When I left Vancouver a year ago to settle into my new life here in Halifax, I was so relieved to think of never having to speak in front of city council ever again. Seven long years of fighting for livability and affordable housing in Metro Vancouver left me drained, depressed and defeated. Leaving all […]
City Hall
Posted inNews + Opinion
Elmwood saved from the wrecking ball
One of the oldest buildings in Halifax without official heritage status is getting another shot at life thanks to its new owners. Galaxy Properties is working with HRM’s heritage team to try and save the Elmwood, and it looks like it might actually happen. “I think the odds are very good,” says municipal planner Aaron […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A decade late, Halifax police close the book on its Drug Exhibit Audit
Jim Perrin isn’t happy with the results of the final Drug Exhibit Audit, but he’s confident Halifax Regional Police will be a “better police department” because of its findings. The Criminal Investigations Division superintendent presented his final audit update to the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday, closing the book on a two-year black eye […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cornwallis panel nominee’s sexual assault conviction
One of the names put forward to judge the actions of Edward Cornwallis has a violent history of his own. Chief Wilbert Marshall, who has been selected by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs to help lead Halifax’s examination of the city’s controversial founder, was himself convicted of sexual assault 10 years ago. Marshall […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Regional Main Streets plan pitched for HRM’s suburban and rural growth
Several citizen and economic advocacy groups joined together Tuesday morning in asking for a new strategy when it comes to guiding development in HRM: the Regional Main Streets Plan. The proposal would group together several separate planning documents—many of which haven’t been updated in decades—into a single strategy for HRM’s growth throughout both the suburban […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province wants extra $300,000 from HRM for new Convention Centre
The province wants HRM to reimburse it for $301,500 in transition costs for the new Halifax Convention Centre that it says was the municipality’s responsibility to 
pay. City staff, however, aren’t so sure about that. In a somewhat tautological statement to The Coast, finance manager Bruce Fisher says city hall is reviewing the bill’s validity. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s Indigenous advisor talks Cornwallis, council and reconciliation
The wave of reconciliation is shallow, but it’s spreading. So says Wyatt White, the Halifax Regional Municipality’s first-ever Indigenous advisor. White, who hails from the Listuguj Mi’kmaq First Nation on the New Brunswick/Quebec border, is a former aboriginal affairs advisor to Environment Canada and to the provincial department of Education. He recently sat down with […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Wheels in motion at the Halifax Cycling Coalition
Over the last decade, the Halifax Cycling Coalition has helped shape this city’s streets. The citizen advocacy group has fought—quite literally block-by-block—for better, safer cycling infrastructure in HRM. Its biggest win came just recently, with the approval of the Integrated Mobility Plan and designs for a connected bike lane grid across Halifax and Dartmouth by […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Here’s to what Halifax is getting right
Most of the news in 2017 has been spent documenting and/or trying to hide from all the horrible garbage fires happening around us. Here, at the end of the year, we instead wanted to raise a glass of kindness to those who are making this city better—the local points of lights in an otherwise abysmally […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
New home for Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre moving forward
Regional council approved an agreement Tuesday to sell the former Red Cross property on Gottingen Street to the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Society. Terms and conditions of the deal are contained in a confidential report that wasn’t released to the public, but what is known is that the sale will be at market value and is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Rebuilding trust in Beechville
Armco Capital has a lot of work ahead if it wants to earn back the trust of Beechville residents for the company’s new subdivision. Helping ease the tensions built up from 200 years of false promises and racist planning decisions is Joachim Stroink, the former MLA who made national headlines in 2013 after posing for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City councillors square-off over Segways on the ferry
Limiting the number of cyclists allowed on Halifax Transit ferries isn’t nearly as much of a concern for one city councillor as whether or not Segways will still be allowed aboard. Matt Whitman—who is not part of the Transportation Standing Committee—sat in on Thursday’s meeting and repeatedly went to bat for letting users of the self-balancing […]
