Money matters
After weeks of humming and hawing and much discussion, council has approved the 2025/26 municipal budget.
The budget includes municipal operations, Regional Council-approved priority initiatives and investments to purchase, construct and rehabilitate municipal assets. Basically, all of the costs associated with running (and hopefully growing) Halifax.
The 2025/26 municipal budget includes an operating budget of $1.33 billion and a capital budget of $314 million. The residential tax rate remains unchanged at $0.77 per $100 of assessment.
Mayor Andy Fillmore says the budget reflects the collective commitment to controlling costs for residents and businesses and to building a stronger, more resilient Halifax. “By keeping the tax rate flat while investing in core services, transit, community safety and critical infrastructure we’re striking a balance that supports residents today and sets the stage for long-term growth,” said Fillmore.
Ok, sure.
Due to the increase in property assessment values, the municipal portion of the residential tax bill will increase by 4.7 per cent. The average residential tax bill will increase by 5.2 per cent—or approximately $117. This is based on the average single-family home assessment value of $338,500.
For an in-depth look at the budget—including all associated budget resources—you can visit halifax.ca/budget. But here are some of the highlights:
- Enhancing community safety by adding 20 new firefighters
- Addressing increased community policing needs by hiring 14 additional RCMP officers
- Providing greater support to youth by expanding the Youth Advocate Program
- Enhancing transit services by extending the service life of 10 buses
- Ensuring effective management and planning of significant infrastructure projects by creating the Office of Major Projects and the Office of Strategic Infrastructure & Transportation Planning
- Increasing support to not-for-profit groups by an additional $2 million
- Strengthening the municipality’s response to mental health and crisis situations by establishing a community crisis diversion team
- Approving the Windsor Street Exchange redevelopment project, with construction commencing in 2025/26
So long X, it’s been real
Council also voted to phase out X—the artist formerly known as Twitter—accounts officially used by the municipality, citing concerns over perceived toxicity on the site and the owner’s close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In February, Councillor Laura White brought forward a motion asking for a staff report looking into the feasibility of discontinuing official municipality X accounts. That motion passed 13-to-three.
Council recently received the completed report that recommended discontinuing all eight active X accounts—totalling 243,545 followers. The city’s corporate accounts will transition to Bluesky—a social media platform that started as a research project at Twitter in 2019, but became independent in 2021.
The report highlighted Bluesky as an alternative with a similar interface to the older platform, the ability for people to see posts without signing in, transparent content moderation and select built-in analytics available at no cost.
The report also conducted two surveys that found 10 per cent of social media users in the region have started using Bluesky in the last year, making it the most common emerging platform.
Council voted 16-1 in favour of the motion on Tuesday, with Councillor David Hendsbee being the sole dissenting vote—saying that he doesn’t like censorship of any sort. “Even though X might have some revolting opinions from time to time, I’d like to maintain use of it because it has a broader penetration with the marketplace,” said Hendsbee.
Cool, but nobody agrees.
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2025.