Plan for urban national park in Halifax reaches key milestone: Parks Canada

CITYnews halifax \ By The Canadian Press

Parks Canada says an urban wilderness area on the edge of Halifax has met a key requirement in the process to become a national urban park.

The agency says a pre-feasibility report on the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes area has determined the candidate site can move on to the planning stage.

Parks Canada also announced it will provide $2.1 million to help the province work with the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The planning stage will also look into how the park will be run, where the boundaries will be placed and what trails and infrastructure will be needed for public access.

As well, there will be ongoing collaboration with local Indigenous communities as the project includes lands and waters that are culturally significant to the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia.

The federal and Nova Scotia governments committed to establishing the province’s first national urban park last August.