As we look toward the future of our community, it is becoming increasingly clear that climate change is not just a distant goal—it is a present reality. The 2023 wildfire season in Nova Scotia, including the devastating Upper Tantallon fire, served as a stark reminder of this, highlighting wildfire as an emerging climate risk that demands immediate attention.
Following the devastating Upper Tantallon wildfires of May 2023, the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) has undertaken a rigorous review process. These independent After-Action Reports (AARs) provide a transparent look at the collective response. The goal of these reviews is simple: to save lives and protect property more effectively by embedding "continuous quality improvement" into our emergency management framework.
This budget was the budget nobody wanted, but the final vote (or ratification) on the budget is not a vote on whether you agree with it, it's the last and final step in a process that began in July. Budget ratification represents previous council decisions and dozens and dozens of debates on BAL overs and BAL unders, and the outcome of those debates determines what we ratify. The average single-family household residential total tax bill including provincial and mandatory rates will increase 7.5%.
At the Feb 24 Regional Council meeting, Councillor White put forward a motion on development fees (link here), asking for the CAO to engage with the province to consider raising development charges. Development charges are one-time fees collected by municipalities from developers to fund the initial capital costs of essential services like roads, water systems, parks, fire services - infrastructure required to support new growth and services for a community.
For many residents in our region, "public transit" is something they see in the urban core but can’t actually use. Currently, over 1,000 square kilometers of the Halifax Regional Municipality currently sits outside the reach of conventional bus routes. Historically, this is because transit priority has been attached to the urban service boundary (where there is sewer and water service), where Rural Transit Providers (like BayRides) offer door-to-door transit services in their associated catchment area.