In one of the last votes of its term, Halifax regional council approved a living wage requirement for most contracted workers. As the Halifax Examiner reported earlier this month, municipal staff proposed the policy to council as part of a new code of conduct for suppliers: It’s a response to council’s lukewarm reception of the social procurement policy passed […]
Five Halifax councillors wouldn’t support letter advocating abolition of nuclear weapons
It was meant to be a symbolic gesture — “a wish for peace” — but concerns over jurisdictional meddling kept some of Richard Zurawski’s colleagues from fully supporting his call to abolish nuclear weapons. Zurawski brought the four-part motion to council’s meeting on Tuesday. It read in full: That Halifax Regional Council: Declare August 6, […]
Speed humps coming to some Halifax-area school zones
The city is planning to install speed humps on 10 streets around seven schools in Halifax and Sackville this summer, but a large portion of the municipality is left off the map. Halifax regional councillors wanted to speed up efforts to slow down traffic across the municipality during this year’s original, pre-COVID-19 budget process. They...
Halifax councillors look at extra risk to save cuts, scrap weekly green bin pick-up
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Halifax councillors are looking at taking on more financial risk to offset a third of the cuts proposed to the city’s budget due to COVID-19. Finance staff estimate the permanent impact of the pandemic on the municipality’s finances will be $85.4 million from lost revenue […]
City councillors approve increased police budget despite ongoing racial profiling
You don’t have to be Negrodamus to have predicted that the Halifax City Council would approve the police budget increase of about a million dollars, but even for the cynical the budget committee meeting on Wednesday demonstrated some surprising depths of unaccountability. Calls to freeze the police budget in response to the Halifax Regional Police’s […]
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...
City still ridin’ the stadium train
Morning File, Wednesday, October 23, 2019
News 1. Stadium This item is written by Tim Bousquet. Halifax council yesterday rejected Sam Austin’s bid to immediately end a staff review of the Schooners’ stadium proposal. Had Austin been successful, the stadium proposal would have effectively been rejected. In October 2018, council passed a motion outlining how it would deal with the stadium […]
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage recognizes “Wrongful Conviction Day” but takes no action on the wrongful conviction his city is responsible for
Morning File, Monday, October 7, 2019
1. Boat Harbour “The day-by-day countdown to the closing of Boat Harbour happens on a large painting erected in front of the Pictou Landing First Nation band council office, reports Joan Baxter: The painting depicts Boat Harbour as it was before it was dammed (and damned) in 1966, transformed from a healthy tidal estuary to […]