HALIFAX—Nova Scotia now has a central strategy for expanding and maintaining trails around the province — something that’s been 10 years in the making.

Released on Tuesday, the strategy says it includes neighbourhood footpaths, converted rail beds, routes for ATVs, routes for canoes and long-distance hiking trails.

The Nova Scotia Trails Federation (NS Trails) is one member of the trails strategy working group that’s been advocating for a provincial trails strategy since 2010 and started collaborating with government in 2013.

Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin said stakeholders will also lead the strategy into action. The province’s first priority is to establish a stakeholder group to oversee the rollout, which currently has a timeline that stretches into 2029.

“It’s really high-level goals,” Rankin said after the release.

“It's really about ensuring we have consistency in how we deal with community groups and how they formulate the plan for developing trails, maintaining the trails and ensuring we have as much cohesion as possible."

The strategy promotes sharing resources, improving planning and increasing use of trails. It doesn’t list any specific targets for adding new trails or trail systems.

At Tuesday’s announcement, Beth Pattillo, chair of NS Trails, said it was “an auspicious day.”

“This day has been a long time coming and the trails community is ecstatic."

In an interview afterward, she said she’s personally been working on the strategy for six years — a process that included reviewing trails strategies in other jurisdictions and consulting with trail users, organizations, municipalities and Mi’kmaq communities.

Trails in Nova Scotia run across Crown, municipal and private land, and the community groups that do much of the development and maintenance pay for their operations with money from all levels of government and through independent fundraising. Pattillo said the conglomeration of ownership and support highlights the need for a “common vision.”

She said that need was the original impetus for the strategy.

"I think we understood that trails were important, but all the groups were kind of going in their own ways.”

“And I think the trails community as a whole understood that they needed a vision and a road map where instead of working in silos, we all began to work together."

One of the strategy’s goals is to look at provincial funding for trails and determine whether contributions are efficient and effective.

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While Pattillo lauded the “common vision” for trails that the strategy provides, she said ensuring adequate funding for the implementation of the strategy is equally as important.

“We can have all the vision we want, but unless we have some dollars to do the things we need to do — that’s where they both come together.”

Rankin said the province’s “core funding” for trails is the trail expansion grant program, which for 2019-20 gave out $972,000. This year’s grants, which were also announced Tuesday, fund 28 different projects that will receive between $4,000 and $212,000, each.

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