Nova Scotia. Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal

Other forms of name:
Nova Scotia. Department of Highways (1918)
Nova Scotia. Department of Highways and Public Works (1939)
Nova Scotia. Department of Transportation (1979)
Nova Scotia. Department of Transportation and Communications (1987)
Nova Scotia. Department of Transportation and Public Works (1996)

The Department of Highways was established in 1918 to assume responsibility for highways and bridges, other than construction and maintenance, and to act as liaison between the arm's-length Provincial Highway Board and the Cabinet. In 1926 the board was abolished and the department assumed full responsibility for building and maintaining highways and roads, as well as for supervising, managing and controlling their traffic and general use. From 1926 to 1941 the department was also responsible for tourism. In 1939 the Department of Public Works and Mines was broken up and responsibility for public buildings and government property and equipment transferred to the Department of Highways, which was renamed Department of Highways and Public Works. In 1955 the department relinquished responsibility for public works and resumed the name Department of Highways. In 1979 the department assumed overall responsibility for transportation infrastructure, the registry of motor vehicles and telecommunications within government, as well as telecommunications policy planning for the province, and was renamed Department of Transportation. In 1987 the department was renamed Transportation and Communications. In 1996, when the Department of Supply and Services was dissolved, the department resumed responsibility for public works and other government services and was renamed Department of Transportation and Public Works. In October 2007 the department was renamed Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal. In March 2014 the department's responsibilities for real property services (with the exception of the land acquisitions and disposals section), public safety and field communications, building services, environmental services, risk management and claims, and Nova Scotia Lands Inc. were transferred to the newly created Department of Business. Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of all bridges and ferries belonging to or under the control of the province; all public highways and traffic; developing, administering and implementing provincial government policies, plans and programs relating to road, rail, air and marine transport services; the safe operation of railways under the control of the province; matters relating to the Dartmouth and Digby ferries and the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission; and land acquisition and disposal.

Notes: Authority record based on Statutes of Nova Scotia: 1926 c. 31, 1935 c. 3, 1939 c. 56, 1944 c. 2, 1946 c. 2, 1955 c. 41, 1978-79 c. 35, 1988 c. 30, 1996 c. 8, 2001 c. 4; Orders in Council, 1 June 1918, 87-1455 (3 Dec. 1987), 96-216 (28 Mar. 1996), 2007-553 (23 Oct. 2007), 2014-70 (7 Mar. 2014), 2015-116 (9 Apr. 2015), 2015-147 (19 May 2015).

see also Department of Supply and Services