When new regulations under Nova Scotia’s Traffic Safety Act recently took effect, an obvious opportunity was overlooked: giving towns and municipalities the authority to permit Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) on designated slow roads.
Transport Canada already approves NEVs for sale under its low-speed vehicle category, capping their speed at 40 km/h. They resemble heavier, weather-protected golf carts, run entirely on electric power, and plug into a standard 120-volt household outlet. British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec allow them on public roads with plates, insurance, and licensed drivers. In B.C., local governments can permit these vehicles on streets posted at 40 or 50 km/h. Nova Scotia, however, still bars them entirely from public roadways.
The demand for local flexibility is not hypothetical. Victoria County council formally asked the province to allow NEVs in the Village of Baddeck, aiming to give tourists and locals a low-speed link between shops, hotels, and the waterfront.
Bruce Morrison, who represented Baddeck as Victoria County’s warden at the time, still argues that a designated pilot project would be practical and manageable. Summer traffic through Baddeck’s compact core rarely tops 40 km/h anyway. Local businesses could send staff to the hardware store for quick supplies in a quiet, zero-emission buggy rather than idling a full-sized diesel truck down the street.
The Department of Public Works rejected Victoria County’s request on safety grounds. NEVs lack the crash protection of modern passenger cars, but the same is true of bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles. Gary Andrea, a spokesperson for Public Works, confirmed by email that giving municipalities discretion to allow NEVs is still “not being considered.” Victoria County CAO Leanne MacEachen noted the issue has not come back before council recently.
That stance is difficult to reconcile with the province’s enthusiasm for all-terrain vehicles. Under the Road Trails Act, Nova Scotia lets municipalities open village streets to ATVs. These off-road machines are gas-powered, loud, and built for dirt trails, yet they now share public streets with regular traffic. NEVs, engineered specifically for paved surfaces and capped at low speeds, remain banned.
The enforcement dynamic is equally unbalanced. While regional police forces frequently grapple with illegal dirt bikes and ATVs speeding away from patrols, nobody runs from the police in a 40 km/h electric micro-car.
Informal micro-mobility already exists along Nova Scotia’s coast. In light-traffic communities like Gabarus, residents occasionally run brief errands along harbor roads in golf carts because firing up an F-150 for a two-minute trip makes little sense. Formalizing that with street-legal NEVs would give seniors an affordable seasonal transport option, cut road wear, and free up street space by parking two vehicles in a single stall. It also fits Nova Scotia’s own climate commitments to cut emissions and lower everyday living costs.
A blanket provincial prohibition that refuses municipalities the freedom to run even a local pilot project makes little sense. Communities ready to test slow, clean transport on their own streets should be allowed to try.
