When Justin Trudeau first ran for office almost 10 years ago in 2015, he ran on a promise of helping those “in the middle class and those working hard to join it.” It is hard to define what the middle class is. The Brookings Institution believes it’s probably one of three things: A shared culture, […]
Matt Stickland
Matt spent 10 years in the Navy where he deployed to Libya with HMCS Charlottetown and then became a submariner until ‘retiring’ in 2018. In 2019 he completed his Bachelor of Journalism from the University of King’s College. Matt is an almost award winning opinion writer.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Unhoused with a full-time job in Halifax
Things were supposed to work out differently for Rae-Leigh MacInnes. The registered massage therapist should be living her best life, plying her trade in a picturesque, state-of-the-art clinic in the Annapolis Valley. But now, due to a series of completely normal minor mishaps, MacInnes has nowhere to live. MacInnes decided to move to the valley […]
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Raining on a climate parade
There’s a climate march happening in Halifax this weekend. Marches are happening in Nova Scotia a lot these days. Students marched at Province House to demand affordable places to live. But the provincial government said no. Education support workers have been marching at Province House to ask for living wages. So it’s no surprise that […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Wanderer Grounds is a new podcast by fans, for fans
Hello sports fans and people who think they might want to try out sports fandom! We here at the Coast are launching a new podcast! Martin and I are huge fans of the Halifax Wanderers FC, or rather, we want to be. We both come to our love of soccer honestly—both of us play, Martin’s […]
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The landlord registry is coming to Halifax on April 1, 2024
City Hall meetings are a little different these days since new CAO Cathie O’Toole took over. Her predecessor, Jaques Dubé, was a very public CAO, frequently speaking in HRM’s council meetings to explain the processes, often right before or right after a member of city staff had just given the same explanation in slightly different […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Property tax cap benefits the rich, costs cities
In this year’s budget, HRM’s council reduced the proposed property tax increase for single-family homes to 5.8% from the 8% initially proposed by staff, and the city will bring in more money this year than last. The reason Halifax is able to bring in more money from a lower rate is because house prices have […]
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Tim Houston and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad budget
Politicians don’t like to say what they mean anymore. It’s an annoying habit they’ve picked up over the years, but it’s one that helps them avoid accountability. Which, in turn, increases the odds they can screw up in office and still get re-elected. Being able to deflect questions is an important skill where avoiding accountability […]
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Province leaves rent cap loophole open for landlords
In a press conference Wednesday about proposed legislative changes, Colton LeBlanc, the provincial cabinet minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, said his government will extend Nova Scotia’s current rent cap through the end of 2025, and raise the cap on rent increases from 2% to 5% starting Jan. 1, 2024. When asked about landlords exploiting […]
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IPCC says act now to prevent global warming. HRM says nah.
The International Panel on Climate Change released a report last week. It’s pretty dire. Even though our politicians have spent years touting policies that will eventually fix climate change, they haven’t actually done much to implement them. This means the earth is on track to blow past its 1.5-degree warming threshold. The report warns our […]
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Halifax beefs up fire spending in Musquodoboit
The city’s final regular-season budget meeting was bleak. Fire chief Ken Stuebing often has depressing updates for HRM council, all of which generally revolve around the theme that Halifax’s growth has so far been unsustainable for his department. Stuebing spent a lot of time explaining how this is apparent in his department’s response time. Essentially, […]
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Here’s what happened at HRM council’s March 7 meeting
It’s hard to explain to the layperson how significant the start of this year has been in municipal politics in the HRM. How significant Tuesday’s council meeting may be in the history of policing in this city. In order to understand the significance of this meeting, we first need to understand the history of police […]
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It’s almost Halifax budget playoff time, baby!
HRM has one more budget meeting in its regular season, and then we’re into the budget playoffs! The budget playoffs are the meetings at the end of the budget process where council debates and decides what items get taken off the budget adjustment list and funded in the budget. Or, councillors will decide to take […]