February 14, 2018

Support funding for recreation trails

MRWA needs your help. We need you to contact your councillor and Mayor Savage to let them know you’d like HRM to fund recreation trails.

Most trails in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) are built and maintained by volunteer run trail groups like us. Funding to develop and maintain trails comes from provincial, federal and municipal grants as well as private donations. For the past number of years HRM has only funded linear active transportation trails. These are trails that people can use to get from home to work, school, or to go shopping. MRWA’s Community Trail is an example of a linear active transportation trail. Recreation trails are not currently eligible for HRM trail funding grants. A recreation trail could be a loop, or destination trail (leads to a look off, lake, etc). The McIntosh Run Singletrack Trail system is an example of a recreation trail that is not currently eligible for HRM funding. 

The Halifax Regional Trails Association (HRTA), a coalition of 23 trail groups across HRM, has put forward a proposal to HRM for a Pilot Program for Recreational Trails to help fund recreation trails. We need you to contact your councillor and let them know that you’d like HRM to fund recreational trails. We are asking HRM to expand the trails program and provide $250k to fund a pilot program in 2018/19. HRM Council will discuss the proposal at Budget Committee on March 28th. 

Check out the FACT SHEET for a summary of the issue and HRTA’s proposal. 

Recreational Trails FACT SHEET Jan 2018

Here is a sample email you could send to your councillor but please feel free to make it your own:

To Mayor Savage and Councillors,
 
I am writing in support of the the Halifax Regional Trails Association’s (HRTA) Pilot Program for Recreational Trails. I value the health, economic, and environmental benefits recreational trails provide to my community. I feel that HRM should provide funding sources to the trail organisations who build and maintain recreational trails in HRM and that HRTA has a proven track record to coordinate this funding. Please support HRTA’s Pilot Program request of $250,000 for Recreational Trails in the 2018/2019 budget.
 
thank you,