Halifax’s apartment rental vacancy rate has dropped to a new low of 1% — below that of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its 2019 fall rental market survey on Wednesday. The numbers represent privately-owned apartments in buildings with three or more units, based on an annual survey conducted […]
Councillors cold to cooling-off proposal, and other Halifax City Hall updates
Halifax councillor Shawn Cleary’s proposal for a cooling-off period for councillors and senior officials was met with a cool reception at council. The request for a staff report looking into the policy, which would temporarily bar politicians and some staff from taking a job dealing with the city after their terms ended, came up during...
Halifax keeping $200,000 police services review secret, citing ‘sensitive information’
Halifax is not publicly releasing a consultants’ report into police services in the municipality, citing “sensitive information” around the use of police resources, privacy, and security. Regional council voted in favour of a staff recommendation to accept the report and 26 of its 29 recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday. Most of the recommendations were...
Council preview: Uber rules, climate plan, cooling-off period for bureaucrats
Rules for Uber, a plan for climate change, and a cooling-off period for politicians and staff are all on the agenda for Halifax regional council’s meeting this week. The meeting, starting at 10am Tuesday, also includes an appeal hearing for a design review committee decision at 1pm and a public hearing on a Bedford Highway...
Board recommends council approve Halifax police budget with extra $1 million
Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella says he needs a budget increase of nearly $1 million for the next year to create eight new sergeant positions “to better serve the community.” The department presented its 2020-2021 budget request to the city’s board of police commissioners on Thursday, asking for an increase of $993,300 over the...
Halifax council aims for below-inflation tax increase
It’s early in the budget season, but Halifax regional councillors are hoping to keep next year’s tax increase well below inflation. Council’s budget committee met Tuesday to work toward creating the municipality’s billion-dollar 2020-2021 budget, and unanimously passed a motion to limit property tax increases for the year ahead to 1.5% on the average bill...
Budget cut has environmentalists worried Halifax is forgetting about Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes
Environmentalists who celebrated extra cash in last year’s municipal budget for park land protection are worried a reduced budget for next year means the city is again forgetting about Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes. Halifax regional council is working on the capital and operating budgets for the year ahead, meeting weekly over the next few months....
There’s not a good financial case for a publicly funded stadium
On Tuesday, Halifax Council will debate a staff report that recommends, among other things, contributing $20 million to Stadium Co (part of the Schooners Sports Entertainment – SSE – corporate structure) to help build a stadium for an as-of-yet announced CFL franchise on staff-hope-not-Shannon-Park lands. I have read the HRM staff report on the financial […]
Street checks: there’s not much hope for change
This month, Nova Scotia passed a law banning street checks – but what will change? Even before Retired Justice Michael MacDonald’s 108-page report concluded that street checking – the practice of stopping of citizens to collect and record their personal information — contravenes freedoms guaranteed by the Charter and at common law, street checking had […]
Gold fever is coming to Halifax
Mineral exploration companies have staked claims next to the Halifax and Dartmouth lakes that are the source of our drinking water
Cover photo: Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River. Photo courtesy Raymond Plourde On October 17 and 18, mining industry representatives and between five and 10 government officials will gather at the Alt Hotel at the Halifax Airport for the province’s first-ever “gold show.” The gold show is being organized by the Mining Association […]
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