Regional Council agenda, February 11
One-HRM Parks and Rec Membership
An information report I asked for on a single HRM-wide membership for Parks and Rec facilities was back before Council. The idea is to break down the barriers between facilities.
At a fundamental level, there is no difference between Sportsplex, Canada Games Centre, Sackville Sports Stadium, the Forum, St. Margaret’s Centre, or Cole Harbour Place. They’re all owned by HRM, but with the exception of Sackville Sports Stadium, they’re all managed independently from HRM and each other by community boards. As a result, membership in one facility means nothing in another. A Sportsplex membership is useless for accessing Cole Harbour Place. This can be inconvenient for people who, for whatever life circumstances, would like to go to different facilities throughout the week or month. Maybe you live in Dartmouth, but work in Bayers Lake and want to swim at Canada Games during the day, but Sportsplex on the weekend. Maybe you’re at various HRM facilities for kid activities and want to work out while you wait. Maybe the scheduling of fitness classes has you going back and forth between facilities. There are a lot of reasons why a single home facility might not make sense for everyone.
Having such a siloed approach to membership is likely self-defeating for HRM as some folks might not opt for membership in any HRM facility. Private gyms, on the other hand, have figured this out and offer options for access at any location. It’s something that I think HRM really needs to change. The thought is that HRM should be more like a private-sector gym, where there are membership options that would provide some sort of access to all facilities.
HRM has had a one-membership model on the books for a number of years now, but aligning governance of the community run facilities and then the unexpected discontinuance of our Rec software have delayed implementation. I feared that the one-membership project was also suffering from just not being a priority. I was worried that it was really just sitting on the side of someone’s desk in the “will get to” pile, and so I made a motion to generate a report. It was time for Council to look under the hood of this one.
I’m pleased that the resulting staff report indicates that Parks and Rec has established a committee of staff and the various facility executive directors to implement one-membership. Staff are planning for a public survey and a report to Council with recommendations on how exactly a one-membership model might operate in HRM this year. So some good news, some sort of one-HRM membership is possible as early as 2026.
Neighbourhood Mediation
Council voted to add a neighbourhood mediation program to the budget adjustment list for additional consideration. The proposed mediation program would be a new service that would be funded by HRM and provided by the United Way. The idea behind the mediation program is to help resolve disputes between neighbours. Right now, a ton of municipal resources get tied up in disputes as neighbours weaponize the municipal complaint-based system. The amount of time spent by 311 operators, planners, bylaw officers, and police on disputes is considerable and sometimes the complaint that they’re responding to has little or nothing to do with the actual underlying issue. Some calls are purely retaliatory.
When complaints to HRM are weaponized, bylaw, planning and police are often poorly setup to resolve the underlying issue. Results are often unsatisfactory to both sides and complaints reoccur, reoccur and reoccur. I can think of a few instances in District 5 that I have encountered over the years that are at a constant simmer. Mediation could free up municipal resources and also get at the root cause of disputes, potentially generating better outcomes for everyone. A mediation program would align really well with ideas around reforming public safety so that police aren’t being used as the catch-all for every societal problem when there are potentially better options.
A number of my Council colleagues had some concerns about the $100,000 cost of the one year pilot. To me, $100,000 is a bargain considering what we’re already spending, often ineffectively, on disputes. Council will consider the mediation program again when the budget adjustment list comes before us on March 19.
Twitter:
Council approved a request for a staff report from Councillor White to look at HRM quitting twitter. This one generated a fair bit of interest! HRM isn’t the only municipality where this issue is being considered. North Vancouver recently made the decision to withdraw from twitter due to concerns around how toxic the space has become and falling engagement from local residents. A staff response to Councillor White’s motion will come back in future.
From my own anecdotal experience, twitter isn’t what it was. I joined twitter in 2012 and found it to be a great tool for keeping up on what was going on in the community and having discussions. That remained true after I became a Councillor, but the quality of the space has dramatically declined in recent years, really since Elon Musk bought it and turned it into X. I find X less and less useful, much more toxic, and I no longer check it as regularly as I once did. Facebook and reddit are the places that I most frequent now, although I have recently joined Bluesky @samaustind5. I have been thinking of just jettisoning twitter altogether as many of my colleagues have. I very much get where Councillor White’s motion is coming from.
HRM’s considerations are a bit bigger since, as an organization, how HRM uses twitter isn’t really the same as how an individual does. HRM’s main purpose is to share information. I think it is worth looking at whether it still makes sense for HRM to be active on X, especially given Musk’s direct connection to the Trump Presidency. Musk means that X isn’t to me in the same category as Facebook. Trump is directly threatening Canada and X is very much connected to that government. As we all reassess our relationship with the US, it could be a very good time to leave as a sanction that is entirely within our power.
Other
- Requested staff report on extending the hours of free transit for seniors on Tuesdays
- Scheduled a heritage hearing to consider registering 8 Sullivan’s Hill in Bedford as a heritage property
- Scheduled a public hearing to consider changes to HRM land-use bylaws in the suburbs to enable the development of more housing
- Approved a new Accessibility Strategy
- Authorized the CAO to negotiate a contribution agreement for the Lake District Recreation Association in Sackville
- Deferred proposed changes to the tax exemption program to get more information on the implications of the potential change in eligibility criteria
RE: X, I mean, we all literally saw the owner of the website pull a fascist salute on national television… I think at this point there’s a question of like, is our presence on his platform a tacit acceptance of that as a new norm in public discourse. Regardless of how relevant the platform may or may not be.
Bill Says is right leave why is there a discussion?
Why can’t seniors run the bus for free every day of the week just like students can? We need to go places everyday, not just on Tuesdays during some very limited hours. More hours on Tuesdays would be nice; but the ability to go out and use the bus, without cost, any day of the week would be so much better.
Leave X HRM should go to Blue sky