, Nova Scotians are much more likely to report chronic mental health conditions than other Canadians, with 13.1% reporting some form of mood disorder compared to 9.0% nationally.

Similarly, Nova Scotians tend to have higher rates of activities with negative health effects, such as smoking and drinking. In 2019, 18.3% of Nova Scotians reported being a daily or occasional smoker, and 22.0% reported engaging in heavy drinking. These rates were second only to Newfoundland and Labrador. Nova Scotians were much more likely to report getting vaccinated for influenza with roughly half (49.4%) reporting a vaccination in the past 12 months. This was significantly higher than the Canadian average (33.6%) and higher than any other province.

Among provinces that contain a benchmark city, Nova Scotians have the worst perceptions of and satisfaction with their overall health. Only 55.8% of Nova Scotians considered their health to be “very good” or “excellent” in 2019, lower than the national average of 61.2%. Similarly, only 62.3% rated their mental health as “very good” or “excellent,” compared to the national average of 67.1%. The share of Nova Scotians “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with life is similar to the national average. An exception to this trend is life stress; Nova Scotians were much less likely to report that they experience “high” or “extreme” levels.

Over the past decade, Halifax has become a safer place to live and work, with less crime. The Crime Severity Index (CSI)^{7, 8}and the Violent Crime Severity Index (VCSI)⁹published by Statistics Canada measure the incidence and severity of crimes committed across Canadian cities.

Halifax’s most recent CSI was 60.7 in 2019, dropping 6.7 points from the previous year and 37.5 points over the past decade. Both the annual and the decade-long decreases were the largest improvements among all benchmark cities.

The VCSI score for Halifax fell 12.7 points between 2018 and 2019 and 37.5 points over the decade. Again, Halifax saw the largest annual decrease and the largest 10-year decrease in the VCSI across the benchmark cities. Still, Halifax had the third-highest VCSI score among the 6 cities at 83.8 points.

In 2019, 80,000 Nova Scotia households were surveyed to measure perceived quality of life across the province. One of the 8 key areas the survey focused on was community vitality, which included a question asking respondents to rank confidence in the police, justice system and courts, school system, and health-care system. Out of the 4,632 Halifax residents that responded, about 77% had a positive view of the police, about 11% had a negative view, and about 12% were neutral.

Overall, Halifax compares well to other cities on several environmental benchmarks though progress has stalled or reversed on some measures.

At 60%, Halifax has the second-highest residential waste-diversion rate in the country, behind only Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (65%), according to the 2019 MBNCanada Performance Measurement Report¹⁰. Divert NS¹¹ reports that across the province 110,000 tonnes of organic waste and 119,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste have been diverted since 2018. Additionally, in 2020, Nova Scotia reached milestones in recycling: 7 billion beverage containers and over 24 million used tires since 1996. Composting is also popular in Halifax with 88% of households composting kitchen and yard waste in 2019, the second-highest share across benchmark cities. However, this is down from 2013 (97%).

Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector¹²have been cut by 38% since 2005, while total GHGs have been reduced by 29.9%, well ahead of the federal 30% reduction target set for 2030 as set out in the Paris Agreement. Ottawa recently increased the reduction target to 40% of 2005 levels to be achieved over the next 9 years. The province’s renewable-energy supply tripled in the last decade, reaching 29% in 2020. Given delays in the Muskrat Falls project and issues related to COVID-19, the Province has extended Nova Scotia Power's deadline to reach 40% renewable energy generation to 2022.

The average annual temperature for Halifax in 2020 was 1.4 degrees warmer than it was a century earlier in 1920. Average seasonal temperatures in Halifax also have been rising over the last 3 decades with summers becoming noticeably warmer since 2000.