Provincial starting point
Municipal planning remains central
Nova Scotia: building-code recognition, local land-use permission.
Nova Scotia's Building Code Regulations recognize houses with secondary suites. That code recognition is different from zoning permission. Current province-wide sources reviewed here do not establish one universal B.C.-style secondary-suite or ADU unit count for every municipality.
Halifax is a special case because the Province has imposed minimum planning requirements on HRM, including housing-supply directions and broader residential-use requirements. That is not a substitute for reading HRM's current land-use bylaw for a particular lot.
Provincial framework reviewed September 20, 2026. Verify the municipality's current zoning and development-permit route before treating code recognition as land-use approval.