NR-HQ-00-08E

Dhaliwal announces Coast Guard Base to be sold to Halifax Regional Municipality

March 23, 2000

HALIFAX -- The Honourable Herb Dhaliwal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, today announced that his department has entered into negotiations with Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) for the transfer of the Dartmouth Coast Guard Base property to the municipality. The Coast Guard plans to consolidate its operations at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) and has decided to declare the base property surplus to its requirements.

"There is already a significant Coast Guard presence at BIO, and this move will make our operations even more efficient," said the Minister. I am pleased that our surplus property will play such an important role in the future of this community, and in the protection of our ocean resource."

The property consists of 7.4 hectares of land and includes waterlot and docking facilities, four major buildings and several smaller structures. HRM is acquiring the land as a potential site for a sewage treatment facility as part of its $315 million Harbour Solutions Project. Four treatment facilities will be built: one each in the north and south ends of Halifax, one in Dartmouth, and one in the Herring Cove area at the mouth of the harbour.

"Acquisition of this site is a major step in the development of the Harbour Solutions Project," added Mayor Walter Fitzgerald of HRM. "The decision by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to give up this land will enable the Halifax Regional Municipality to proceed with its plans for the first major saltwater environmental clean-up in Canadian history."

Planning is already underway for the move, which the Coast Guard is going to be making in phases.