Category: Council Updates

Cannabis Bylaw Amendments: A very busy day at Council with a long agenda. The issue that gathered the most attention was the proposed changes to the Parks and Nuisance bylaws to deal with the upcoming legalization of cannabis. The decision to legalize cannabis has been made by the federal government, …

Cogswell: The major item on Council’s plate actually preceded the regular agenda. It was the Committee of the Whole discussion on the 60% design plan for the Cogswell Interchange Lands. The Cogswell was built in the 1960s as the first interchange for the planned Downtown expressway (Harbour Drive). Harbour Drive …

Lancaster/Woodland: The main item on the agenda at Tuesday’s Council meeting for District 5 was my motion to have HRM and the Province cooperate on a design study for the intersection of Lancaster Drive, Woodland Avenue, Highway 118 and Mic Mac Boulevard. The reason that the design study needs both …

Dartmouth Crossing Residential: Before getting into Tuesday’s Council agenda, I wanted to spend a few minutes explaining a debate that we had on Thursday at Harbour East Community Council about residential development in Dartmouth Crossing. The developer of Dartmouth Crossing, North American Development Group, wants to construct two apartment buildings …

Budget: The most important bit of business that Council dealt with on Tuesday was the 2018/2019 budget. HRM’s budget is obviously more complex than a household’s, but some of the basic questions and decisions are the same: How much money is coming in and does that pay the bills? If …

A bit behind over the last few month on my council blogging. Catching up in this two-for-one that covers the April 10th and March 27th meetings. Convention Centre: Probably the biggest item in terms of public interest on April 10’s meeting was the Convention Centre. HRM and the Province are …

Willow Tree: The first half of Regional Council was all deferred business and included the return of the Willow Tree development at the corner of Quinpool and Robie. The motion on the floor from the January public hearing was whether to allow a 20 storey building on the property. During …

Implementing the Integrated Mobility Plan: The day at Regional Council was a big one for transportation, with both the South Park Street protected bike lane and the Gottingen Street bus lane up for consideration. The Regional Plan sets a goal of having 30% of trips in HRM made by walking, …

Budget 2018: For the last few months Council has been working through the 2018/2019 budget process and in our last Budget Committee we got our first look at the whole picture. The municipal budget is complicated in the details and impacts, but in a very basic way, it’s similar to how …