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An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

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What’s wrong with the Barrington Street bridge ramp, and can we fix it?

April 26, 2018 By Erica Butler 8 Comments

Last week I wrote about the new street network being proposed for the land currently occupied by the Cogswell interchange, and asked why the city was proposing not to include a transit priority corridor along the full stretch of Barrington Street that’s being re-designed. The current plan does include some transit priority lanes on Barrington […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, News Tagged With: Barrington Street bridge ramp, Cogswell Interchange demolition, Cogswell redesign, Dave Reage, David McCusker, Erica Butler, Erin Blay, Gottingen bus lane, Halifax Transit, Harrison McGrath, Marcus Garnet, Patricia Hughes, Patty Cuttell-Busby

Talking in circles: Lots of questions, few answers at open house on St. Margaret’s Bay development proposal

April 19, 2018 By Philip Moscovitch

Michelle Dolbec has one of those storybook too-good-to-be true stories about why she moved to Nova Scotia. She was living in Ottawa, then got married and took a sailing trip with her husband. “We sailed into St. Margaret’s Bay on our honeymoon, and decided we wanted to stay here,” she told a group of people...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Environment, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: David Wimberly, Drew McQuinn, Fred Dolbel, Geoff Le Boutillier, Jacob JeBailey, Joe Arab, Michelle Dolbec, Nick Horne, Peter Lund, Petra Mudie, Philip Moscovitch, Shayne Vipond, St. Margaret’s Bay development, St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association, Tantallon Aged Living, Voice St. Margaret’s Bay, WM Fares

The Cogswell redesign’s transit failure

The newly passed Integrated Mobility Plan calls for a transit priority corridor on Barrington Street, but the Cogswell redesign plan doesn't include it. Why not? Blame planners who design for the status quo.

April 19, 2018 By Erica Butler

The Cogswell Lands plans have toured around the city for the past two weeks in an effort to get some public input on the greenspaces that will be part of the plan. (Not where the greenspaces are, mind you, but what might go in them. You can check out the plans and weigh in online...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Barrington Street bus lane, Cogswell Lands plan, Cogswell redesign, Erica Butler, Halifax Transit, Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP)

United Way poverty report: “the system needs to change”

The irony, the report points out, is that most of those who live in poverty are actually employed, but 28 per cent earn well below a living wage. Their poverty — are you listening, Mr. Premier? — costs the province $1.5–2.2-billion a year.

April 15, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

Halifax’s United Way has done it again. Traditionally, the do-good organization has been best known for turning your $5.4 million in yearly giving into a gamut of good grants to an alphabet soup of good-doing local organizations — from the Adsum Association for Women & Children to the Youth Voices of Nova Scotia Society —...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: addressing poverty, Halifax city council, United Way

Examineradio 154: Convention centre problems? Halifax, you were warned!

April 13, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

Urban studies prof Heywood Sanders, an expert on convention centres, weighs in on ours. Sanders came to Halifax in November 2010 to warn city councillors against approving the deal for the convention centre: In response to a question of clarification by Councillor Rankin, Dr. Sanders explained that if the base assumption of number of events […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Convention centre, Examineradio 154, FOIPOP web portal data breach, Heywood Sanders

The largest residential development ever proposed for Saint Margaret’s Bay leaves community struggling to define itself

April 13, 2018 By Philip Moscovitch

Bill Brooks stands on the deck of the new St. Margaret’s Bay Community Enterprise Centre and points past two parking lots, a vet clinic and a small strip mall across the road — to the spot where Joe Arab proposes building a 112-unit development. “It’s going to go over there,” he says. “Behind there. I...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bill Brooks, councillor Matt Whitman, Doug Poulton, Drew McQuinn, Joe Arab, Nick Horne, Peter Lund, Philip Moscovitch, Saint Margaret’s Bay, seniors-friendly housing, Shayne Vipond, St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association, Tantallon development

Densely calculated density

In return for "public benefits" — affordable housing units, public art, and the like — the city trades "density bonuses" that allow developers to build higher and bigger than planning rules would otherwise allow. But a study shows that on just six big developments downtown, the city lost a potential $8 million in public benefits because it low-balled calculations.

April 11, 2018 By Jennifer Henderson

If public meetings to discuss the municipality’s Centre Plan were episodes of Sesame Street, they would be “brought to you by the number 15.” The Centre Plan would chart development for the next 15 years. But that same number keeps getting raised in pointed questions from citizens who want to know why there’s a 15-year...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: affordable housing, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Carl Purvis, Centre Plan, Graham Reid, Housing NS, Housing Trust of Nova Scotia, Jacob Ritchie, Metro Community Housing, Ross Cantwell, Steve Parcell, TEAL study

The new convention centre is already a financial disaster for the city

The city expected to have a $1.8 million deficit on its Halifax Convention Centre account this year, but that figure has nearly doubled — to $3.5 million. And a revised analysis of the account shows that what had been a projected $5.89 million surplus after 10 years is now a $17.78 million deficit. That's a swing of $23.67 million. Worse still, even that forecast relies on rosy assumptions.

April 6, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

The city expected to have a $1.8 million deficit on its Halifax Convention Centre account this year, but that figure has nearly doubled — to $3.5 million. And a revised analysis of the account (above) shows that what had been a projected $5.89 million surplus after 10 years is now a $17.78 million deficit. That’s a […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Bruce Fisher, Convention centre deficit, Joe Ramia, Nova Centre deficit

Transit passes coming for 16,800 people on income assistance, but for some, this means already paltry incomes will go down

April 5, 2018 By Erica Butler 2 Comments

  UPDATE (May 15, 2018):  No passes have yet been issued to income assistance recipients, though they are still expected for “late spring”.  Some Examiner readers wrote in to express concerns over the fact that the passes, which will feature a photo identification, would violate people’s privacy by revealing their status as income assistance recipients.  […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Department of Community Services, Erica Butler, Halifax Transit, Heather Fairbairn, Kendall Worth, Low Income Transit Pass

Sam Austin makes case for extended ferry service

Regional council to decide Wednesday on ferry and rural transit funding.

March 27, 2018 By Erica Butler

On Wednesday, Halifax council will discuss its “parking lot” budget items — about $2.6 million in additional costs or programs that city staff have not included in department budgets, but that councillors felt should be considered for the 2018-19 budget. Two items on the list will impact the future of the publicly funded transit network,...

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Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: BayRides, Councillor Sam Austin, Erica Butler, extended ferry service, Halifax-Dartmouth ferry, Integrated Mobility Plan, Musgo Rider, Rural Transit Funding Program (RTFP)

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About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitz More about the Examiner.

DEAD WRONG

A botched police investigation and a probable wrongful conviction shed light on the murders of dozens of women in Nova Scotia.

This is a multi-part series still in publication. Click here to go to the DEAD WRONG home page.

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