Halifax councillors finish budget debates, planning for 5.8% hike to the average tax bill

Councillors have finished building their 2023-2024 budget, with the average property tax bill set to rise 5.8%.

Halifax regional council’s budget committee met on Wednesday to consider the budget adjustment list. That’s a list of changes to the budget the committee has voted to consider over the course of the budget process during the last three months.

Councillors voted to add a few more items to the list and remove a few others, and made their final changes of the budget process. That leaves just the official rubber stamping vote next month before the budget is finalized.

Assuming there are no last-minute changes, the municipal portion of the average residential tax bill will rise by about $125, or 5.8%. The residential tax rate will fall by about 4.8%. That’s because the average residential property assessment in HRM is up more than 10%, to $301,100, meaning a lower tax rate brings in more revenue.

The average commercial tax bill will see the same 5.8% increase, equal to about $2,650. That rate will also fall, by around 2.3%. The average commercial property assessment is up 8.3%, to almost $1.6 million.

The 5.8% figure lands in the middle of the 8% recommendation from staff to start the budget process last November, and council’s goal of a 4% average increase.

New HalifACT jobs

During Wednesday’s meeting, councillors voted to add seven new positions to the municipality’s climate action team.

Deputy Mayor Sam Austin moved to add $412,000 to hire those people to do work related to HalifACT 2050, the municipality ambitious climate action plan.

The positions are: a resilience and adaption manager; two environmental professionals, one working on climate change measurement and reporting and one on HRM’s retrofit program; and four junior environmental professionals working on adaptation, engagement, policy, and energy. The change adds less than $1.50 to the average annual tax bill.

“This is the most urgent matter of our times, it is the thing that is imperilling not just us but our entire civilization, everyone on this planet,” Austin said.

Shannon Miedema, director of Environment and Climate Change at HRM, told councillors she’ll be able to fill all the positions in the coming fiscal year — three in June and four in September.

“This is really about trying to increase our capacity and our level of service for implementing the very large, complex, and ambitious climate pan, both mitigation and adaptation, at a faster rate and at a bigger scale than we’ve ever done as a municipality before,” Miedema said.

Austin and Miedema both cited the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report. The IPCC warned in a corresponding news release that the “pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.”

Savage hesitant to support new positions

But Mayor Mike Savage wasn’t convinced the positions were necessary.

“Maybe we’re not as far along as we need to be, but we’ve come a long way under the leadership of Shannon, I’m proud of that. And if this passes today, I will not only defend it, I will tout it. But I can’t vote for this,” Savage said.

The motion passed 9-8, with Savage and councillors Cathy Deagle Gammon, David Hendsbee, Becky Kent, Trish Purdy, Patty Cuttell, Pam Lovelace, and Paul Russell voting no.

Councillors also voted to add an eighth related position, a planner to work on the Green Network Plan at an annual cost of $89,600.

HRM to charge for Saturday parking

There were three options related to parking on the list. Councillors voted to keep two and remove another.

Coun. Waye Mason moved to remove Saturday parking from the options list. Parking meters are free on Saturdays, and charging a fee would bring in an estimated $538,000 in 2023-2024. Councillors voted in February to consider the change.

The Downtown Halifax Business Commission, along with the other business improvement districts, was opposed to the change.

Savage agreed with the BIDs and Mason, and argued businesses are still reeling from the effects of COVID-19 restrictions, and it’s not the right time to introduce the new parking fees.

Councillors narrowly defeated Mason’s motion, 9-8. Mason, Savage, and councillors Purdy, Tony Mancini, Iona Stoddard, Lovelace, Russell, and Tim Outhit voted yes.

Another parking option was an extension of meters from 6pm to 8pm on weekdays. Savage moved to remove that plan, which would net $213,000 annually, from the list. That motion passed 15-2, with Cleary and Hendsbee voting no.

Councillors didn’t re-debate a third parking item on the list, a 25% hike to parking fees. That passed and is expected to bring in $656,000 in new revenue.

To recap, HRM will charge a fee for parking on Saturdays, but not past 6pm on weekdays, and all fees are going up 25%.

Councillors add RCMP officers

Halifax-district RCMP will add four constables to the complement next year.

At an estimated cost of $716,208 annually, the Mounties want to add the new positions to the existing complement of 184 full-time positions. The RCMP cited population growth in the suburban and rural areas of HRM they police.

Cleary moved to remove the new constables from the list. He argued that while HRM is working on studies to reconsider its unique joint policing model, it would be unwise to add new officers. He also cited the RCMP’s unwillingness to apologize for street checks almost two years ago.

RCMP Chief Supt. Jeff Christie, on the job since December 2022, said he’s now considering an apology and is in talks with members of the Black community about it.

Cleary’s motion failed 13-3, with only him, Austin, and Mancini voting yes.

Although councillors have all but approved their 2023-2024 budget, they don’t know how much they’ll pay for the RCMP next year. That figure is determined by negotiations between the provincial and federal governments, with HRM just paying whatever it’s told to for its 70% share of its complement of officers. Chief administrative officer Cathie O’Toole told councillors on Wednesday that HRM hasn’t seen the new contract yet.

The figure was more than $32.3 million last year, it rose $642,500 mid-way through the year, and it’ll be at least $716,208 higher with the four new positions.

Changes to HRP budget

Other proposed changes to police budgets for 2023-2024 were either put off or changed from earlier votes.

Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella wanted to hire a police psychologist and occupational health nurse. He argued new hires would help HRP’s problem with growing long-term absences, despite a report on the issue making no such recommendation.

The Board of Police Commissioners didn’t recommend the move. But councillors voted to consider the hires if they could also be used for other departments, like Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency. Staff brought back a recommendation to house the new hires in the human resources department, and that’s what councillors voted for on Wednesday.

The committee was looking at moving victim services, crossing guards, and lake patrol out of HRP and into municipal departments. Staff recommended they hold that thought. There’s a new municipal business unit being created now, Public Safety, and council will consider adding those staff to that department later this year.

They also opted not to move ahead with a hike to extra-duty fees from 3% to 10%. That’s because the Board of Police Commissioners is planning to review the policy around extra-duty employment later this year.

Having deferred the police budget vote earlier this year pending those potential changes, councillors approved that spending plan on Wednesday.

Short reprieve for building permit fee hike

Halifax is still planning to raise building permit fees, but it’s going to wait a few months.

Councillors voted in February to hike building permit fees 25% starting April 1. It’s the first increase since 1997, and was expected to bring in $1.45 million in new revenue.

But after councillors passed that motion, the municipality heard from the construction industry “regarding an appropriate lead time to transition to the adjusted fees.”

“To allow time for contractors to account for the revised fees in pricing estimates, staff are recommending rescinding the original motion and replacing it with a new motion to include an increase of $1.2 million effective June 1st,” budget and reserves manager Tyler Higgins wrote in the report to the budget committee.

Councillors approved the change.

Other changes

Deagle Gammon moved to add $75,000 for a land survey for the McDonald Sports Park aiming for lights at the baseball field there. That motion passed 15-2, with Cleary and Cuttell voting no.

Cuttell moved to remove a new area rate administrative fee from the list. That would’ve brought in $70,000 annually by charging a 5% fee to property owners on private roads with municipal area rate agreements.

Deagle Gammon proposed a friendly amendment to reduce the fee from 5% to 1%, rather than removing it outright. Cuttell agreed to the change, and council voted 9-8 in favour of the new fee, which should net the municipality $14,000.

Purdy attempted to cut two budget additions from the list. She moved to remove a new performance-based towing program, for $350,000, and to reduce tree planting by another $900,000. Neither motion passed. Purdy was the only vote against the budget adjustment list s a whole.

The rest of the list

Here’s the rest of the budget adjustment list approved by council on Wednesday. First, the cuts:

• $260,700 cut by eliminating a grant to Volta
• $75,000 cut by reducing 311 service on statutory holidays
• $700,000 cut by eliminating the Bridging the Gap internship program
• $25,000 in new revenue by increasing on-street parking permit fees
• $110,000 in new revenue by increasing tipping fees on commercial organic waste
• $600,000 cut by eliminating the Grand Oasis and Dartmouth Sunshine Summer Series, partially offset by $200,000 added back in to maintain some concerts
• $50,000 cut by requiring property owners to mow grass in the municipal right-of-way in some previously-exempt areas
• $100,000 in new revenue from selling naming rights to the new pool on the Halifax Common
• $20,000 cut by reducing maintenance of shrubs in some cul-de-sacs by replacing them with grass
• $1.3 million in new revenue from increasing interest on overdue property taxes from 10% to 15%

And the additions to the budget:

• $100,000 for the Board of Police Commissioners to hire independent lawyers
• $361,100 for new positions related to HRM’s refreshed Public Safety Strategy
• $125,000 for an expansion to the Navigator street outreach program
• $300,000 to boost the Halifax Public Libraries collection
• $450,000 for suburban and rural planning studies
• $276,200 for Community Action Planning for African Nova Scotian communities
• $120,400 for new positions to enforce the rental registry
• $1.1 million for the programs related to the Framework for Addressing Homelessness
• $125,000 to increase arts grants
• $500,000 for affordable access to recreation programs
• $379,200 for new transit supervisors
• $16 million on the capital budget for a new fire station and headquarters in West Bedford, to be financed with debt