[Image-1] Feast your eyes on the swank new multimillion dollar pavilion set to rise up beside the Oval next winter. Approved by city council earlier this week, the building is part of phase two of the Oval’s construction on the North Common. Once complete, it will house equipment, staff offices, washrooms and skate rental and […]
City Council
Posted inNews + Opinion
Everything you need to know about Halifax’s budget
[Image-1] No one was praying yesterday at City Hall, but there weren’t many moments of silence either. Despite a quiet period of reflection to open city council’s meeting (instead of the usual invocation), the preceding committee of the whole was swollen with chit chat. Finally, after months of high-level discussions and dozens of hours of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canada just told Halifax’s council to stop saying its prayers
[Image-1] Today the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that reciting prayers at municipal council meetings is a breach of religious neutrality and discriminates against public freedoms. It’s a decision that potentially could mean an end to Halifax Regional Council’s non-denominational “invocation.” The Supreme Court ruling originates in 2007, when a resident of Saguenay, Quebec […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Carry on Khyber (for six more months)
[Image-1] Khyber team…ASSEMBLE! Halifax city council has passed a motion opening the books and allowing the Khyber Arts Society, Friends of the Khyber and Neptune Theatre to create a plan for future use of the historic Halifax building. The group will now have access to building schematics, engineering reports and CAD drawings (documents they couldn’t […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter Kelly lets loose with his wildest fantasies
[Image-1] Westlock, Alberta is so barren these days. The town is still hibernating from winter’s last asphyxiating embrace. The tractor museum’s not even open until May. In that celibate desert, Peter Kelly has had plenty of time to think. An orgy of idle notions allegedly swirl around in his head. “What’s for dinner tonight?” “Need […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Howard Epstein knows what killed the NDP
[Image-1] A former backbencher and an ex-Halifax council member, retired politician Howard Epstein has now published a political memoir, Rise Again: Nova Scotia’s NDP on the Rocks. Among other things, Epstein’s book is the former MLA’s account of the New Democrats’ sole term in office before being knocked back to third-party status in the 2013 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City Council Report Card 2015
[Image-1] It’s coming up on three years since this colourful coterie of city councillors was elected to govern Halifax, and the cracks are beginning to show. Maybe everyone’s just smelling that fall 2016 election on the horizon, but personalities are finally bubbling up. Any 17 people forced to put up with each other for this […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Voices of the city (council)
[Image-1] Early last month we sent a small survey out to Halifax’s 16 councillors and mayor to learn a little bit more about them. It’s an exercise The Coast has offered for a few previous city council report cards, and always proves of tremendous value. After ten months of personally attending council meetings, there are […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Solar City might just keep on shining
[Image-1] Solar City, the renewable energy program that seeks to brings solar heating to thousands of Halifax homes, wants to expand. In a report to be given to council this Tuesday, city staff are recommending continuing the program for three years with an expanded budget that will offer solar options for electric and space heating. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Yes, the Khyber is still safe (for now)
[Image-1] Once again, the future of the Khyber building will be discussed at City Hall. Two information items are being presented to council today on the conditions of 1588 Barrington Street and the status of HRM’s arts incubator pilot project. Both items are raising familiar frustrations for friends of the Khyber. A press release yesterday […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mayor Mike Savage owes all of us an apology
[Image-1] Oh, Februshitty. Look what you’ve done to our fair city with your piles of snow and sheets of ice. Tensions run high as we mumble about beet juice and quibble over public versus private snow removal services. And so far, March isn’t cutting us much slack either. With crews working around the clock to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How to be a volunteer firefighter
[Image-1] One of the problems isolated at Halifax Fire and Emergency’s operational review last week was a scarcity of volunteer firefighters in some of the municipalities rural areas. Currently there are 459 volunteer firefighters across the entire HRM, with roughly 22 percent of those in the urban core. The fire department has been trying to […]
