Like most of Halifax’s recent budgets, deciding this year’s budget is not easy. Councillors are aware that Haligonians are struggling in record numbers so they’re trying to make sure every tax dollar spent is spent well. Or at least, that’s what they say they want. The Halifax Regional Police are asking for a few things […]
News + Opinion
Coast newspaper coverage of Halifax city news, breaking news, HRM municipal politics, city hall news, local business, downtown development, Dartmouth, Sackville, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Halifax councillors and the mayor
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council approves more firefighters to combat slow response times
There’s no official contest to determine which of Halifax’s business units’ budgets is the most depressing, but if there were, Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency would be annual contenders. In more than any other business unit, Halifax’s bad decision-making is most evident in fire chief Ken Stuebing’s $98-million fire department budget. Like they have been […]
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What’s next for Bloomfield?
Mountains of rubble piled high on Thursday morning at the same site where, less than a week ago, the former Bloomfield School stood. A hydraulic excavator sat parked inside temporary fencing off Agricola Street, its engine running. All around it, work crews shuffled about, cleaning up the wreckage from a weekend fire that tore through […]
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Auditor general’s university report in limbo as Tories bring forth sweeping changes in bill
Premier Tim Houston’s supermajority government could fire Nova Scotia’s top watchdog and censor her office’s reports as early as next week. The development comes just weeks before provincial auditor general Kim Adair is set to share the findings of her investigation into university funding in Nova Scotia. The audit, scheduled for release on March 4, […]
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“We are not going to get quieter,” advocates vow at march to end gender-based violence
You could hear the voices coming from two blocks away as dozens of demonstrators made their way down Barrington Street on Wednesday, Feb 19, descending on Grand Parade. Shouts of “End the silence, end the violence,” “No excuse for abuse” and “Education is prevention; systemic failures must be mentioned!” reverberated through Halifax’s downtown on the […]
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Halifax mayor vacations in the Caribbean as council debates homelessness
Last week, most of Halifax’s city council tried to debate the future of public safety services in the HRM. Only they were missing one key voice from those discussions: The mayor’s. While council waded through a bevy of issues over the course of two days, ranging from emergency response times to Halifax’s approach to homelessness, […]
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Back in black to school
Nova Scotia is home to 373 public schools, with more on the way. These are places of learning for more than 133,500 students. These students depend on school support workers: bus drivers, education assistants, library assistants, Mi’kmaq and Indigenous student support workers, custodians, early childhood educators and other roles integral to their school life every […]
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7 burning questions as Halifax Wanderers enter 2025 soccer preseason
Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar has had a busy winter. Two years and three months into his tenure with the Canadian Premier League soccer club, the 49-year-old is approaching the final year of his coaching contract with a familiar challenge: Winning games. It’s a challenge that has, at different times in the Etobicoke, Ont. […]
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Councillor Purdy asks city about integrating the Integrated Mobility Plan
Halifax’s aspirational and hopefully one-day transformative plan to solve congestion in Halifax got an assist from one of its biggest opponents this week, at Halifax Regional Council’s regular Tuesday meeting. Halifax’s Integrated Mobility Plan has not been implemented very well since first being passed in 2017, because city staff just can’t help themselves from prioritizing […]
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An injury to the soul, often overlooked
What is moral injury, and who experiences it? Moral injury describes “the persistent suffering, including shame or guilt, experienced by those who witness, perpetrate, or fail to stop acts of grievous harm,” write the co-organizers of two upcoming events on moral injury in frontline workers, Catherine Baillie Abidi and Ardath Whynacht. The injury is experienced […]
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Council approves capital budget, staff corruption
Halifax’s municipal council doesn’t normally meet on Fridays, except during budget season. That’s when Fridays are held open as a contingency meeting day, to be used as necessary when the debates about how to spend Halifax’s $1 billion-plus budget go long. This year, councillors are asking good questions to ensure that things are settled with […]
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Trio of art shows on Black resilience, faith, cultural pride opens at Dalhousie Art Gallery
This February, African Heritage Month, let the Dalhousie Art Gallery be a beacon for community power, intergenerational knowledge sharing and creative resistance. Let it be a salve for the isolating chill of not winter but the racist, fascist and systematic efforts to scapegoat, divide and erase communities, cultures and histories. From Feb 4 through Apr […]
