What started out as just a realm of entertainment, information and chat rooms, the internet has evolved into a gateway for accessing basic public services, and educational and economic opportunities. It is a lifeline that connects people to society; and society to them. Imagine searching for a job, applying for an apartment or even trying […]
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
How much death is enough?
We all know what happened in Nova Scotia on April 19 and 20, 2020. The events of those fateful days are etched into our collective consciousness; a stain on our very fabric. A 51 year-old man—in a car he designed himself to look like an RCMP vehicle—went on a murder rampage, killing 22 people and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council sends police tank to budget playoffs
Right off the gate on Friday’s continuation of Wednesday’s Halifax Capital Budget debate, councillor Shawn Cleary took the police tank out of budget and put it on the Budget Adjustment List (BAL). For new followers of municipal budget season, the budget adjustment list debates are the playoffs of budget season. Throughout the budget season […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The high cost of low taxes
Halifax’s budget committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb 5 was spicy. The meeting, which is technically still on-going and will resume Friday, Feb 7 at 9:30am, started this year’s budget debates and officially kicked off budget season. This year Halifax is expected to have a budget of $1.3 billion, and the revenue gap is $69 million. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Alehouse, HFX Sports Bar & Grill facing demolition
Three months after the Halifax Alehouse poured its last draught, the pub—and the 132-year-old building it called home—could soon meet its end with a wrecking ball. Months after the property and its neighbouring bar, HFX Sports Bar & Grill, changed hands amid a homicide investigation involving an Alehouse bouncer and the two venues’ forced closures […]
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Premier Houston, take off the CAP
The biggest worry for any municipal politician is increasing property taxes. Budget season is often the only time many voters will think about regional council; the most important voting bloc are homeowning seniors; and the pressure to limit property tax (which funds most of HRM’s budget) is intense. In Nova Scotia, limits to property tax […]
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Police board still dodging blame for 2021 shelter siege
Five months after a bombshell report laid the blame for Aug 18, 2021’s shambolic shelter siege at the feet of Halifax Regional Police and the HRM, the oversight board that’s supposed to police the former on behalf of the latter seems to want nothing to do with it. On Monday, Feb 3, Halifax’s Board of […]
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Trade war, transportation, and you: A Halifax budget season preview
At the 11th hour, a temporary ceasefire deal was reached in the dumbest trade war in history. Hostilities between Canada and the USA are set to resume next month. Should the cold trade war become hot, it will have catastrophic impacts on the Canadian economy, although since most of our economic models are designed to […]
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Scholar Elizabeth Bearden gives second lecture in King’s College series on representations of disability.
This Tuesday evening, Feb 4, visiting English professor Elizabeth Bearden will give the second lecture in a new series from the University of King’s College, “Representations of Disability in Historical, Scientific and Artistic Perspectives.” Related Bearden is a professor of early modern literature and disability studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her talk will reflect […]
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Ending harmful use of non-disclosure agreements means changing the culture
“It’s the culture that determines if non-disclosure agreements are allowed to be used,” says Kristina Fifield, a trauma therapist in Nova Scotia who is leading an NDA-informed training session on Tuesday, Feb 4, from 11am-12pm. It’s organized by the advocacy group Can’t Buy My Silence. NDAs are “gag order” agreements that are frequently used in […]
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What’s with Andy? Frustrated Fillmore turns to Facebook after losing Windsor Exchange vote
One thing has become rather clear in the three months since Andy Fillmore was sworn in as Halifax’s latest mayor: The man does not like to lose. Can’t accept it, it seems. Since taking over from Mike Savage on November 6, 2024, riding a campaign where the former Ottawa backbencher claimed 42% of the mayoral […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax city staff’s status quo sedition
One of the most important things revealed at Tuesday’s council meeting, although it slipped by pretty quietly under all the headlines about the death of the Windsor Street Exchange, was the extent to which staff in the city’s bureaucracy are undermining the will of council and the integrity of our municipal democracy. But that’s pretty […]
