Happy Holidays
Welcome to an abridged December E-News. I always like to reflect a little on the year that was in the December edition and 2023 was a definitely a challenging year. HRM was beset by fires and then floods, driving home that climate change isn’t some distant reality, it’s here right now. The humanitarian disaster around homelessness continued to worsen, with a record number of people forced to live outside. Relations between HRM and the Province continue to be strained as the Spring and Fall sessions of the legislature both included unasked for Charter amendments that consolidate power in the hands of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and open the doors for potential corruption. It’s been a challenging 365 days.
As always, there was joy to be had too. HRM opened the now permanent Disc Golf Course on the Dartmouth Common and the space has never been more well-used. New buildings opened at Grahams Grove, the Woodside Ferry Terminal renovations were completed, traffic calming was added to several streets, the summer concert series brought free music again to Downtown Dartmouth, HRM and the federal government reached an agreement on the Housing Accelerator program, and HRM received its first electric bus. HRM made some key moves to help community groups in District 5 including leasing the old Shubenacadie Canal Interpretative Centre in Martin’s Park to the Back to the Sea Society, and providing the Banook Canoe Club with funding to help pay for their once in a lifetime renovation. Definitely a challenging year, but there was good news in District 5 too.
Being in public life, especially post-COVID, can be challenging, but being your councillor remains very rewarding. You can truly make a difference at City Hall. It’s an honour to work for you and to try and make our little part of the world a better place. Thank you for following my blog and newsletter over the course of the year and for being engaged. I look forward to hearing from you in 2024! Best wishes for the season
News
December kind of got away on me, but there are a few news items that I want to share, even on this late pre-Christmas weekend! Back to a full edition e-newsletter in January.
District Boundaries
Yesterday, the Utility and Review Board released their decision on HRM’s district boundary submission. HRM is required by law to review district boundaries every decade and some changes are always needed to reflect the growing population. The two objectives that drive decisions on boundaries are ensuring that voting power is relatively equal (each district should have a similar number of voters) and that districts reflect established communities.
Unfortunately, the objectives of voter parity and communities of interest can sometimes be at odds with one and other. This is particularly true with a 16 member council in the urban core of Dartmouth where there are too many people inside the Circumferential Highway for one district, but not enough for two. From a purely numbers perspective, we’re about 1.5 districts inside the Circumferential. People who live in the area though tend to identify with Downtown Dartmouth. Being paired up with communities on the other side of the highway isn’t popular, which creates a real conundrum with no easy answer! The very imperfect solution in 2012 was to draw the line down Albro Lake Road and pair Highfield with Montebello and Woodlawn.
You may recall from my earlier editions of my E-News that the initial 2023 proposal was to cut Downtown Dartmouth in two, with the Portland Street, Manor Park, Penhorn, and Southdale portion of District 5 joining up with Baker Drive and Russell Lake. This has been suggested as the solution to the Dartmouth conundrum before, but it was roundly panned in 2012 by folks who don’t want to see Downtown divided and it wasn’t any more popular ten years later in 2023. Public feedback was overwhelmingly negative. Folks have been very consistent in wanting the core of Downtown to stay together.
So HRM revised the map based on public feedback and the result was a submission to the Utility and Review Board for a revised District 5 that puts Dartmouth North back together and includes the core of Downtown Dartmouth. Essentially the new District 5 gained Highfield, but lost Penhorn Lake, part of Manor Park, and Southdale/North Woodside.
On Thursday, the Board released their decision, which included some additional changes. During the Board’s public hearing, feedback was received from residents in Penhorn, Manor Park, Southdale and on Newcastle Street asking to remain in District 5. The most organized group turned out to be residents on Newcastle Street who didn’t want Old Ferry Road to become the new District boundary, splitting their street into two districts. Maureen Woodrow led the Newcastle effort, gathering a petition, writing the Board, and presenting to the board in person.
The Board took the feedback in District 5 to heart. The Board had HRM prepare several alternative maps and in the end ordered, revisions in the Southdale/North Woodside area. Instead of stopping at Old Ferry Road, the Board’s revised District 5 will extend all the way along the Harbour to the Woodside Ferry Terminal, as it does now. Past Old Ferry Road, however, the landward side of Pleasant Street will still go to District 3. So streets like Chadwick, Renfrew, Prince Arthur will be part of District 3, but Newcastle, Parker, Esdaile, Stephen etc, all the streets on the Harbour side of Pleasant, will remain in District 5. District 5 gets the waterfront. Official maps aren’t available yet, but it appears from the written decision that this is the area being added back to District 5:
The Board was sympathetic to the asks from Penhorn, Manor Park, and Southdale to stay in District 5, but adding them all back would have pushed the number of voters well beyond 20% of the average district population (it’s already 15%, the second highest behind Bedford). A disparity of more than 20% wasn’t something that the Board felt was justifiable. Basically, they added as many people as they could back into District 5 without completely breaking the objective of voter parity and kept it simple by using a major road (Pleasant Street) as a recognizable boundary. So a big congratulations to Maureen Woodrow and her neighbours who successfully made the case to stay with Downtown Dartmouth!
The new boundaries will come into effect after the fall 2024 election. This won’t be the last time the Dartmouth boundary conundrum comes up. When the next review happens in the 2030s it’ll be after growth nodes, including Shannon Park, Eisner’s, Penhorn, and Mic Mac Mall are built out or are at least are well underway, and that will be in addition to all the new development in Downtown and in places like Wyse Road. Next time that HRM and the Board looks at this question, maybe the numbers will finally allow for two Dartmouth districts inside the Circumferential.
Sawmill River
All might have seemed quiet over the last little while on the Sawmill River project, but behind the scenes a lot has been in motion.
You might recall over the last few years discussion about extending Dundas Street into Dartmouth Cove via a new intersection with Alderney Drive and a new Bridge over the Canal. This project was talked about, a bylaw on developer contributions was passed, and a road reserve was included in the Centre Plan, but then nothing seemed to happen. Work was delayed because it was decided that the road extension and daylighting projects should really be combined into one tender rather than proceeding separately. The intent is still to phase work so that the new Dartmouth Cove connection will be available as a detour route before the intersection of Portland/Alderney/Prince Albert is ripped up. One tender package, however, is expected to reduce the overall cost.
So the new road and bridge project, which was pretty much ready to go, was delayed to let planning for the rest of the daylighting project catch up. The catch up portion of things is now pretty much complete and HRM and Halifax Water intend to go to tender for the combined project in 2024.
You might be wondering just how design work has progressed? What will the new daylighted river actually look like? Circle your calendars for January 17th as HRM and Halifax Water are planning for a joint public information meeting on the project (details on time and place to come in January’s E-News). The plan includes a new multi-use trail to connect Sullivan’s Pond to the Harbour Trail, the new bridge to Dartmouth Cove, closing Irishtown Road, new park spaces, and a new pond at the end of the Canal Greenway in Starr Park. Here’s the latest draft
The idea of maximizing the park space, and providing a space where it’s possible to get closer to the River is feedback that HRM and I have consistently heard over the last six years. Feedback on Phase 1 was pretty positive, but one thing that folks didn’t like was the need for fencing. Phase 1 passed through a much more constrained area around Ochterloney Street, resulting in some steep drops down to the daylighted river. This necessitated fencing. Human beings are naturally drawn to water, but you can’t really get close to the Sawmill River. Some areas of Phase 2 will face similar constraints, but Phase 2 will also pass through a wider section of land around Irishtown Road, potentially allowing for a more naturalized experience. Details are still being worked out but a boardwalk type area is being considered around Prince Albert Road/Irishtown Road.
I’m pretty pleased with what I have been seeing as the design for this project gets further refined. This is a generational opportunity to really improve public space in Downtown Dartmouth, tie Sullivan’s Pond and Banook to the waterfront, restore the environment in Lake Banook and its wider watershed, while also enabling redevelopment in Dartmouth Cove. Stay tuned for details on the upcoming public meeting.
Housing and Homelessness
HRM released an update today on the municipality’s approach to housing and homelessness. The latest count from December 18 of people living outdoors at HRM’s designated sites shows a big reduction in Dartmouth at Geary Street (just two now), but that we still have a lot of people living outdoors throughout HRM. The Dec 18 count identified 28 tents at Grand Parade, 24 at Victoria Park, eight at Green Road, and 25 at the Correctional Ball Field in Sackville. There is not enough space for everyone. Many people have nowhere to go. What HRM is doing right now:
- Providing additional funding to the street navigator program for winter supplies,
- Cancelled the City Hall New Year’s Day Levee and redirected funds to the North End Community Health Centre to provide meals
- Wellness checks are ongoing
- Dedicated one of the Parks and Rec community developer staff to help coordinate citizen volunteer efforts
- Staff are distributing educational material to encampment residents on fire safety
- HRM will support the Province’s emergency shelter whenever requested (current Provincial framework is temperatures of -10 or snowfall of more than 15 cms).
I have been deeply frustrated on this issue for quite some time in terms of the Provincial response. HRM can’t replace the role of the Department of Community Services. We have neither the staff, expertise or resources to do that. We need the Province to act and it has been deeply frustrating that they have been so focussed on micromanaging HRM planning while doing little to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis, a crisis that at its heart is due to inadequate provincial services around public housing, income support, youth in care, addiction and mental health services, etc. We have two housing crises and while we do need a lot more housing, it’s also true that market rental units aren’t going to help someone living in a tent who has next to no income and who needs ongoing support.
While dealing with the Province has been profoundly frustrating, lately I’m seeing some reasons for cautious optimism. Things that were nos at the start of 2023 like new public housing, a tiny home community, and pallet shelters, have all turned into yeses over the summer and fall. The Province seems to be finally getting the gravity of the crisis. It should have happened much earlier and it’s hard to forgive that people are stuck living outside in winter in shelters meant for ice fishing, but better late than never at all.
We still have an urgent crisis in the here and now. Shelter spaces are provided by the Province, but HRM has been frequently serving in a supportive role for things like garbage removal and maintenance and HRM has even facilitated some connections with landlords (like the Windmill Road shelter). HRM and the Province are in ongoing discussions around the need for more winter shelter spaces. The new Windmill Road shelter that opened in November is great for Dartmouth folks and has helped a lot, but it’s not big enough for everyone who is living outside and it’s not readily accessible to people who are in Halifax or Sackville. As I said in November to CBC, we really needed at least three new shelter locations to serve people where they are: Halifax, Sackville, and Dartmouth. We have one. Councillor Mancini and I had an informal meeting with the Minister of Community Services, Trevor Boudreau, back in November and I expressed this directly to him. I’m hopeful that ongoing discussions between HRM and the Province will result in additional space that will be available this winter.
Still on the topic of homelessness, HRM has been creating a series of educational videos to answer some common questions that people have been asking. Video links below:
New Year’s Eve
One last note in this abridged E-News. Since City Hall’s Grand Parade has a number of people sheltering in it, New Year’s Eve celebrations are being moved to the Oval. Rankin MacInnis will headline the main concert at the Oval starting at 11:00 pm. Other musical highlights will include Lindsay Misiner and a Salute to 50 Years of Hip Hop, performed by DJs Okay TK and Grimrock, along with breakdancers, emcees and more. Celebrations will conclude with fireworks at midnight. Transit will run free on New Year’s Eve with extended service starting at 6:00 pm. For transit schedules, visit HRM’s website here.
Thank you for your hard work!