Today, Halifax council met for a “workshop” on so-called “tax reform,” a proposal to jettison the time-honoured system of assessment-based property taxes and replace it with a fee-for-services system.
When the workshop was discussed by council last month, assurances were given that it would be open to the public. And it was, nominally. Only problem is, the public wasn’t actually told about the meeting: there were no press releases announcing it, no forewarnings at previous meetings, it wasn’t posted on the HRM website page listing council meetings, there was no notice to the press. To be sure, a loose agenda was posted on the “tax reform” page on the HRM website—at 4pm Friday afternoon. But no one would know to look for it there (certainly I didn’t). Basically, council just held a “public” meeting that was entirely conducted in secret.
It’s true that I found out about the meeting, but only because a councillor told me about it, seemingly on the sly. I didn’t get confirmation of when or where it was being held until Sunday afternoon. Absolutely nobody else who doesn’t receive a pay cheque from the city knew about it.
The city has several dozen recreation centres and other facilities to hold meetings in, including Halifax Hall in City Hall, right downtown, but some bureaucratic genius decided that for hosting the workshop it made more sense to rent a conference room in the basement of the butt-ugly Quality Inn overlooking the BiHi in Hammond Plains.
I ran into councillor Gloria McCluskey in the parking lot, and she immediately began cursing generally and bitching particularly about the cost of renting the QI. “I didn’t even know where this place was,” she screeched. “And good morning to you, too,” I replied.
Into the lobby and a teenager directed us down the stairs, through a doorway signed as the men’s washroom, past a meeting of the Carpenter’s Union and, finally, to a dumpy little room at the end of the dark, dank hallway.
I will say this, however: whatever architectural and urban planning sins Quality Inn has visited upon the citizens of Halifax, the hotel has managed to achieve that which escapes the city’s normal catering company—the breakfast and lunch spreads passed the all-important reporter-without-an-expense-account test. The muffins were downright moist, the sandwich meat was piled on beyond a wafer’s thickness, the pasta had real spices and the after-lunch chocolates provided enough excuse to wander the room occasionally instead of staring at PowerPoint presentations. I hate to quibble in the face of such surprising adequacy, but things could have moved right on up to the “competent” category had the beleaguered teenager brought more coffee.
And no, reviewing the food at city functions is not besides the point, Mr. Get On With It Already. There’s no justification whatsoever for it, but taxpayers shelled out real money for my lunch, and the very least I can do is report that there was some value returned for the expense. The point is especially relevant, considering we’re talking about a meeting nominally about taxes.
Oh yea, that reminds me, the meeting.
Well, it kind of wandered around a bit, covering old ground with abandon. The wise guy who booked the Quality Inn also shelled out some taxpayer dough for two “faciliators”—a cop named Bill Moore, and Cathy Somethingoranother, whose day job involves trying to whip provincial employees into order. They were nice enough folks, and of course came equipped with flip charts.
I wish I could tell you something substantial happened, but I think the entire point of the workshop was to bore councillors into submission. There was a brief flare up between Steve Streatch and Dawn Sloane, each yelling at the other to “shut up!” but otherwise it was people laughing at their own jokes, councillors congratulating each other for not behaving like douchebags and a bit of a gassy atmosphere resulting from the adequate lunch spread.
None of this is to say the workshop was unimportant. It’ll be matched by another one next week, and then the “tax reform” issue comes before a for-real and possibly announced public meeting of council, sometime in mid-December. I’ve written at length about the issue before (here, here and here), and when the issue comes front and centre, I’ll spell out exactly what it means for you, yep, you, personally.
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This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
Business as usual for the Halifax council.
Is the next workshop open to the public as well?
deyounk– yes.
Tim, I appreciate that you are probably trying to exaggerate for effect, but the Quality Inn overlooking the Bi-Hi is not in (or even near, really) Hammonds Plains, nor does Hammonds Plains ever touch the Bi-Hi. It takes less than 15 minutes to get there from Downtown, maybe an extra 5-10 minutes during peak traffic, and more to the point, is still within the boundaries of the City of Halifax prior to amalgamation.
Everything on the other side of the Westcliffe Diner is Hammond Plains, until you get to Truro, and then it’s New Brunswick.
So what the eff is a cop doing being a facilitator at a freaking info meeting on tax reform? What the heck does he know about our tax system? Is he a registered tax science person? Or was he there for crowd control? Oh, but I forgot. In this city, the cops know everything. Not only are they experts on animal bylaws, but now they’re brought in to explain the intricacies of tax reform to our woeful councillors. What a frickin’ joke.
The point was to have facilitators who knew nothing about taxes– they don’t have a dog in the hunt, and therefore can’t be accused of bias.
Even if a ‘good samaritan’ councillor told Tim about this, question is why didn’t they send out a note on their twitter feed (eg, Dawn Sloane) or Facebook, or via email to their people about this meeting?
Tim said
“I ran into councillor Gloria McCluskey in the parking lot, and she immediately began cursing generally…”
Absolutely not true.
You owe her an apology.
Can you let us know when this meeting is taking place? I would really like to attend.
What a disgrace, secret meeting deliberately attempoting to keep it from the publis.
I will say it agin, time to change the legislation and require all notices of meeting to be publishes at least 38 hours prior to the start time. And require a clear link on a website.
You can bet this nonsense goes on all over the province but we in HRM need to pressure Dexter to get with the programme and slap down this ‘secret’ nonsense.
On another issue, does anyone remember when Dexter and his buddies voted against the proposal to allow private construction and operation of a 4 pad hockey rink complex provided it was exempt from property taxes. Now the province will only give $2,000,000 and we are on the hook for the rest of the cost.
Go private and give them the tax break and give ourselves a tax break.
So Tim gets to lie.
Nice work, Lou.
I heard that ” Tim was drinking in the parking lot as he…”
Funny, I didn’t see anyone else in the parking lot.
For the record– McCluskey was in fact cursing under her breath, loud enough for me to hear. Light cursing, but cursing all the same.
As she does at council meetings.
Nothing wrong with that, imo. She’s got a gruffness to her that is refreshing.
Totally untrue, Tim. You do such good reporting, why embellish the story?
Matthew– I don’t know how you can accuse me of lying– a charge I take very seriously– when you weren’t there.
I think, though, that you probably are confusing a “curse” with an “obscenity.” That’s your problem, not mine.
I see you corrected it in the written form.
Curse “to utter curses; swear profanely”
That’s your problem, not mine.
“May a mangy dog lick you crab-infested genitals.” Curse or obscenity?
LOL Tim!!!!!!
Although the image is obscene, you have just been cursed, Matthew = p
So, one has to wonder, now, what curses Gloria McCluskey wished upon the others.
Perhaps:
May all the contents of your sporran belong to the taxman.
~Ancient Scottish Curse
(Sporran is the pouch/purse the Scottish Highlanders wear.)
I would like to thank Tim Bousquet for doing such a great job covering this whole story. The other local newspapers have hardly reported on it at all for some strange reason. As a homeowner who has friends who own homes, I seem to be the only one of us that has even heard about this tax reform proposal. The city has done a really, really good job making sure the majority of homeowners don’t have a clue what is coming down the pipe. You can be sure if they pass this ridiculous idea, heads will be rolling at city hall once people get their tax bills in the mail. If I wasn’t a homeowner myself who is set to be totally f***ed up the a** by this proposal, I would almost think it was funny.
We wouldn’t need “tax reform” if we didn’t have such a spendaholic out-of-control council. Most people I know have had their taxes increase 100% since HRM amalgamation. When we had 3 cities and a ratepayers association, there was pushback at Councils to keep taxes low, now it’s not even a consideration. HRM taxation is making our community unaffordable. When $4.5 million for the CWG bid isn’t even budgeted and Council takes on 10’s of millions in capital projects they are having an orgy of spending based on increased home assessments. The taxpayers aren’t using or asking for more services but we have a Council who have a windfall of taxes and they are determined to spend our money. Tax reform is a red herring devised to create confrontation. The real issue is to reduce taxes by 30-40%. We need a tax revolution.