First-time buyers looking to establish roots in Halifax are increasingly considering condos, says Andrew Perkins, a realtor specializing in the burgeoning condominium market. “Young professionals are especially buying condos,” says Perkins, who says they used to be more for retirees—after the kids left, people would sell their house in the west end and move downtown. […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Oval is permanent
Halifax council voted Tuesday to make the Common skating oval permanent, with only Dartmouth councillors Gloria McCluskey and Darren Fisher opposing. The permanent Oval will be placed at a lower grade than was last winter’s temporary Oval, with piping and electrical work placed beneath a concrete pad that will be used in the summer for […]
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Concert loan scandal documents
In the public interest, I’ll post all the concert loan scandal documents I have for readers to peruse on their own. First, is Cathie O’Toole’s memo to city council’s audit committee, which originally revealed the existence of the improper loan arrangement. The Attachment C to that memo is a schedule of the loans made in […]
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Update: Trade Centre gave wrong date to city
After publishing today’s article showing a discrepancy between the reported date of a Trade Centre Limited loan to Power Promotions and the date of the the city’s authorization for that loan, a spokesperson for TCL finally contacted The Coast to give their version of events. Suzanne Fougere acknowledged that The Coast followed all reporting protocols—we […]
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Breaking news It only looks like… Trade Centre Limited loaned Power Promotions $600,000 without city approval
Update, 2:35pm: Trade Centre blames sloppy paperwork and misplaced cell phone for the miscommunication that resulted in the article below. See here for the latest information [image-1] Up to now, the official narrative on the concert loan scandal is that it was all Wayne Anstey’s fault: For several years, the city’s deputy CAO acted alone and without authority to advance $5.6 million to concert promoter Power Promotions through a Metro Centre bank account. Mayor Peter Kelly was involved in discussions with Anstey and Power’s Harold MacKay, but Kelly says he knew nothing about the improper loans—it was all Anstey’s doing,
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Where did Harold MacKay get his numbers?
Failed concert promoter Harold MacKay told the Chronicle-Herald that the economic impact for last year’s Black Eyed Peas and Country Rocks shows was worth the loss to the taxpayer: The two shows that we did not make money on, and we lost money on, generated $13 million in economic spinoff,” he said in an interview. […]
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The changing face of Gottingen Street
A construction fence has gone up around the old Diamond’s Bar on Gottingen Street, and workers are tearing out the insides of the building right now. It looks like the whole thing will be coming down in the next few days. Next to be razed is the former Mitchell’s Environmental Treasures building three doors down. […]
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Peter Kelly’s failure of will
Ninety-one-year-old Mary Thibeault died in her mobile home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on December 7, 2004. A former motel manager, Thibeault was evidently frugal. She had saved about a half-million dollars in cash, which she had squirrelled away in bank accounts, and had acquired two tiny properties—one in her native Halifax, one in Florida—worth a […]
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Metallica on the Halifax Common?
[image-1] Last Friday, Trade Centre Limited’s Scott Ferguson told me that all the Common concert attendance figures were given to “the city” immediately after each show. That would be consistent with the city’s Common concert policy adopted by a unanimous vote of council on March 6, 2007. Specifically, the policy says that: • Each major concert will be considered on a case by case basis. • In making decisions Council will have available [for] review reports of all previous concerts on the Common from the HRM Special Events Task Force. • Council will consider opening the North Common for major
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O’Toole: I want to see the auditor general’s report
“I’m so happy!” are the first words out of Cathie O’Toole’s mouth when I call to ask about her resignation as Halifax’s chief financial officer. O’Toole was the city official who refused to sweep the concert loan improprieties under the bureaucratic carpet and instead alerted city legal staff and the auditor general, leading to the […]
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Did TCL act properly?
The improper loans to Power Promotions were funnelled through the Metro Centre, a city-owned facility that is managed by Trade Centre Limited. Officials at TCL have said that they were under no obligation to vet the appropriateness of the loans—the city owns Metro Centre, so when city official Wayne Anstey called them up and directed them to loan Power Promotions money from Metro Centre accounts, they simply complied without asking questions. But what if Anstey had called and directed TCL to cut a cheque to his wife? Would TCL have complied without question? What exactly are TCL’s responsibilities to vet
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Cathie O’Toole resigns
[image-1] City finance director Cathie O’Toole has tendered her resignation, effective April 9. I wrote the below blog post this afternoon, and it was sitting in the queue to go live on our website as I learned that O’Toole has quit. I just had a long conversation with O’Toole, and will write more tomorrow. All the below, and more, still stands. The Common concert financing scandal is tainting the reputation of nearly everyone involved: mayor Peter Kelly, now-former acting CAo Wayne Anstey, Anstey’s predecessor Dan English, Trade Centre Limited’s Scott Ferguson and the city itself. But one person will come