As I reported two weeks ago, the Halifax council was poised to adopt a 2008-2009 budget with exactly $0 for new street tree planting and bikeways. At the last moment, however, council dedicated $135,000 to the trees program. That about pays for replacing trees that will die over the same period, but doesn’t begin to address the loss of over 4,000 street trees by Hurricane Juan, nor the absence of street tree programs in pre-amalgamation Bedford and other areas. We’re still falling behind, much less moving ahead, on the tree front.
And council found no money at all for the bikeways program.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2008.