Thanks to Liberal member of Parliament Andy Fillmore talking to some of his constituents about municipal politics, the Transportation Standing Committee started with a lot of public speakers talking about the city’s ongoing water main replacement around Coburg Road. Part of this work includes building a mixed-use pathway on Coburg Road because it will save […]
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
R.I.P. Spring Garden Transit-only pilot, Dec 2021 – July 2024
The Spring Garden Transit-only pilot is dead for at least another year. On December 7, 2021, Halifax’s city council directed staff to develop a plan to make Spring Garden Road available only for buses. But even though city staff in the road safety world know that signs, education and enforcement don’t really change driver behaviour, […]
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Halifax spent $208,572 to offer three foreign workers private sector jobs
Sometimes, like when it comes to housing, Halifax’s city council cares a lot about not straying into what is provincial jurisdiction. Sometimes, like when it comes to labour, Halifax’s city council is more than happy to waste our tax money on things that are under provincial jurisdiction. At Thursday’s Community Planning and Economic Development standing […]
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Halifax’s bureaucracy fails two emergency readiness audits
On a muggy morning which promised a heat warning in the afternoon, Halifax’s auditor general turned up the heat early in council chambers at the Audit and Finance Standing Committee meeting of July 17, 2024. The city’s AG, Andrew Atherton, put the city’s feet to the fire as he dropped two reports, The Management of […]
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HRM passes road safety strategy allowing for social murder
In the name of road safety, urged on by “professional” traffic engineers, Halifax’s city council have approved a little bit of social murder. Social murder is a bit of an old concept first defined by Friedrich Engles in 1844 in his book The Condition of the Working Class in England and more recently reported on […]
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Halifax downgrades road safety framework
On Wednesday, June 19, Halifax’s Transportation Standing Committee met and watered down the city’s Strategic Road Safety Framework. During the debate, the HRM’s newly promoted executive director of Public Works, Lucas Pitts, told councillors that this new plan was an upgrade because it was a “systems-level approach” to road safety. When debating the new framework […]
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City staff go rogue, ignore council’s instructions
There was an item added to Tuesday’s council meeting and it was a bit of a stinker. As reported by the CBC there’s nowhere for the poop in septic tanks to go anymore. The one place close to the HRM in Hants no longer has space to accept everyone’s feces so now septic companies will […]
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Bodycams are coming to Halifax
After a few years of research city staff and the cops have figured out what is required for Halifax Regional Police to get body worn cameras. Body worn cameras are coming to Halifax with the RCMP and thanks to the direction given to police from the Board of Police Commissioners, the Halifax Regional Police are […]
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HRM cuts independent experts from policy making
Halifax’s city council is trying to modernize governance in the HRM. For those who have never really thought about how your government actually functions to shape your life, one main way legislative change happens is through the work of committees. In very general terms the role of a committee or board is to read a […]
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HRM messes up paperwork, bullies old man
In a part of Dartmouth that will soon be known as Port Wallace there’s a guy who runs a construction company. The company in question was founded by his father in the 1970s and when his father died the son continued on with his father’s business. The son is now a man in his 60s […]
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Political failure continues to cause homelessness
One of the single best sport tournaments in the world is the English Football Association Challenge Cup. The FA Cup is a domestic tournament to find out who the best team in England is. This year, as in most years, that title has gone to one of the teams in England’s highest league, Manchester United. […]
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Halifax to fix emergency response resilience
On Monday morning, the HRM’s Executive Standing Committee learned that Halifax’s municipal emergency management organizations are at risk of failing. The city hired KI Emergency Management to compare the HRM’s emergency response documents and plans to the best practices in the world of emergency management. They found that Halifax’s emergency management works well, but it […]