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...
Tank rethink: ‘Buyer’s remorse’ has councillors reconsidering armoured vehicle for Halifax police
Halifax councillors who voted in favour of an armoured vehicle for police are considering cancelling the purchase in the wake of protests over the latest police violence against Black people. The purchase of an armoured vehicle was approved during the fiscal 2019-2020 budget process at a cost of $500,000. Police presented the idea to the […]
Racism, cops, media, and performative bullshit
Morning File, Monday, June 1, 2020
News 1. Sure, budget surpluses are great, but have you ever experienced investments in long-term care? Stephen Kimber’s column this week points out one of the many obvious but under-discussed aspects of how COVID-19 has caused so much death and suffering for people in long-term care homes: that the state of LTCs is the direct […]
Halifax councillors consider saving snow shovelling from COVID-19 cuts
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Councillors hope to save a program that makes for more comprehensive snow clearing on the Halifax peninsula. During a budget committee meeting on Friday — the continuation of the rebuilding of the city’s recast COVID-19 budget with $85 million in cuts — councillors voted in […]
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 […]
What would you build if Halifax council gave you $20 million?
Morning File, Wednesday, December 11, 2019
News 1. Halifax is getting a stadium Council voted in favour of spending $20 million on a stadium, although the Atlantic Schooners will have to find a new location, Zane Woodford with The Star Halifax reports. A staff report recommended spending the $20 million, but told Schooner Sports and Entertainment (SSE) its preferred spot of […]
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 […]
The Halifax stadium proposal: private profit for Anthony Leblanc, socialized risk for the public
Morning File, Tuesday, October 1, 2019
News 1. More stadium updates MLA Susan Leblanc, whose Dartmouth North district includes the Shannon Park site of the proposed stadium, has come out swinging against it: Tomorrow I will table legislation on behalf of the @NSNDP caucus that would block public money for a CFL stadium. #nspoli #HRM #Dartmouth — Susan Leblanc (@susanleblancMLA) September […]
Panglossian vox pop at the Herald: not a contrary word to be heard
Morning File, Wednesday, June 19, 2019
News 1. Steve Craig Steve Craig won the byelection for MLA in Sackville-Cobequid. (Preliminary results are above.) The district has long been solidly NDP, so a PC victory is notable, but I wouldn’t read too much into it. The NDP candidate, Lara Fawthrop, didn’t have Craig’s name recognition, and Craig is more on the “progressive” […]
“Paving the streets with gold”: Why Halifax council turned down a look into raising standards for sidewalk snow-clearing
One of the more telling moments of budget season in Halifax was not even a part of city council’s official budget discussion. At a regular council meeting on January 29, Councillor Shawn Cleary asked for a report assessing the costs and benefits of tightening up the standards for snow-clearing in Halifax. His fellow councillors, seemingly […]