At this week’s Halifax Regional Council meeting, District 7 councillor Waye Mason got a last-minute item added to the agenda, concerning HRM’s upcoming review of rental requirements. Mason asked for the review to include bylaw options for strong penalties “up to and including the maximum statutory amount”—which is $10,000—”and rapid responses to mediate any unit where […]
Caora McKenna
Caora was City Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from city hall to police and housing issues. She started with The Coast in 2017, when she was the publication’s Copy Editor.
Posted inLifestyle
How to get a handle on the booze blues this holiday
One good thing about big social gatherings being cancelled this holiday season is you’re gifted the absence of morning-after booze blues. You can look forward to no longer agonizing over every minute detail you shared with a quasi-acquaintance at your friend’s work holiday party the second you wake up. Nor worrying whether you spoke too […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pour one out for the Halifax renters left behind
Light a candle for the hundreds of Halifax renters who had to move in the last few years because their rent increased by 10 or 15 or 22 or 33 or 45 percent when it came time for lease renewal. The increase notice, delivered in writing, at least four months before the renewal date, fell […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia announces temporary rent control
You read that right. The Nova Scotia government has introduced temporary rent control measures to address the rampant housing crisis in this town. At a tele-press conference on Wednesday, municipal affairs and housing minister Chuck Porter gave the details. Here’s what you need to know: Rents cannot increase by more than two percent a year. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Three local organizations get government cash to provide affordable housing
Halifax Regional Council gave the green light to three affordable housing projects this week. The city got money to pay for the projects from the federal government’s rapid housing initiative; the funding was earmarked for at least 28 units to the tune of $8.65 million. And with the number of people who are unhoused in Halifax doubling […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Here’s what happened at council this week
Another day, another dollar, another look at the use of Micmac instead of Mi’kmaq in Halifax. As usual, The Coast live-‘grammed Tuesday’s council meeting on our Instagram stories—click here to see what happened in real time—but we hope you enjoy this recap, too. On the heels of the landmark report from the Task Force on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s board of police commissioners OKs committee to look at reimagining policing
With a proposal that insists on all kinds of community engagement—even from those wholly opposed to the idea— Halifax’s board of police commissioners moved the process for community consultation on defunding the police forward this week. After a messy start, the board’s request for a committee made up of community stakeholders to look at a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
HRM hopes landlord registry will make a dent in the rental housing crisis
Clutch your pearls, landlords of Halifax. This week at its regular Tuesday meeting, Halifax Regional Council passed the second reading of updates to bylaw M-200, which outlines the standards for residential occupancies based on the basic foundation that people should live in a place that’s “safe, warm, dry.” The long-awaited move tightens the rules around what’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Take Halifax’s budget survey and have your say on how money’s spent
Every year, Halifax Regional Municipality presents a proposed budget to councillors, and councillors then vote on that budget. And every year HRM works to make citizen engagement a bigger part of that process. From now until December 14, a survey that wants to know what you think Halifax does well—and what it does poorly—is live […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
We love how the Trellis Collective brings pedal power to the pandemic
What was the nicest thing you saw during the pandemic? “My neighbour started fixing up a bunch of bikes for kids in the complex to ride! So many kids are zooming around now.” That neighbour was Grade 11 Citadel High student Mohammad Aljenadi who, with the help of his friend Sam Kamminga, is part […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
We love that Halifax knows Black Lives Matter
Kate Macdonald remembers the peculiar quiet of 6,000 Haligonians trying their best to hear the words being spoken out of a PA system that was not expecting such a huge turnout. The crowd, assembled along Spring Garden Road on the first Monday in June, was there to take a knee for eight minutes and 46 […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
We love that Halifax’s library loves us back
We asked Shannon Hansen, a community library assistant at Halifax North Memorial Public Library, to pick one moment that describes the spirit of Halifax Public Libraries and why it’s the best. “You’re saying pick one moment,” he says, “but I have those kind of moments every day.” Hansen has spent the last eight months—along […]