Halifax (N.S.). Public Health and Welfare Committee records

The Public Health and Welfare Committee was established under the provisions of Section 109 of the 1931 Halifax City Charter and by Chapter 56 of the Acts of 1940, an Act to Amend the Law Relating to the City of Halifax. The committee took over the duties of the former Halifax City Health Board, the Charities Committee, and the Prison Committee. Initially composed of the mayor acting as chairman along with six aldermen appointed annually by council, the mandate of the committee was to care for the health of the city, which included providing support for the city’s poor in the city home and managing the city prison.

The duties and structure of the committee changed slightly over time.

By 1964 the committee consisted of seven aldermen and the mayor, and the duties of the committee had expanded to include the supervision and management of the Halifax Convalescent Hospital and the Halifax Health Centre; to furnish support for the city’s poor in the Basinview Home; to supervise and manage the Halifax Mental Hospital and Basinview Home (with four people appointed by the province). The committee also had the power to summon witnesses and to examine them under oath in respect of any matter pertaining to city departments under its supervision and management, in addition to all powers delegated to a local board of health under the Public Health Act.