Like many of you, I raised a quizzical eyebrow reading “51st state of mind,” Michael Kennedy’s recent opinion article in The Coast. His arguments for Nova Scotia’s exit from confederation are purely financial, an exercise in citing percentages and decimal points that, in my opinion, neglects the people at the heart of the issue: Nova […]
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
Councillor Cuttell throws spanner in big-vehicle parking plan
Halifax’s Transportation Standing Committee is meeting Thursday, Jan 23. On the agenda is a staff report that recommends to the committee that they not implement a policy that would help council achieve its strategic priorities. For a bit of background, in July of last year councillor Shawn Cleary put forward a motion asking for a […]
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The Board of Police Commissioners needs to be more pro-police
Wednesday, Jan 15’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting featured strong showings from veteran commissioner Yemi Akindoju and rookie Virginia Hinch. But in spite of a few good arguments against, the board, predictably, rubber-stamped both the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP draft budgets for 2025/26 on to council with very little scrutiny. Related The RCMP stand […]
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The beauty of human frailty wrapped in universal form
“In those trancelike moments, I wondered at the personal nature of perception,” writes Nova Scotian artist, Dawn MacNutt, on being transfixed as a child by the light streaming through her grandmother’s coloured stained glass windows, in a new memoir and exhibition catalogue, Timeless Forms. Her book coincides with the artist’s sprawling retrospective show by the […]
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The cold truth about warmer Halifax winters
It’s January 2024 and my sneakers are wet. The rubber soles gave up months ago, meaning the three inches of mud and puddle water underfoot is seeping right into my socks as I clomp toward Susies Lake on a blue-grey morning that feels like it could be April. My feet, I imagine, have already taken […]
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Everything you need to know about Halifax council’s Jan 14 meeting
Halifax’s city council met on Tuesday, Jan 14, for a painfully boring meeting. A lot of the debate was on things like survey methodology, what the Property Valuation Services Corporation does, and not double-checking technical documents. If this meeting were a game of soccer, it’d be a comfortable 1-0 victory against a team we should […]
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It’s time for gender-based violence campaigns to target men
On January 9, the provincial government—via justice minister Becky Druhan—announced a new public awareness advertising campaign to combat gender-based violence. The move comes after six women—and one victim’s father—have died at the hands of their partners over the past three months in Nova Scotia. “People need to understand that they’re not alone, and that resources […]
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School workers in contract talks feel “unheard and undervalued” by province
New year, new deal? Not yet for roughly 5,000 school support staff in Nova Scotia. These are bus drivers, educational program assistants, library support specialists, early childhood educators, custodians and Indigenous or African Nova Scotian student support workers. They’re represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and they’re “frustrated with the province” as bargaining […]
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Planning to fail, an HRM strategic plan update
Halifax’s city council is meeting on Tuesday, Jan 14, and the agenda is pretty interesting. In addition to the stuff they’ll debate, there is a written report updating council on the progress of Halifax’s strategic plans. The city’s bureaucracy seems to really be struggling with implementing its strategic plans. Of the council’s priorities that […]
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Rising property taxes and more expected from Halifax council agenda
Everyone’s favourite administrative body, the Property Valuation Services Corporation, will present the new property tax numbers to this week’s regular meeting of city council, Tuesday Jan 14. If this year is like every other year, assessments will go up and in the coming 2025/26 financial year the average tax bill will be going up a […]
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Public begs Board of Police Commissioners for competent governance
Wednesday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting was one for the record books, as the embattled board struggled to maintain its legitimacy in the face of withering public scrutiny. But the board’s struggles with legitimacy didn’t start on January 8 during the public participation phase of the 2025/26 municipal budget process. Instead, they can be traced […]
