Following the evacuation of thousands of citizens in Nova Scotia in recent weeks, wildfire response was top of mind during Halifax Regional Municipality’s council meeting Tuesday night.
“Having a second exit or knowing that a second exit is being planned at the back of the subdivision is extremely important for the security and safety and the well-being of those residents,” District 13 Coun. Pam Lovelace said when presenting her motion to have city staff investigate how to build a back exit for residents of Westwood Hills.
Lovelace and her family were among those desperately trying to get out of the danger zone to safety when the Tantallon wildfires began last week.
“It was just extremely frightening, the slow pace that people were moving because of the number of people,” Lovelace recalled. “We’re talking about 16,000 who were trying to get out of this one small area.”
She says residents have been asking for decades to have some movement on creating egress at the back of subdivisions — especially for those far away from main roads.
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“For some, from Hammonds Plains Road it’s more than 12 kilometers. So these are very large subdivisions with hundreds of homes and multiple roads within, but they’re not connected throughout the entire community.”
It’s a complex issue with many property owners involved in creating these connectivity routes — but necessary.
“It would alleviate the congestion on some of those main routes — Highway 103, Hammonds Plains Road, Lucasville Road and so on and so forth,” said Lovelace.
“The bigger point is, to ensure that residents know if they need to evacuate, what is their assigned evacuation route? So that’s what we need to get to and that’s where we’re headed, and I’m really looking forward to working with the other orders of government to get this done as soon as possible.”
Provincially and federally, her counterparts are voicing their support for quick action.
“It’s top of mind for many residents, but I would say now it’s top of mind for everyone that wants to see these types of situations handled more quickly, more efficiently and really to save lives,” said Halifax West MP Lena Diab.
“HRM has the expertise to decide what makes the most sense in terms of connectivity,” said Hammonds Plains-Lucasville MLA Ben Jessome. “Whatever becomes a priority for them, if that involves the province, that will certainly get cooperation from my office.”
Lovelace says HRM has inherited “legacy challenges” from before amalgamation, as many of the subdivisions without back exits were built while under provincial governance.
She says legacy subdivisions are no longer appropriate and that HRM won’t be approving anything that doesn’t recognize egress moving forward.
According to the Hammonds Plains councillor, HRM is working to ensure that subdivisions aren’t approved without the voices of fire and emergency services advising development moving forward.
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