PARTY

A reminder: the Halifax Examiner subscriber party is Sunday at 4pm-7pm, at the Wooden Monkey in Dartmouth (above the ferry terminal, fully accessible). Iris the Amazing arranged the food (below). Pay for your own drinks. Folks who arrive before 5pm will be entered into a raffle for swag. I’ll have a short presentation on Original Sin. There’s music. You’ll be home in time for the sportsball game.

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NEWS

1. Municipality says it is evicting people in tent encampments

The city announced this morning that it is evicting the tent encampments. The full statement reads:

Municipal statement about encampments and de-designating locations

Wednesday, February 7, 2024 (Halifax, NS) – Today, the municipality is closing and de-designating five of the 11 designated locations because better options now exist. The Province of Nova Scotia and service providers have identified indoor sheltering and supportive housing options; and we will all be working together to support residents in encampments to move indoors.

Municipal outreach staff are in the process of giving notices and communicating with those sleeping rough in encampments at the Geary Street green space, Saunders Park, Victoria Park, Grand Parade and the Correctional Centre Park in Lower Sackville, that these designated locations will be closing effective today and have been de-designated. Those sheltering in these locations have been given direction to vacate by Monday, February 26. Supports, including information about available resources, transportation of people and belongings, continue to be made available. 

The municipality remains committed to ensuring those sleeping rough are provided better alternatives, working toward having safer, long-term housing options for everyone who needs them. Indoor facilities are a better option than sleeping rough. They offer much needed supports and provide a warm space, electricity, running water, showers, laundry services, regular meals and a place to store belongings. From a public health and safety perspective, access to safe drinking water, sanitary services, and environments free of rodents, physical, biological and fire hazards is important.

From the outset, the municipality has been clear that the creation of designated locations would be temporary. They were established to address an immediate need to ensure people had a location to go to if they had no other option but to sleep rough.

The municipality is constantly assessing the need for designated locations. As more indoor shelter spaces and supportive housing options become available, more parks will be closed, de-designated and returned to their intended purposes as spaces for everyone.

Two additional locations de-designated

Two more locations were de-designated effective Wednesday, Feb. 7, Beaufort Avenue Park in Halifax, and Martins Park in Dartmouth, as they have not been used for the purposes of outdoor sheltering since they were designated in the fall 2023. These two parks remain open to the public.

Safety risks at encampments

The safety risk to those in and around encampments is a significant concern.

In addition to health risks caused by exposure to frostbite and cold-weather injuries, those in encampments can be targets for predatory behaviour that victimizes some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Issues range from gang victimization, and human trafficking to physical and sexual assault, as well as sexual exploitation.

Encampments pose a danger to the community at large. There has been violence arising from encampments, accumulations of human feces, biohazardous waste, weapons and drug paraphernalia surrounding encampments, significant food waste leading to issues with rodents, as well as uncontrolled fires and propane cylinder explosions.

In the past year, Halifax Fire & Emergency has responded to more than 110 calls for service related to encampments, including several tent fires.

The number of calls to 311, as well as calls for service to police and fire, have increased significantly over the past year. The type of calls range from reports of litter and the presence of new encampments to emergency calls related to emergency medical issues, fires, assaults and weapons.

Commitment to ongoing support and longer-term solutions

The municipality is committed to supporting the province in developing long-term housing solutions.

The municipality will continue to treat people experiencing homelessness with dignity while working to find ways to best support them within its capacity and scope. This includes enhanced efforts on the ground, collaborating with Street Navigators, the province and its service providers to actively work with and offer supports to anyone experiencing homelessness in the Halifax region.

The municipality will also continue working with other orders of government, as well as through partnerships with community housing not-for-profits, on initiatives to support the creation of affordable and deeply affordable housing, such as the Affordable Housing Grant Program, the Rapid Housing Initiative and the Housing Accelerator Fund.

For more information, visit our website.

The last time the city tried this, it led to police violence against people supporting the homeless.

Last week, I was interviewed for an upcoming Globe and Mail podcast episode about homelessness in Halifax, and I made the point that after the police violence of August 2021, there seemed to be a broad realization that the traditional criminalization of homelessness wouldn’t work any more. “Official Halifax” — councillors and the mayor, and provincial authorities — started acknowledging that the housing situation was so dire that it really wasn’t the fault of those living rough on the streets. There were no more police attacks on homeless encampments, and officials made some (albeit inadequate) efforts to provide assistance to people who are clearly victims of an economic order beyond their control.

As well, the larger community seemed mostly to have sympathy for those living in tents.

However, I continued, that broad understanding and acceptance of a sad reality is wearing thin. I pointed at the ugly social media responses to a CBC article about people living at Grand Parade who declined to move into the shelter at the Halifax Forum.

Those tent dwellers said that the Forum lacked privacy, provided no place to store belongings, was too far away from needed services, and had too many restrictions. It was better to continue living at Grand Parade. The response was along the lines of “lock them up” and such.

I feared the public was about to turn on the homeless.

In 2021, I wrote about the situation in my old hometown of Chico, California. In 2018, the nearby town of Paradise was destroyed by fire; 85 people died and thousands were left homeless. Hundreds of people ended up living in tent encampments at the Butte County fairgrounds in Chico, and in various parks around town.

Initially, the people of Chico were amazingly sympathetic and accommodating, acknowledging that the homeless were victims of a disaster beyond their control. But two years later, the situation had turned, and police were regularly sicced upon homeless encampments.

So, two and a half years seems to be the breaking point. After two and a half years, people stop caring. As I wrote:

Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched as Chico residents post diatribes against the homeless on Facebook. I know some of the posters personally; some are small business owners who were always willing to kick in some product or cash for a charity event, and others are homeowners who worked to raise thoughtful children who are generous in spirit. So it comes as a shock to me to see these same people calling the most vulnerable among them the cruelest names, and assigning the most villainous motives to them.

And the same thing is happening in Halifax.

No, there hasn’t so far been a spectacular single incident of climate disaster here in Nova Scotia — just the slow burn of more storms, higher seas, and cycles of drought and flood that the rest of the planet is experiencing to one degree or another. But there has been the decades-long policies of austerity and the accompanying erosion of social services and government supports for people.

There are dark clouds above, and I fear that the divide unfolding between the have-nots and the have-somes will deepen, with the latter increasingly relying on police violence in an ultimately vain attempt to protect their precarious states.

For sure: no one, absolutely no one, will say “I want the police to beat up homeless people and their defenders in order to protect my precarious state.” Such bluntly conscious clarity would be offensive to one’s understanding of oneself as a kind, charitable, progressive citizen.

Rather, the policing of the ever-growing number of have-nots takes place incrementally, and with plausible deniability. Police budgets are increased beyond reason. Cops are given new sophisticated weaponry and tools of surveillance. Systems of police oversight and civilian control are corrupted.

Even the act of deploying police takes place in a funhouse of obfuscating smoke and distorting mirrors — “I can’t call tell the police what to do,” says the councillor who just voted to increase the police budget and directed city staff to ask for police assistance in eviction actions; “police officers were just protecting themselves,” says the chief of police who sent 200 cops to the Memorial Library lawn.

And how will the kind, charitable, progressive-minded citizenry respond? Will they condemn the policing of the powerless and demand accountability from the politicians and police, or will they look on, approving by their silence?

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2. Catastrophes

Mayor Mike Savage is in Toronto for the Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) conference. [Correction: he joined the conference via Zoom from Halifax.]

CatIQ is “a subsidiary of Zurich-based PERILS A.G. and delivers detailed analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and human-made catastrophes. Through its online subscription-based platform, CatIQ combines comprehensive insured loss and exposure indices and other related information to better serve the needs of the insurance / reinsurance / ILS industries, public sector and other stakeholders.”

Savage is there to give a half-hour presentation on Halifax being “Canada’s unlikely ‘Catastrophe Capital’ of the past few years.” You can go hear him speak, if you have the $1,100 conference registration fee lying around. I don’t know if CatIQ is paying Savage’s way or if we are.

To be sure, we’ve had a lot of catastrophes of late: pandemic, hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, floods. I joke that locusts are next.

Parenthetically, I do wonder about that “angel of death” thing — the top dog sent Azrael, the angel of death, around to kill all the firstborns. Says Exodus: “Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.”

I kinda get killing Pharaoh’s son, but the kids of slaves? And cattle? No offence to believers, but that’s one fucked-up dog. Anyway, the Israelites were able to ward off Azrael by splashing blood on their doors. I take from this that Azrael was smart enough to know which kid was the oldest, but not smart enough to know which house had Israelites in it. Couldn’t he have carried a map, or talked to the people in Hebrew? The whole Bible thing confuses me.

Anyway, I don’t know that Savage has any more insight on catastrophes than anyone else in town, but I suppose it makes sense that the insurance industry is talking about climate change and the related calamities. The best thing the insurance companies could do, though, is divest from fossil fuel companies.

Speaking of catastrophes, Premier Tim Houston has partially walked back his dumb comments about Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s declaration of a state of emergency. At a press conference Monday, Houston said:

I know there is ongoing training with municipalities on things like states of emergency. I believe the CBRM team had been working with the province maybe through the fall, and had some pretty intensive training on what a state of emergency… how it’s triggered, what it is, that sort of thing… Declaring a local or provincial state of emergency is not required to access resources or assistance. I’ve heard a lot of chatter about that… A state of emergency does have an impact, for sure… We know that yesterday CBRM declared a local state of emergency. They can absolutely do that. They don’t need provincial approval to do that. We respect their ability to do that. But at the end of the process, I kind of wonder what they’ll do with it. Will they do anything with it, or was it more of just a kind of PR issue is what I’m wondering.

As Philip Moscovitch commented yesterday, this is rich coming from a government that lied about the circumstances leading to the declaration of an emergency to open the Windsor aboiteau (besides the outright lie of saying fire officials requested it, supposedly the aboiteau had to be open for fire suppression reasons, even as the Windsor area was deluged by a Noah-ish flood, and even now, as the area is covered with a couple of feet of snow).

But last night Houston posted on Twitter:

The situation across certain regions of our Province is horrific. What some people are going through – not being able to open their doors; roofs collapsing under the weight of the snow – It’s unimaginable.

Our complete focus as a province is on digging people out and every possible resource is being put into this effort.

Yesterday, I made some unfortunate comments that took the conversation away from the important snow removal efforts that are happening. But, when I make a mistake, I will always own it. I used a poor choice of words. And I apologize for that.

My intention was just to make the public aware that resources were coming regardless of a state of emergency being in effect or not. For example, there is no state of emergency in Victoria County, but that will not impede their getting access to plows and support. We have resources deployed across the impacted communities to dig communities out. Our provincial government is continuing to work with municipalities and the federal government to clear the snow.

It’s been suggested to me that there are idled plows in the southwestern portion of the province (which saw no or little snow). And a colleague points out that the provincial plow tracker has been updated such as to be completely useless.

Whether because of a lack of resources or poor planning or both, the province was unprepared for a snowfall of this magnitude. There can be no doubt, however, that there will be future disasters of such magnitude.

Maybe we should take climate change seriously.

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3. Bedford Commons plan approved

“Halifax regional council approved the next steps for a proposal for the Bedford Commons that could bring thousands of units of housing to the area,” reports Suzanne Rent.

On Monday, I commented on the purported plan to build 6,000 residential units in the Bedford Commons. I seriously doubt any housing will be built there in the foreseeable future, and if it is, it will create a transportation nightmare in Burnside. Councillor Tim Outhit seems aware of the transportation concern, but downplayed it:

Outhit said he knows there are concerns about infrastructure in the area, noting that the Burnside Connector, which he said is set to open within the next year, is “good news.” 

“Of course, we’re going to have to make sure transit is available in that area,” Outhit said. “Right now, Rocky Lake Drive, the Bedford Common(s) has little to no public transportation. 

“I often told people if we could just get a little more density in there, that would help the battle to get public transportation.”

The Burnside Connector is only good news for people looking for an excuse to be late for work, as the traffic induced by the highway will be an order of magnitude worse than at present.

See what’s happening: we’re building a highway now, and kind of hoping that sometime in the future there will be some transit, pinky promise, although we’ve made zero effort to plan for that.

Click or tap here to read “Halifax council approves changes to allow for Bedford Commons proposal.”

Oh, and I can’t let this slide without commenting on the architectural rendering above. Apparently, those 27 residential towers (reminiscent of Thamesmead, the violence-ridden neighbourhood in A Clockwork Orange) housing 6,000 residents will have just four parked cars on the streets surrounding and one actually being driven; the utility wires have been placed underground; and scores of fully formed trees have been planted. The only honest thing about the rendering is there are no buses.

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4. Rural transit

“Halifax regional council approved more funding for rural transit operators in the municipality, the first increase in funding from HRM since the program was founded almost 10 years ago,” reports Suzanne Rent.

Click or tap here to read “Halifax council approves first funding increase for rural transit in 10 years.”

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5. Halifax City Hall enters the 20-aughts

“Halifax regional council has approved a funding plan to update technology in council chambers that will include hybrid options for council meetings,” reports Suzanne Rent:

As the Examiner previously reported, HRM staff recommended council approve funding to replace the current technology in council chambers, which was installed in 2019, and is coming to the end of its lifespan this year. 

The cost to replace the current audio-visual hardware and software is $654,540. The capital budget has allowed for $500,000 of those funds, with the remaining coming from another existing capital account. Annual operating costs of a hybrid system are estimated to be $283,480.

Click or tap here to read “Council approves funding for hybrid technology to catch up with other municipalities.”

Rent is really pumping out the articles today.

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6. Yasa, EverWind, and the war in Ukraine

While compiling the ships listings below this morning, I was surprised to see there’s an oil tanker called the Yasa Golden Dardanelles arriving at EverWind later today.

That piqued my interest for a couple of reasons. First, I’m struck that EverWind, which sells itself as a ‘green hydrogen’ company dedicated to saving the world from climate change, has exactly one revenue stream at present, and that’s the operation of the oil tank farm at Point Tupper. Basically, that giant tank farm is a holding facility that can quickly and reliably deliver oil to U.S. refineries to smooth out delivery schedules.

I guess the idea is that eventually EverWind’s green hydrogen operation will get up and running and the tank farm will be converted to holding ammonia for export to Germany, and then we’ll all be rich forever, amen, and the planet is saved, hallelujah, but for the moment anyway, EverWind is just another oil company. So I pay attention as the oil tankers come and go.

Besides, the Yasa Golden Dardanelles is arriving from Algeria. Most of the tankers supplying EverWind come from Angola, Nigeria, and Norway, so I was curious about this new ship I hadn’t tracked before, and looked into it.

The Yasa Golden Dardanelles is one of 14 oil tankers owned by a Turkish company called Ice Pearl Navigation SA, and operated by a related Turkish company, Yasa Holding Company.

Another of those 14 tankers is the Yasa Golden Bosphorus. Last October, reported Reuters, the Biden administration sanctioned Ice Pearl because the Yasa Golden Bosphorus had evaded sanctions on Russia:

The U.S. on Thursday imposed the first sanctions on owners of tankers carrying Russian oil priced above the G7’s price cap of $60 a barrel, one in Turkey and one in the United Arab Emirates, in an effort to close loopholes in the mechanism designed to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

The U.S., other G7 countries and Australia imposed the cap last year, seeking to reduce Russia’s revenues from seaborne oil exports as part of sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.

The cap bans Western companies from providing maritime services, including insurance, finance and shipping, for Russian seaborne oil exports sold above $60 a barrel, while seeking to keep oil flowing to markets. Caps also were imposed on Russian fuel exports.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration placed sanctions on Turkey-based Ice Pearl Navigation SA, owner of the Yasa Golden Bosphorus, which the Treasury said carried Russian ESPO crude priced above $80 a barrel after the cap took effect in December last year.

When the sanctions were announced, the Yasa Golden Bosphorous was under contract to ExxonMobil and en route from the St. Victoire de Sorel Terminal in Quebec to Houston. ExxonMobil said it was not impacted by the sanctions.

And Yasa has denied that it has sold Russian oil.

So far as I can determine, the ship arriving at EverWind today, the Yasa Golden Dardanelles, is also under contract with ExxonMobile, and there’s no allegation that that ship has evaded U.S. sanctions against Russia.

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Government

City

Today

Budget Committee (Wednesday, 9:30am, City Hall and online) — agenda

Tomorrow

Appeals Standing Committee (Thursday, 10am, City Hall and online) — agenda

African Descent Advisory Committee (Thursday, 6pm, HEMDCC Meeting Space and online) — agenda

Information Session (Thursday, 6pm, Fisherman’s Cove Heritage Centre, Eastern Passage) — Shore Road: Building with Nature Project

Province

Public Accounts (Wednesday, 9am, One Government Place and online) — Municipal Grant Funding and Strategic Initiatives; with representatives from the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Department of Public Works, and Joint Regional Transportation Agency

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On campus

Dalhousie

Today

Noon Hour Recital: Voice (Wednesday, 11:45am, Strug Concert Hall) 

Roots & Rhythm: Connecting with the Past, Present, and Future (Wednesday, 6pm, Halifax Central Library) — more info here

Tomorrow

Echo Chambers: Choosing Interlocutors and Messages (Thursday, 11:30am, McCain 2184 and online) — Delong Meng from Shanghai Jiao Tong University will talk

Elizabeth May Chair Candidate Research Talk (Thursday, 11:30am, Milligan Room, Life Sciences Centre) — Erin Murphy from the University of Toronto will talk

Cones and cone pathways remain functional in advanced retinal degeneration (Thursday, 1pm, online) — Alapakkam P Sampath from the University of California Los Angeles will talk

Beyond Anti-Racism, Anti-Discrimination Statements and Charters (Thursday, 5:30pm, online) — panel discussion with Barrington Walker, Ajay Parasram, Camisha Sibblis, Warren Clarke, and David Westwood; with AI-generated captions; info and registration here

The Boat People (Thursday, 6pm, Room 264, Wallace McCain Learning Commons) — reading and Q&A with author Sharon Bala

King’s

Today

No events

Tomorrow

Hearing the Past: Metrical Psalm Singing and the Early Modern Soundscape (Thursday, 7:30pm, King’s College Chapel) — more info here

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In the harbour

Halifax
02:00: East Coast, oil tanker, sails from Irving Oil for Saint John
03:30: NYK Demeter, container ship, sails from Fairview Cove for For Lauderdale, Florida
05:00: Atlantic Star, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England
13:30: Atlantic Star sails for New York
15:30: MSC Malena, container ship, sails from Pier 31 for sea
16:00: CMA CGM Paranagua, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Montreal

Cape Breton
20:00: Yasa Golden Dardanelles, oil tanker, arrives at EverWind from Bejaia, Algeria

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Footnotes

I doubt I have time for it, but I’m tempted to write “An old guy explains Taylor Swift to old people” piece before the Super Bowl. I keep hearing people say things like, “I don’t care for her music but I like that she angers those people.” And sure. But her music is in fact interesting and provides insight into her character. We shouldn’t be so dismissive.

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