Management at the Halifax Fire Department has again failed to properly address racist behaviour, say black firefighters.

Last month, a black firefighter assigned to Station 50 on Hammonds Plain Road picked up a clipboard with the daily checklist for fire truck inspection, and discovered a racist and sexist "poem" written on the back of the clipboard.

The firefighter immediately reported the incident to superiors but management did not issue a condemnation of the incident until after the Halifax Association of Black Fire Fighters complained. The week delay angers the HABFF, as an immediate and public management condemnation of racist incidents was a policy recommended by a human rights lawyer hired by the city to investigate what black firefighters say is a long history of discrimination in the fire department.

The Station 50 incident mirrors a 2005 incident at Fire Station 9, in Sackville, in which the n-word was scribbled on a poster in a washroom. That incident was one of many cited in a human rights complaint filed by the HABFF (see "Black firefighters file human rights complaint," April 2, 2009).

For more on this story, and to read the Fire Department's delayed condemnation, see thecoast.ca/bites.

The owners of Fenwick Tower, the tallest building in Halifax, want to put a 36-foot wide addition up the entire length of the 33-storey structure. Together with other renovations, the addition would increase the number of apartments in the building from 274 to 402, and would about double the commercial space in the tower.

Additionally, Templeton Properties also wants to build two new residential buildings on the property---a nine-storey structure with 90 residential units and 5,000 square feet of commercial, and an eight-storey structure with 38 residential units---as well as six townhouses, a four-storey parking garage and 55,200 square feet of new commercial space.

City staff supports the proposal, and city council Tuesday initiated the bureaucratic process needed for the development to come to fruition. See more information at thecoast.ca/bites.

Dartmouth residents like the design for a new, expanded Bridge Terminal, but dislike its location on Dartmouth Common land.

Architectural drawings for the new transit terminal were revealed at a public meeting at Dartmouth High School Monday night. The proposal stretches the terminal between Nantucket Avenue and Thistle Street, through what is now the wooded "urban wilderness" park behind the Sportsplex parking lot.

The existing Bridge Terminal is already the busiest transit terminal east of Montreal, and the proposed expanded terminal is very large indeed---stretching over 700 metres long, it will serve 17,000 commuters daily. There will be 16 bus bays, and a bus parking lane along the length of the back, eastern, wall. The terminal building itself will be three times as large as the Portland Hills terminal building, and will include seating, washrooms and a concession stand.

Early proposals for the terminal oriented it east-west, parallel and adjoining Nantucket Avenue, but in response to complaints that such an orientation would bring it too close to Dartmouth High, the plan was re-worked into its present north-south orientation. That brought its own set of design challenges, however, as people walking to the terminal from adjoining neighbourhoods would have to cross the buses' paths.

To resolve that problem and to provide a buffer between the noise of the terminal and the nearby Dartmouth High, architect Troy Scott has the terminal 18 feet beneath the existing grade leading up to the school, and provides a block-wide, curved pedestrian bridge leading to the top of the terminal building. There, three "lantern"-like entry points, two for stairways and one for an elevator, provide access to the building.

The pedestrian bridge and substantial excavation have increased costs considerably---Halifax council last month upped potential project costs from $4.5 to $9.5 million.

Residents at Monday's meeting (full disclosure: I live nearby as well) mostly felt that, so far as is possible on the site, Scott had listened to their earlier concerns and has produced what several called a "beautiful" building. Scott, who also lives in the neighbourhood, was clearly proud of the design.

But residents also felt the expanded terminal is inappropriately placed on Common land, and that the decision to place it there was made with no community consultation. "This is a fait accompli," said Dartmouth High teacher Mike Cosgrove. "We were never asked what we thought of this location, or if we had any better ideas."

The terminal proposal will go before the Harbour East Community Council in April, and the full HRM council soon thereafter. If it is approved, construction will start this summer, and likely take a year or more to complete. The public can still comment on the proposal; see tinyurl.com/bridgeterminal for architectural drawings, contacts and other details.

Basically, the plan calls for relocating the terminal in a strip running behind the Sportsplex, from Nantucket Avenue to Thistle Street. This entails ripping out six acres of the "urban wilderness" between the Sportsplex and Dartmouth High. Unless something unexpected happens, work should start this spring, and be completed in time for the beginning of school in August.

A bizarre battle between supporters of the Halifax Police Department and the RCMP played out last week, as the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners tried to wrap its head around an unlikely scenario: What would happen if the 30-percent federal subsidy to the city's contract for RCMP policing services in rural and suburban areas dried up?

On the basis of a consultant's report that was leaked to the CBC, the commission recommended to council that the HPD should take over the RCMP work, causing an uproar among RCMP supporters. Councillor Sue Uteck came down firmly on the RCMP's side, and demanded that councillor Russell Walker resign as chair of the commission. Uteck "is running for mayor," Walker said, explaining Uteck's umbrage.

The controversy was amped up another couple of degrees as council dealt with the issue with its knee-jerk response to everything: It met in secret for two days, fanning the flames of mistrust at every turn. In the end, though, council realized that in fact the feds won't take away the subsidy, and so took no action at all: the RCMP contract remains.

Let's be clear: Halifax city council is making significant headway in improving our feeble bus system. Some 15 new articulated buses will hit the streets in coming weeks, with 30 more coming over the next two years, and councillors appear committed to even more exciting expansion as laid out in the Five Year Transit Plan.

But as the first new buses were rolled out Tuesday (two hybrids costing a total of $2.6 million, with a $600,000 contribution from the province), and as councillors used the opportunity for a photo op, I realized I've *never* before seen a politician, or a city administrator, on a city bus. While buying more buses is good, if they don't experience it themselves, in a directly personal way, how can councillors and staff address the day-in, day-out ridership issues that so vex regular bus users?

So I asked all 23 councillors, mayor Peter Kelly, senior City Hall administrators and Metro Transit staff about their bus habits. Their responses, which are about what I thought they'd be, are collected at thecoast.ca/bites.

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The Halifax Police Department will continue to police in the urban areas, while the city will continue to contract with the RCMP for policing services in rural and suburban areas.

Kelly would not disclose the vote on the issue, but did promise to release various documents related to the discussion. Those should arrive momentarily, and I'll post them here as soon as I get them.

Councillor Barry Dalrymple
District 2, Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank
Route 55 serves only the Waverley part of the district.
No response.

Councillor David Hendsbee
District 3, Preston-Lawrencetown-Chezzetcook
Routes #51, 66
"on average twice a month - and the ferry about 4-8 trips a month > higher frequency in the summer, fewer in the winter ... ok ?"

Councillor Lorelei Nicoll
District 4, Cole Harbour
Routes #56, 59, 61, 65, 68, 72, 159, 165
"Thanks for the opportunity to provide you with information on how I get around this fine municipality, Tim. It is all about options, most days I car pool from Cole Harbour, some days I take the Link bus from Portland as it can get me downtown in less time than I can (and I get time to respond to emails at the same time). If I can avoid taking my car, I do. I also take the ferry from Alderney to downtown (and return) if I have business to conduct back-to-back on both sides of the harbour."

Councillor Gloria McCluskey
District 5, Dartmouth Centre
Routes #1, 10, 16, 41, 51, 52, 53, 55, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 87, 159
No response

Councillor Darren Fisher
District 6, East Dartmouth- The Lakes
Routes #10, 54, 55
"I don't take the bus very often, but I live to carpool. I rarely cross the bridge without 3 others in the car. During snowstorms I will take the ferry and a bus. I do ride the ferry whenever possible during the summer with my kids to different waterfront events such as Buskers. I also will Ferry to the odd Moosehead game. "

Councillor Bill Karsten
District 7, Portland - East Woodlawn
Routes #56, 59, 61, 65, 68, 72, 159, 165
No response

Councillor Jackie Barkhouse
District 8, Woodside - Eastern Passage
Route #60
No Response

Councillor Jim Smith
District 9, North end Dartmouth
Routes #16, 52, 53, 64, 66, 72, 87
" I don't but want to...schedule is too erratic."

Councillor Mary Wile
District 10, Clayton Park West
Routes #2, 4, 16, 17, 18, 21, 31, 33, 34, 35, 42, 52, 89
" I normally don't take the bus. I live out in Clayton Park West and taking a bus would be quite difficult as it would take up considerable time from one transfer to another. Most cases I have to go to another meeting or appointment and need to hop into my car and either head to Dartmouth, back out to my district, or elsewhere. Councillors are like sales people, we go from one place to another and then to another. It is too difficult to try and catch buses for all these appts. Some places don't have bus service. I do have a great car though that is easy on the gas."

Councillor Jerry Blumenthal
District 11, Halifax North End
Routes #3, 7, 9, 21, 31, 33, 34, 35, 84, 85, 86
No response

Councillor Dawn Sloane
District 12, Halifax Downtown
Routes #1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 20, 35, 41, 51, 53, 58, 59, 61, 82, 86, 87
"My bus usage depends on my work schedule and where the meetings are being held. It's difficult to have back to back meetings in various locations within a workday. I typically use the bus 6 to 8 times a month"

Councillor Sue Uteck
District 13, Halifax South End
Routes #1, 3, 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 35, 41, 42
No response

Councillor Jennifer Watts
District 14, Connaught - Quinpool
Routes #
No response

Councillor Russell Walker
District 15, Fairview - Clayton Park
Routes #
No response

Councillor Debbie Hum
District 16, Rockingham - Wentworth
Routes #
No Response

Councillor Linda Mosher
District 17, Purcell's Cove- Armdale
Routes #6, 14, 15, 19, 20, 32
"It is important to note that I work from home as much as possible. When I go downtown I don't take the bus - in my area you require 2 buses to get to most places I need to go. I do take the ferry to go to Dartmouth from downtown Halifax. In addition, if we implement high speed ferry service I certainly would be a frequent user from Purcell's Cove - downtown."
Adding:
"Neglected to mention that I walk if it is about 20 minutes or less.Also if we had a high speed ferry from Purcell's Cove - downtown Halifax it is my goal to have community shuttle buses during peak periods. So I would take a bus and then a ferry. Multi-modal :) Many members of Council car pool frequently as well. Russell Walker and I have car pooled many times."

Councillor Stephen Adams
District 18, Spryfield - Herring Cove
Routes #
No response

Councillor Brad Johns
District 19, Middle and Upper Sackville-Lucasville
Routes #80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 185
"It should be noted, although I take the bus it is only the link and not traditional transit. As well, it is directly from the Sackville Terminal to City Hall. (As does my wife). My position and the expectations of me would not allow me to use transit exclusively. "

Councillor Bob Harvey
District 20, Lower Sackville
Routes #82, 84, 85, 87, 88
"I have gone to council a couple of times on 185 from Sackville in the last year."

Councillor Tim Outhit
District 21, Bedford
Routes #66, 80, 82
"Nope, but I will take rail, hovercraft, or ferry if / when the service(s) are launched in Bedford!!"

Councillor Reg Rankin
District 22, Timberlea-Prospect
Routes #21, 23
"I use the bus from time to time ; perhaps once every 3 or 4 weeks. "

Councillor Peter Lund
District 23, Hammonds Plains - St. Margaret's
Routes #
No response

CAO Dan English
No response

Deputy CAO Wayne Anstey
No response

Metro Transit manager Pat Soanes
No response

Metro Transit spokesperson Lori Patterson
No response

Metro Transit planner Eddie Robar
No response

God of traffic Ken Reashor
No response

Reporter Tim Bousquet
I buy a monthly bus pass, and take the bus to and from work almost every day (I drive maybe twice a month). I also often travel by bus through the day, on evenings and weekends, and of course to and from city council meetings.

• Transportation minister Bill Estabrooks (left) with Halifax mayor Peter Kelly (right). That's Metro Transit manager Pat Soanes squeezed in between.

• God of traffic Ken Reashor and councillor Jennifer Watts.

• Halifax deputy CAO Wayne Anstey (left) and Metro Transit planner Eddie Robar (right).

• Halifax councillors Brad Johns (left) and Bob Harvey (right).

• Official ghost buster to the mayor, Peter Duffy.

Well, it wasn't a council quorum-- several councillors were still wiping blood off themselves from the on-going secret HPD vs RCMP battle, but that's as many politicians and administers as we'll ever see on a bus, so we should pause and relish the moment, before noting that if they made this a regular occurrence--if they used the bus to actually commute and otherwise get around-- we might have better bus service. As is, transit is something for other people, and not very important other people at that (important people don't take the bus, don't you know) so transit doesn't get the fiscal or managerial attention it deserves.

Oh, here's the bus:

The buses cost $1.3 million each, with $300,000 of that pricetag coming from the province. Estabrooks quite rightly noted that there will be a learning curve for running the buses, but the hope is that they'll achieve a 30 percent reduction in fuel use, compared to a new traditional diesel bus.

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But despite councillor Uteck's move to make the issue public, I'm now sitting in the hallway at city hall, as council is meeting in secret to discuss it. Maybe I'll have more info later today. But for now, let's talk about what we know.

In the abstract, it might---might---make sense to have just one police department operate in one political jurisdiction. There could be economies of scale, and it's probable that the RCMP charges the city more than expenses.

But this isn't an exercise in abstract thinking. There are real-world concerns that could very well trump simple organizational streamlining.

For one, people get attached to the existing policing arrangements in their neighbourhoods. They know their cops, they know what kind of service they can expect, and so forth. There is a great deal of public concern over the proposal, as there should be; the kind of radical change being proposed should not be undertaken without first having long conversations with the public, so it's understood what people want and that their concerns are addressed.

Second, it's not at all clear that the HPD can effectively, or efficiently, expand in the way being proposed. We're talking about an organization that has a worryingly high unsolved murder rate, and which has recently been rocked by a contracting scandal, as required polygraph testing of new recruits was farmed off via a no-bid contract to a company owned by a police officer.

More, there is at least one human rights complaint filed against the HPD, and insiders speak of an organizational structure that promotes those with connections, and not the most qualified.

Council is dealing with a budget issue, but council hasn't been following police budgets closely--- police budgeting is controlled by the Board of Police Commissioners, which has closed door meetings, not open to the public. The gap between council concerns and police governance was apparent when council hired Larry Munroe, the first city auditor-general, last September, and immediately charged him with looking at police operations.

There are also simple fiscal concerns. Will an expanded HPD mean that administrative salaries have to be increased to match the new size of the organization? You can bet that argument will be made. And the RCMP has resources not presently available to the HPD-- a helicopter, for example-- and entire kinds of services unknown to the urban force-- dealing with off-shore contraband and the like.

Despite these concerns, I don't yet have a strong opinion on whether the RCMP should be replaced by the HPD, because I simply don't have enough information. And that's certainly the case with the public generally as well.

What's needed is for Munroe's testimony, or better yet, his audits, to be made public, and for the entire discussion to be held in public, so the community can follow along and be part of it.

I asked councillor Russell Walker, who also chairs the Board of Police Commissioners, why the council discussion is in secret. "It's a contracting matter," he said. "We always do contracts in camera. Garbage contracts-- in camera-- same thing here."

Sorry, but that argument simply doesn't wash. Contracting discussions can be held in secret (nothing requires council to hold them in secret) because private companies are putting forward internal financial information that could put them at a competitive disadvantage if the information was released publicly. But the RCMP is itself a government agency, which is subject to public disclosure laws, and there's no potential private competitor to worry about.

Mayor Peter Kelly, for his part, told reporters yesterday that the meeting is secret "due to public security, we do not want to disclose to the criminal element where there may be some deficiencies in our overall system.”

If it's the case that there are "security" holes so big that the collection of half-wits and meth heads that make up the local criminal element can take advantage of them, we've got much bigger issues than anyone's imagined--- if this is true, Kelly should be calling for an immediate federal intervention, perhaps calling in the army, and should be declaring a state of emergency, firing police chiefs, holding daily press conferences. And most definitely the public should be aware of the holes, so they can perhaps arm themselves.

No, Kelly's spouting nonsense. The reason the meeting is secret is that councillors don't want what will certainly be a contentious and heated debate to be held in public. But this is exactly what's called for-- this discussion, which involves huge and competing public concerns, should definitely be held in public.

Because it's not, there's a very real possibility that no matter what council does, the public will end up being more distrustful of the policing arrangement that emerges from the secrecy.

[I'll have an update on this story later today]

In 2003, the city of Halifax banned the use of "cosmetic pesticides," those chemicals applied to lawns. The city's law is easily ignored because the banned chemicals are still available for sale at most home and garden supply stores. But now the province is proposing its own law against pesticides, which should halt those sales once and for all.

Currently, Quebec and Ontario prohibit the sale of specified chemicals for lawn care. But New Brunswick and PEI ban the use of chemicals applied through hose-end nozzles, which also covers less dangerous products HRM and Nova Scotia want to encourage people to use, like corn gluten. The proposed Nova Scotian law is more in line with the Quebec and Ontario laws.

The Department of Environment has published a discussion paper on the proposed law (tinyurl.com/NSPesticides), and wants public input before March 7. —TB

A gigantic chunk of the Chebucto Peninsula---8,266 hectares known as the Five Bridge Lakes---took a step toward official wilderness protection Friday, when the province kicked off the public consultation period required for the designation. The land in question is mostly contiguous crown land bounded roughly by highways 103 and 333. It does not include a large parcel of HRM-owned land known as the Western Common (see map), but the city is supportive of the wilderness designation and has long-term plans to turn its land into a park.

The proposed wilderness area is bisected by the Old Coach Road, a rough gravel trail that once provided the only land connection between Halifax and the small communities on St. Margarets Bay. Under the proposal, that trail and a north-south fire road would remain open to all-terrain vehicles, but the other trails in the area, including the Bluff Wilderness Trail, would be off-limits for ATVs.

With wilderness protection recently given to Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes, just to the north, the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness would make the Halifax Metro area unique in Canada in terms of large wilderness areas so close to an urban area.

You can learn more about the proposal at thecoast.ca/bites; at displays at three public libraries (Tantallon, Spring Garden, Alderney Landing) through March and at an open house at the Dal Student Union, March 10, 11am-2pm. The public comment period closes April 30. —Tim Bousquet

Should Sable Island become a tourist attraction? Earlier this month, federal environment minister Jim Prentice sparked a controversy when he announced the government is considering making the remote island off Nova Scotia's coast a national park. The idea of herding tourists onto the island raises concerns about putting its fragile ecosystem at risk.

Parker Donham of Contrarian.ca, well-known locally as a columnist and commentator, started a "Hands Off Sable Island" Facebook group, which has over 2,000 members. And the national park announcement surprised environmental groups, including the Sable Island Green Horse Society, which is dedicated to educating the public about the ecologically sensitive island.

Sable Island is currently protected under the Canada Shipping Act and, in practical terms, by its location and treacherousness. It takes dedication, money and expertise to land a boat or plane there. The island's few visitors are greeted by a handful of staff scientists, who guide them lightly.

But Mark Butler, policy director at the Ecology Action Centre, sees advantages to a national park designation, if implemented properly. National parks come with money, which would allow scientists to continue their research. It could also mean a Sable Island interpretive centre in Halifax.

"There are national parks in the north with very limited infrastructure," Butler says. "It's possible to do it without it being an amusement park."

The EAC is waiting to see a management plan before it takes a position on the matter, but Butler has issues with the process. "They're assigning a task force to make the decision before consulting the public. The public should make the decision."

The Green Horse Society is hosting a public meeting about all things Sable Island, 7pm Wednesday, March 3, at Saint Mary's University.

This morning, as I walked over to the Gottingen Street YMCA with the Halifax North Memorial Library women's group and MP Megan Leslie, I was thinking about Halifax artist Cathy Busby's project Sorry. Her exhibition of public apology photographs and text—from Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction to Stephen Harper's apology to First Nations Canadians—has shown around the world. We live in a media-saturated society where there is a formula for public atonement: Tiger Woods needs practice, I'm afraid. Peter Kelly didn't even deliver the only apology today—Yoshimi Inaba, CEO of Toyota, announced that he is "deeply sorry" for his company's malfunctioning cars.

• Peter Kelly delivering the formal apology.

Is it just words?

"You lost your houses, your church, all of the places where you gathered with family and friends to mark the milestones of your lives. For all that, we apologize."

Say what you will about the delivery of the speech or the words themselves, but I thought Kelly delivered a surprisingly straightforward, direct statement. Read the full text here. It was Reverend Rhonda Britten who delivered the most impassioned speech, using a powerfully chosen war analogy: "I know that there are some among us who are wounded, and some among us who bear those scars. But, in spite of all of that, the victory has been won...We must forgive and must push forward."

• Former Africville resident Brenda Steed-Ross.

This was an emotional day, one that many people thought would never arrive. For an excellent background, take a historical look back with Stephen Kimber, and wait for his story about the Black Loyalist Heritage Society's proposal for a new museum, which comes out in tomorrow's paper.

• Peter Kelly presents Irvine Carvery, Africville Geoneology Society president, with the formal apology.

Along with the apology, of course, there was the announcement of:
-$3 million towards the reconstruction of Seaview United Baptist Church and an interpretive centre, backed by $1.5 million from the provincial government and $250,000 from the feds
-2.5 hectares of land at Seaview Park to be given to the Africville Heritage Trust
-the renaming of Seaview Park to Africville
-designation of an African Nova Scotian Affairs function by HRM

• Peter Kelly gives the numbers.

• Irvine Carvery is met with applause and boos.

It was no surprise that there was a small group of protesters in the room that occasionally became vocal, but not overpowering: The compensation package is being legally challenged by a group of citizens with ties to Africville. The claim is that Irvine Carvery and the Africville Genealogy Society negotiated directly with the city, which was not constituted by former residents and their descendants. For the most part, the meeting itself remained civil, with little disruption. But this story is far from over. I'm sure the analysis will continue, and I look forward to what others have to say about today, but right now, I feel lucky that I was there to witness this historic moment.