Communities participate with other communities in their population category throughout their province. Provincial judges evaluate the communities on the 8 criteria and award a certificate with a rating of 1 to 5 Blooms (5 being the highest ranking) at a Provincial Awards Ceremony in the fall.
The breakdown of communities into population categories for the purpose of judging will be decided after the registration deadline of March 31st, each year and will depend on the number of communities registered under each population category. Please be sure to indicate on your registration form the total population of your community.
Registration fees are based on the following population categories:
- 1-1,000 = $225+HST
- 1,001-3,000 = $300+HST
- 3,001-5,000 = $350+ HST
- 5,001-10,000 = $450+HST
- 10,000 and over = $550+HST
All Nova Scotia communities are invited to participate in the provincial edition. Communities may also choose to participate in a non-competitive (Friends) category to learn about the program or, if they are past provincial participants, to maintain their rating of the previous year.
The registration fees are the same whether communities participate in the competitive or non-competitive stream. Upon registration, communities receive information and evaluation documents.
Communities are rated from 1 to 5 blooms as per the national edition
- Up to 55 points – 1 bloom
- 55-63 points – 2 blooms
- 64-72 points – 3 blooms
- 73-81 points – 4 blooms
- 82 and more – 5 blooms
The top two 4 or 5 Bloom communities of each population category in each Province will be invited to participate in the following year’s National Competition. A minimum of 80% is recommended to participate in the National Edition. A community cannot participate in both the national and provincial edition in the same year.
Communities have recognized numerous benefits from participating in the program:
- Increase in civic pride and community involvement
- Participation from all ages
- Citizens, groups, organizations, business and municipal government all mobilized and working together
- Year round project, a process of continuous improvement for the whole community
- Tangible and appealing results
- Information and cultural exchanges within the community and with neighboring, National and International communities
- Valuable information and feedback from the judges
- Decreased vandalism
- Economic development
- Marketing and promotional potential from increased quality of life
- Economic benefits by encouraging the horticultural and tourism trades both labour intensive industries.
- Increased impact on the hospitality industry
- Increased impact on the retail industry
- An improved quality of life
- Community groups taking ownership of projects and maintaining same
