Halifax
Regional municipality
Halifax Regional Municipality
From top, left to right: Downtown Halifax skyline, Macdonald Bridge, Crystal Crescent Beach, Peggy's Cove, Central Library, Sullivan's Pond
Flag Coat of arms Logo
Motto(s):  "E Mari Merces"  (Latin) "From the Sea, Wealth"
Location in Nova Scotia
Halifax Location in Canada
Coordinates: 44°38′51″N 63°35′26″W / 44.64750°N 63.59056°W / 44.64750; -63.59056[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
Town	1749
City	1842
Regional municipality	April 1, 1996
Named for	George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax
Government
• Type	Regional municipality
• Mayor	Mike Savage
• Governing body	Halifax Regional Council
• MPs	List of MPs Andy Fillmore (LPC) Geoff Regan (LPC) Darren Fisher (LPC) Darrell Samson (LPC) Bernadette Jordan (LPC)
• MLAs	List of MLAs Barbara Adams Patricia Arab Gary Burrill Claudia Chender Keith Colwell Lena Diab Rafah DiCostanzo Tim Halman Larry Harrison Bill Horne Tony Ince Ben Jessome Brad Johns Labi Kousoulis Susan Leblanc Brendan Maguire Kevin Murphy Iain Rankin Kelly Regan Lisa Roberts Dave Wilson
Area
• Regional municipality	5,475.57 km2 (2,114.13 sq mi)
• Urban	238.29 km2 (92.00 sq mi)
• Metro	7,276.22 km2 (2,809.36 sq mi)
Highest elevation	241.9 m (793.6 ft)
Lowest elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population  (2021)[2][3][4]
• Regional municipality	439,819 (13th)
• Density	80.3/km2 (208/sq mi)
• Urban	348,634
• Urban density	1,463.1/km2 (3,789/sq mi)
• Metro	465,703 (12th)
• Metro density	64.0/km2 (166/sq mi)
• Change 2016–2021	9.1%
• Census ranking	13 of 5,162
Demonym	Haligonian
Gross Metropolitan Product
• Halifax CMA	CA$24.4 billion (2020) [5]
Time zone	UTC−04:00 (AST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−03:00 (ADT)
Postal code span	B0J, B3A to B4G
Area codes	902, 782
Website	halifax.ca

Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2022, it is estimated that the population of the Halifax CMA was 480,582,^[6] with 348,634 people in its urban area.^[3] The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.

Halifax is an economic centre of Atlantic Canada, home to a concentration of government offices and private companies. Major employers include the Department of National Defence, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Saint Mary's University, the Halifax Shipyard, various levels of government, and the Port of Halifax. Resource industries found in rural areas of the municipality include agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry, and natural gas extraction.

History

The Mi'kmaq name for Halifax is Kjipuktuk, pronounced "che-book-took".^[7] The name means "Great Harbour" in the Mi'kmaq language.^[8]

The first permanent European settlement in the region was on the Halifax Peninsula. The establishment of the Town of Halifax, named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax, in 1749 led to the colonial capital being transferred from Annapolis Royal.

The establishment of Halifax marked the beginning of Father Le Loutre's War. The war began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports and a sloop of war on June 21, 1749.^[9] By unilaterally establishing Halifax, the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War.^[10] Cornwallis brought along 1,176 settlers and their families. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (Citadel Hill) (1749), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), and Lawrencetown (1754), all areas within the modern-day Regional Municipality. St. Margaret's Bay was first settled by French-speaking Foreign Protestants at French Village, Nova Scotia who migrated from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia during the American Revolution.

December 6, 1917 saw one of the great disasters in Canadian history, when the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship carrying munitions, collided with the Belgian Relief vessel SS Imo in "The Narrows" between upper Halifax Harbour and Bedford Basin. The resulting explosion, the Halifax Explosion, devastated the Richmond District in the North End of Halifax, killing approximately 2,000 people and injuring nearly 9,000 others.^[11] The blast was the largest artificial explosion before the development of nuclear weapons.^[12] Significant aid came from Boston, strengthening the bond between the two coastal cities.

The four municipalities in the Halifax urban area had been coordinating delivery of some services through the Metropolitan Authority since the late 1970s, but remained independent towns and cities until April 1, 1996, when the provincial government amalgamated all municipal governments within Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The municipal boundary thus now includes all of Halifax County except for several First Nation reserves.^[13]

Since amalgamation, the region has officially been known as the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), although "Halifax" has remained in common usage for brevity. On April 15, 2014, regional council approved the implementation of a new branding campaign for the municipality. The campaign would see the region referred to in promotional materials simply as "Halifax", although "Halifax Regional Municipality" would remain the region's official name.^[14][15][16]

Geography

Climate

Halifax has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), bordering on an oceanic climate (Cfb), with warm summers and relatively mild winters, which is due to Gulf Stream moderation. The weather is usually milder in the winter or cooler in the summer than areas at similar latitudes inland, with the temperature remaining (with occasional notable exceptions) between about −8 and 28 °C (18 and 82 °F).^[17] January is the coldest month, being the only month with a high that is slightly below freezing at −0.1 °C (31.8 °F), while August is the warmest. The sea heavily influences the climate of the area, causing significant seasonal lag in summer, with August being significantly warmer than June and with September being the third mildest month in terms of mean temperature.^[18] The January mean is only 1.1 °C (2.0 °F) colder than the isotherm for the oceanic climate.

Precipitation is high year-round. Winter features a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow with frequent freeze-thaw cycles. Snowfall is heavy in winter, but snow cover is usually patchy owing to the frequent freeze-thaw cycles, which melt accumulated snow. Some winters feature colder temperatures and fewer freeze-thaw cycles; the most recent of which being the winter of 2014–2015, which was the coldest, snowiest and stormiest in about a century. Spring is often wet and cool and arrives much later than in areas of Canada at similar latitudes, due to cooler sea temperatures. Summers are mild and pleasant, with hot and humid conditions very infrequent. Warm, pleasant conditions often extend well into September, sometimes into mid-October. Average monthly precipitation is highest from November to February due to intense late-fall to winter storms migrating from the Northeastern U.S., and lowest in summer, with August being the year's warmest and driest month on average. Halifax can sometimes receive hurricanes, mostly between August and October. An example is when Hurricane Juan, a category 2 storm, hit in September 2003 and caused considerable damage to the region. Hurricane Earl grazed the coast as a category 1 storm in 2010. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall just south of Halifax as a post-tropical storm with an intensity equivalent to a category 2 hurricane and caused significant damage across Nova Scotia. In 2021 Hurricane Ida hit the region with minor damage. In 2022, Hurricane Fiona hit as a category 2 storm, although damage was relatively minor in Halifax, with downed trees and widespread power outages for days.^[19] Atlantic sea surface temperatures have risen in recent years, making Halifax and the coast of Nova Scotia somewhat more susceptible to hurricanes than the area had been in the past.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Halifax was 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) on July 10, 1912,^[20] and the lowest temperature recorded was −29.4 °C (−20.9 °F) on February 18, 1922.^[21] The March 2012 North American heat wave brought unusually high temperatures to the municipality of Halifax. On March 22, the mercury climbed to 28.2 °C (82.8 °F) at the Halifax Windsor Park weather station,^[22] and 27.2 °C (81.0 °F) at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.^[23] In spite of the possibility of high temperatures, in a normal year there are only three days that go above 30 °C (86 °F).^[24] Halifax also has a modest frost count by Canadian standards due to the maritime influence, averaging 131 air frosts and 49 full days below freezing annually.^[24] On average the frost-free period is 182 days, ranging from May 1 to October 31.^[24]