NEWS

1. Housing Accelerator Fund

“Dozens of people showed up to City Hall and virtually during Halifax regional council’s meeting on Tuesday to speak during the first day of public hearings on a plan to build more housing in the municipality,” reports Suzanne Rent:

The hearing is part of the municipality’s plans for the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). Under that initiative, the federal government is giving millions to the municipality. Halifax Regional Municipality will receive $79 million from the fund, and the city has already received its first payment of $18 million.

Kasia Tota, HRM’s manager of community planning, gave a presentation on the background and the progress of the HAF to date. Members of the public who signed up to speak had their chance after that presentation. The public hearing continued until 10pm.

The speakers, including residents, developers, and a few candidates for October’s municipal election, shared their concerns about loss of character in existing neighbourhoods, and loss of privacy, while other speakers spoke about how the city needs to embrace growth and change, and build more diverse housing.

Click or tap here to read “Residents, developers express concerns about Housing Accelerator Fund in Halifax.”

Some of the ‘anti’ arguments were just silly, involving parking requirements and the like. But I also think that while obviously we need more housing, many people are ideologically cemented to the notion that that can only come from private development. That’s not me being opposed to the HAF process; it’s me saying it alone won’t solve the problem.

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2. Grief

“A new national survey has found that while many grieving people want to be asked about their loss, those around them are unlikely to do the thing they want most,” reports Yvette d’Entremont:

Released Tuesday, the Canadian Grief Alliance (CGA) calls the grief survey “groundbreaking,” describing it as the largest undertaken in Canada. 

The survey’s executive summary notes that the CGA heard from 3,874 people from every province and territory between November and December of last year. 

Those who shared their experiences included people who had experienced the death of someone close to them. But they also experienced losses ranging from divorce, health declines, and family estrangement to losses involving pets, employment, or finances. 

“What we see frequently is that friends and family will often avoid talking to the person about their loss for fear of saying the wrong thing, or ‘reminding’ the person of their loss,” Maxxine Rattner, PhD, grief specialist and executive CGA member said in a media release. 

“While this is typically well intentioned, it may leave the person who is grieving feeling isolated and alone. While everyone’s needs are different, gently letting someone who is grieving know you are there to listen if they would like to talk about their loss can help them feel seen and let them know you care.”

Click or tap here to read “Canadians want to talk about their grief, survey finds.”

The article continues on with a detailed discussion of the cause of grief and why people don’t talk about it.

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3. Laura Lee Langley

In an oddly worded press release, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that long-time Nova Scotian provincial bureaucrat Laura Lee Langley will now head ACOA:

Laura Lee Langley, currently Deputy Minister of the Office of Citizen-Centered Approaches; Deputy Minister of the Office of the Premier, Head of the Public Service, Clerk of the Executive Council, Chief Executive Officer of Communications; and Deputy Minister of the Treasury and Policy Board, Government of Nova Scotia, becomes President of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, effective July 2, 2024.

Jean Laroche says before she entered the public service, Langley was a reporter, but that was before my arrival in Nova Scotia so I never saw her in action, and so far as I can recall, I’ve never had any interactions with Langley in her government positions.

She is evidently ambitious. I don’t have a problem with that, except that it makes me tired. Were I to have made six figures for decades and “retire” as the longest-serving deputy minister, I’d want to kick it, travel around and visit with family and friends, sit on some beaches, smoke a little dope, go to Europe, whatever. I definitely would have no desire to take on yet another job in government, even if it meant — maybe especially if it meant — being continuously feted because I controlled the subsidy-issuing bureaucracy.

All of which is to say, I don’t understand the motivations of bureaucrats.

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4. Flight 624: In 2015 a plane crashed in Halifax and next year people are going to argue about it in court for 3 months

A 45-day trial has been set for January through March of 2026 to hear the class action lawsuit related to the crash of Air Canada Flight 624 on March 29, 2015.

In a press release, Wagners Law Firm explains that:

In the early hours of March 29, 2015, Air Canada pilots, following clearances from Air Traffic Control (Nav Canada), attempted to land on a runway lacking an instrument landing system (“ILS”), which guides aircraft approaching the runway. Without an ILS, the pilots had to visually assess the position of the aircraft relative to the runway in dark and snowy conditions. Unfortunately, without vertical guidance from an ILS, the aircraft descended too low, struck an external power line and an antenna array and cut off power to the airport. The aircraft then violently struck the ground, ricocheted up and struck down a second time, and skidded 335 meters down the runway. One engine detached from the aircraft entirely, and the other was destroyed, spilling fuel onto the runway. All passengers escaped the aircraft but were then stranded on the tarmac for approximately 50 minutes before transport to safety. Most of the 133 passengers suffered physical and psychological injuries arising from the crash and aftermath.

The lawsuit names multiple defendants: Air Canada, Nav Canada, Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA), Airbus S.A.S., the Attorney General of Canada (on behalf of Transport Canada) and the two pilots involved.

The 45-day trial will focus on determining the responsibility of each defendant in the crash. The Plaintiffs, supported by expert opinions, allege that failures at various levels of safety contributed to the crash. “Certainly, Air Canada shares much of the blame. But there were many factors at play,” said Ray Wagner, counsel for the Class. “We look forward to demonstrating that the absence of an Instrument Landing System on the runway was a critical oversight by HIAA and Nav Canada. The airport invested close to $100 million in infrastructure but spent no money to install an ILS on Runway 05, at a fraction of the overall investment costs, which we believe would have prevented this crash. The passengers hope this case compels HIAA and Nav Canada to install an ILS on Runway 05 to prevent challenging and dangerous landings, like this case, where pilots are forced to land without vertical guidance while flying into the fiercest of northerly winds common in winter.”

Of course, none of these allegations have been tested in court.

The winter of 2015 was the winter from hell, with repeated ice storms making it impossible to walk in Halifax. Then, in late March, we got two very deep snowfalls over a three-day period. Some of the contractors responsible for clearing the sidewalks simply gave up, closed down their business and took whatever financial penalty that involved. The city commandeered every available dump truck in the province to haul snow from downtown streets up to a makeshift dump at Fairview Cove, but even that operation took weeks. Then, on March 29, the plane crash.

Imagine the suffering of those people, including those with physical injuries, who waited on the runway in a blizzard for nearly an hour. And then they were attacked on social media, as some people criticized the survivors for not wearing their parkas on the flight, as it was argued that one should always be prepared for your plane to crash and if you get cold, it’s your own damn fault. But come on: we’re supposed to expect the plane we’re on to crash and leave us stranded in a blizzard?

I am what might politely be called flight hesitant, and the crash of Flight 624 did nothing to alleviate the condition. And from a reporting perspective, it has everything: terrible weather coupled with multiple planning and operational mistakes that contributed to the crash. I can’t say for certain, but I expect through the trial we’ll hear some stories of incredible bravery and terrible loss.

I’m looking forward to covering it.

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5. A South End property dispute

Last week, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia Justice Timothy Gabriel published a decision related to a property dispute in the hoitiest of toitiest neighbourhoods in Halifax’s South End. It’s a fun read, and not just because we get to read about the concerns of the other half, but also because it includes explanatory illustrations like the above.

As that illustration, er, illustrates, back in 1946, a fellow named William Bowes subdivided his property at the corner of South Street and Rockcliffe Street into four lots. The three lots running north to south along Rockcliffe Street are helpfully numbered Lots 1, 2, and 3. At issue are Lot 2 and Lot 3.

Bowes sold Lot 2 in 1948 and Lot 3 in 1950, but only put a restrictive covenant on both lots in 1950, after he had already sold Lot 2. That covenant says that there can be no building constructed on Lot 3 within 59 feet of the property line of Lot 2.

The properties have exchanged hands several times since, but Lot 2 is now owned by Michael Gardner, who I think is the “Gardner” in Gardner-Pinfold, the economic consulting firm for wannabe stadium builders and gold mining corporations, and Lot 3 is now owned by Heather Lynn Allison Hames, who has so many names in order to reflect her wealth, and whom I think is somehow connected to the Sobey family.

Allison Hames asked the court to declare the covenant “to be of no force and effect.”

Gardner argued that the covenant was put on the property for a reason. This reason:

Mr. Dudley [the first owner of Lot 2 after its conveyance by Bowes] is associated with the laying out and development of the Westmount Subdivision in Halifax. He was a follower of the craftsman style of architecture associated with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mr. Dudley prepared plans for constructing a house on Lot 2. In purchasing our house, we received copies of the old blue prints prepared by him. Attached is Exhibit E and F hereto are two pages from these blueprints. Exhibit E is a foundation plan showing the layout of the house and the contours of the property sloping sharply downwards to the south and west. The foundation plan appears to me to be exactly as built. Exhibit F shows the elevation drawings of the house from the north and the south. These elevation drawings appear to depict the house as built when we acquired it.

I would note that the axis of the house is not square to the front property line or parallel to the side property lines. It is tilted on a diagonal. This achieves two purposes. Firstly, it affords a view from the south side of the house towards the Northwest Arm and the Dingle looking over the western portion of Lot 3. Secondly, it is designed to take advantage of passive solar heat which I understand to be a tenet of the craftsman school of architecture by tracking the path of the sun particularly in winter months.

It takes a long way to get there via some complicated arguments and (weirdly) New Brunswick case law, but ultimately Justice Gabriel gave Allison Hames what she wanted, and unless there’s an appeal, she can now build some huge monstrosity that blocks the view of the Arm from Gardner’s house, and leaves him without that southern sun.

I’ll leave it for others to critique or praise the judge’s decision, but I find the “block view” issue interesting.

When I moved to Nova Scotia, I looked at a house on Veith Street in North End Halifax that had a lovely view of the Narrows. For a number of reasons that didn’t work out (basically it was too expensive), I instead moved to Dartmouth. All good. But then a few years later, a giant apartment building was constructed just down the hill from Veith Street, on the western side of Barrington Street, which utterly blocked the view of the Narrows from the Veith Street house. Sucks for whoever bought that house, I thought, but I guess the apartment dwellers now have a great view of the Narrows.

Except that didn’t last long. A few years later, Halifax went nuts with “Ships Start Here” and in order to fully embrace the enthusiasm for building war ships we could no longer allow people to equate weapons of war with the murder of thousands of innocent people. And so, Irving Shipyard built a gigantic Assembly Hall and parking garage that blocked the view of the site of the Explosion from atop Needham Hill. The view of the Narrows from the apartment building was what I guess we can term collateral damage, but we all got rich forever, amen, so all good. Where’d you spend your Ships Start Here money?

Anyway, whatever you think about the Save Our View people, they are absolutely right when they say the public view from Citadel Hill to the waterfront is privatized every time some huge new condo or apartment building goes up.

What’s a view worth, anyway? Surely it’s worth something.

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6. Public engagement on Cogswell

This item is written by Suzanne Rent.

The first open house public engagement sessions on the Cogswell District Planning Process get underway today at the Halifax Convention Centre. 

Session one runs from 2pm to 4pm while session two goes from 7pm to 9pm. The sessions run the same time slots on Thursday. 

The sessions include a presentation on detailing the planning process of the Cogswell District. After the presentation, there will be a roundtable discussion during which the public can ask questions. 

All sessions will take place in Room 604 at the Halifax Convention Centre on Argyle Street. 

Click here for more information on the open house engagement sessions. Details on the redevelopment of the Cogswell District can be found here.

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Government

City

Today

Halifax Regional Council Continuation (Wednesday, 1pm, City Hall and online) — if required

Cogswell District Land Use Planning process (Wednesday, 2pm and 7pm, Room 604, Halifax Convention Centre) — Open House Engagement Session

Tomorrow

Halifax Regional Council Continuation (Thursday, 1pm, City Hall and online) — if required

Public Engagement Meeting (follow-up) (Thursday, 6:30pm, Graham Creighton Junior High School, Cherry Brook) — PLANAPP 2023-01187, application for a development agreement for shared housing with special care use on Montague Road

Province

Public Accounts (Wednesday, 9am, One Government Place, and online) — Health Infrastructure Projects; with representatives from the Department of Health and Wellness, Department of Public Works, and Build Nova Scotia

House of Assembly Management Commission (Wednesday, 4pm, One Government Place) — agenda TBD

On campus

Dalhousie

Today

Alan Syliboy: The Journey So Far | A Retrospective (Wednesday, 11am, Dalhousie Art Gallery) — more info here

Tomorrow

Connecting the Community to Birds and Trees through Environmental Education (Thursday, 11:30am, Room 8007 Life Sciences Centre) — Lilly Briggs from the Finca Cántaros Environmental Association will talk 

Saint Mary’s

Today

No events

Tomorrow

Wajd: Songs of Separation (Thursday, 5pm, Burke Theatre B) — film screening and Q&A with director Amar Chebib

In the harbour

Halifax
05:00: Theban, car carrier, arrives at Pier 9 from  Goteborg, Sweden
05:30: CMA CGM Zephyr, container ship (154,995 tonnes), arrives at Pier 41 from Tanger Med, Morocco
10:30: Theban moves to Auotport
10:30: Oceanex Sanderling, ro-ro container, arrives at Fairview Cove from St. John’s
16:30: Theban sails for sea
16:30: CMA CGM Zephyr sails for New York
22:00: Nord Logos, cargo ship, arrives at Bedford Basin anchorage from Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Cape Breton
02:30: Seaways Rio Grande, oil tanker, moves from anchorage to EverWind
06:30: Volendam, cruise ship with up to 1,718 passengers, arrives at Sydney Marine Terminal from Charlottetown, on a seven-day cruise from Montreal to Boston
06:30: John J. Carrick, barge, and Leo A. McArthur, transit the through the causeway
16:30: Volendam sails for Halifax

Footnotes

No blizzard today.