The Coast: What are your concerns about the Bridge Terminal?
Darrell Dexter: They wanted an amendment to the old Dartmouth Common Act… They brought a proposal to us that was very specific. They said they wanted a piece of property that ran up along Nantucket Street. My recollection is that they came complete with artist renderings, or the very least schematics that showed where they were all going to go, that sort of thing. On the basis of that, we said, we’re not really all that happy about the further erosion of Common property---because every time you put one of these uses in it, it takes away from the amount of available Common land.
Someone told me that when you were on Dartmouth city council, you approved moving the terminal over to Common land in the first place.
No. No. It didn’t move over. It moved over to the Sportsplex parking lot, from the shopping centre across the street, and as far as I know, that was some sort of deal that was struck with the Sportsplex. I don’t remember that that ever came to council….
What I see happening is that the city went to the province, and said we want to use up to six acres of Dartmouth Common and the bus terminal will run up Nantucket. The Dartmouth High community had major problems with that orientation and in response to a lot of community consultation, the orientation was changed and the footprint reduced to 3.5 acres, so they saved 2.5 acres of the Common, and moved the terminal much farther away from the school, with the new proposal---that was directly in response to complaints…
That’s not my understanding of it. My understanding is that they’re going to continue to use up the entire amount. The difference is that they’re now going to use some of it as parking lot of the Sportsplex.
Um, no. It’s running along the backside of the existing parking lot of the Sportsplex. The existing Bridge Terminal---that space will be freed up for additional Sportsplex parking.
Well, look, all I know is simply this: They came in with a proposal, and then never came back to us to say, ‘we intend to do something different from what we sold you when we asked for the amendment to the Commons Act.’ To me, it’s just that simple---they came to us with one thing, they’re now doing something else, they never bothered to consult with us in any way.
What do you see happening now?
I’m one of those who says that I believe that there has to be an appropriate transit facility, but I want to see that it conforms to the intention of the original proposal.
Does that mean that the city’s altered proposal is not acceptable to you?
What I told them was that we needed to have further discussions about this, because if there was going to be a different proposal, then that had to come back to us.
When you say “us,” does that mean that the legislature has to hear it?
Well, at first it has to come to our [premier’s] office, to see whether or not as a government we agree that this conforms and/or meets the intention for which it was intended.
My understanding of the city’s viewpoint, for what it’s worth, is that all along they’ve said, ‘yeah, ths fits under the amendment that the province...'
[interrupting] Yeah, and I have no doubt that it fits within the amendment, but that’s not the question. The question, of course, is one of relationship between the government of Nova Scotia and the government of the city. I mean, they came to us---not this government but the government---they came to the government, they came with a proposal, they made representations---in fact, people came to the Law Amendments Committee to speak to the amendment as it was proposed, and now something different is happening. And we have to be reasonably satisfied that what is happening is consistent with the proposal that was made and what’s in the best interests for that Common property. And I quite frankly, I haven’t seen it, and I’m not at this point satisfied that that’s the case.
How did this come to your awareness? How did this come on your plate? Was this brought to you by [HRM councillor] Jim Smith?
No, no. No, it was through general email correspondence that I received from people who were concerned about it.
