The Nova Scotia Community Transportation Network (NSCTN) is a non-profit that advocates and supports community-based transportation in Nova Scotia. Within the community transportation sector in Nova Scotia, we act as a hub for providers, funders, clients, and supporters. Out of this hub we offer information sharing, education, advocacy, innovation, and support to new and existing providers within the community transportation sector. We are working to build a strong, integrated community transportation sector across rural Nova Scotia.

In October 2000, approximately 120 stakeholders representing over 50 organizations met. The result was the creation of the Nova Scotia Community-Based Transportation Association (NS-CBTA), which included service providers and advocates for persons with a transportation disadvantage. This was the birth of the network that encouraged the development and growth of community-based transportation in Nova Scotia. It became apparent that there was a need for a network—a single voice for the issues around accessible transportation.

It has been a long road since 1996 when the first two community transportation providers (Transport de Clare and CHAD) hit the road. They were fledgling organizations that worked on a wing and a prayer, meeting the needs of people living with disabilities in Clare and Pictou Counties. By the year 2000, eight transportation providers were operating in rural communities. It became apparent a formal provincial organization, the Nova Scotia Community-Based Transportation Association (NS-CBTA), was needed to share information, provide education opportunities, advocate on behalf of the sector, encourage innovation, and support new and existing providers within the community transportation sector.

Since then, community transportation has grown by leaps and bounds. There are now 22 providers operating in all of Nova Scotia. These providers are supported in whole or in part by all three levels of government and the communities they serve.

NSCTN has gone through several name changes, but our vision has always been:

An integrated transportation network that serves the needs of every Nova Scotian; a network that leads to everyone’s door.