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“I find it interesting.” —The reason Graham Hicks (pictured above) gave for why he’s been attending council meetings for the last four decades (give or take a year). In recognition of Hicks’ efforts as a “dedicated observer,” Mike Savage presented a small plaque with Hicks’ name which will be affixed to a chair in the viewing gallery.
“Let us not be too sanguine.” —Councillor Reg Rankin, on Halifax’s economic future.
“Staff wasn’t trying to be mean…we were trying to protect the taxpayer.” —Councillor Tim Outhit, on insurance rules for sidewalk cafes.
FISCAL CLIFF NOTES
There was vigour yesterday at Halifax council, as discussions were had to try and define the city’s preliminary fiscal direction. Budget planning for the next year has just begun, and staff is looking for priorities and some broad directives to help shape that process. Information put to the committee of the whole says things aren’t too bad at the moment. We’re “pretty healthy,” and debt continues to decline. But council was warned trouble is brewing. Building permits and home sales are down, and next year’s capital budget is already projecting a $17-million deficit.
This spurred some brainstorming on money-making schemes. Some councillors wanted to look at removing the city’s property assessment cap, which is controlled by the province. Waye Mason argued the cap is making us uncompetitive compared to other cities, and wondered if staff could look at lifting it. The Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities has already made such a request to the province.
This was a lengthy debate on the fiscal policies of our city and it’s well worth checking out on the video replay (if you’re into that sort of thing). We’re still in very early days on budget talks, but councillors addressed a number of issues that are going to keep rearing their heads in coming months. Staff levels, capital project funding, the housing market, even tax reform all got a mention yesterday. There are plenty of storm clouds on the horizon.
Ultimately, council moved forward with a plan to prepare two budgets; one which assumes there will be a tax increase of 1.8 percent for inflation, and another shadow budget with no increase.
BAR RESCUE
Sandwiched between some in camera discussions last night was a short public hearing on amendments to HRM’s sidewalk cafe bylaws. Back in September, council gave first reading to the changes which would allow for year-long patios, and also require restaurants to up their insurance to $5 million. After some discussion, that amount was walked back to $3 million. But even that amount was too rich for representatives on hand last night.
Karla Nicholson, of the Quinpool Road Business Association, said the increase would decimate the restaurant industry, and “basically evaporate” any business reason to have a patio. Gordon Stewart, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia, and Paul McKinnon, of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, also spoke out against the insurance increase. Still, only three people speaking at the hearing (none of them actually restaurant owners) wasn’t the best evidence for the drastic impact this change would have.
“If I was a restaurant owner and this really bugged me, I’d be here in person,” Russell Walker said.
Reg Rankin put forward a motion to amend the changes, and drop the insurance requirement back down to $2 million. As the city’s solicitor pointed out, that’s essentially rescinding what council already voted on and approved a month ago. I’d go further and say if it’s just about supporting small businesses, why not drop the requirement down to $1 million? How about zero coverage? It should also be noted that under the changes staff proposed some restaurants would see a significant decrease in their fees (depending on area and size).
Waye Mason was in favour of the lowered insurance, but warned business owners that the industry standard is already heading closer to five. If staff comes back later with evidence that injury claims are exceeding the $2 million threshold, council will be forced to act.
The amendments passed, and patio season was also extended to November 15 (to capture that sweet Halloween and Remembrance Day money).
BITS AND BYTES
Council approved a report from the executive standing committee on changing the rules for the appointment of councillors to various public committees and boards. That brought about some debate on the best way to negate conflicts of interest. Jennifer Watts wondered why councillors were sitting on these boards in the first place.
“I don’t have to be a council appointee to engage with those groups on a regular basis,” she said.
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Stephen Adams wanted a two-year, $1 million dollar fund for repairing the 15 lighthouses the federal government doesn’t want anymore. That’s probably not enough, since just the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove (which the province wants to buy) will need $250,000 in repairs and remediation alone. The rest of council didn’t like naming a specific dollar amount, so the $1 million was removed and a staff report will be compiled.
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The city will issue an RFP to provide public Wi-Fi in Halifax; from the waterfront up to King’s College, and from SMU all the way north to Young. It’ll be a five to 10 year partnership where the service provider can generate additional revenue though online advertising and/or the “collection and sale of analytics.” I’ll have more on this in a blog post later today.
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We’ll finally close the Africville dog park by the end of December. Reg Rankin made a lot of dog jokes. David Hendsbee said “poop scoop.” Linda Mosher estimated there are 50,000 dogs in HRM.
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Council spent several hours in camera discussing the licensing of temporary signs and several other matters no one was allowed to hear about.
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A bunch of tenders were awarded yesterday by current-CAO Richard Butts, including close to $4.5 million to Dexter Construction alone. Knowledge Surge received $230,000 from the city for a truck-mounted fire training simulator (they were the only proponent to achieve the minimum 75 percent technical score). Elsewhere, FAAC Inc. came in 50 percent below the next closest bidder to win $59,000 for a firearms training simulator.
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Gloria McCluskey wants the city to investigate gas leaks. Reg Rankin wants to know the mystery behind Bayers Lake’s mystery walls.
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Overall grade: A—
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2014.
the RFP from wi-fi sounds very promising