Apartment developers on run

Poor planning, unfair bylaws pushing people out of province, IPOANS president says
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Fri. May 9 - 6:54 AM

Unfair bylaws and poor planning are driving apartment developers out of the Halifax area and ultimately hurting tenants, says Joe Metlege, president of the Investment Properties Owners Association of Nova Scotia.

“Doing business doesn’t make sense anymore,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “At the end of the day, we’re a service business and any costs that get added to us, the more expensive it is for people to afford a place to live.”

The association, which held its 30th annual general meeting on Thursday night, represents 200 members who Mr. Metlege said control 22,000 apartment units in Halifax Regional Municipality, or half of the municipality’s apartment stock.

Mr. Metlege, who heads Jono Development Ltd., said the association wants changes to the way the municipality assesses apartment buildings for taxation purposes and changes to the provincial Residential Tenancies Act.

“We’re not looking to be extreme, we’re looking to be fair,” he said, noting that the current business climate is making local apartment owners like Killam Properties look outside the province for new opportunities.

Mr. Melege said the association would like to see a cap on apartment building assessments similar to the 2.3 per cent cap that applies to residential dwellings in the municipality.

Without such a cap, he said municipal tax increases applied to apartment buildings will have to be passed along to tenants, who he said are generally less able to meet those costs than individual homeowners.

“The lowest-income earners are hit the hardest,” he said, adding that the municipality should recognize that apartment buildings are more efficient to service than single-family homes.

“Our argument is that apartment buildings create the least financial burden on the city,” he said. “Servicing a 100-unit apartment is more economical than servicing 100 homes.”

Mr. Metlege said the association’s arguments have fallen on deaf ears at city hall.

“They don’t seem to understand or don’t want to,” he said, noting that there are a lot fewer landlords in HRM than individual residents. “It’s easier to tax a landlord.”

The association would also like to see amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act to create a more level playing field for apartment owners.

“What’s fair for the tenant should be fair for the landlord,” said Mr. Metlege, noting that under the act, tenants on month-to-month leases only need to give a landlord one month’s notice to terminate a lease, while landlords in the same situation are required to give tenants three months’ notice.

“That’s one of many issues,” he said, adding that the association has been lobbying the province for amendments to the act for 10 years. “What it comes down to is it’s easier to do nothing than to make changes.”

( berskine@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Joe Metlege,IPONS,B Erskine,Halifax Chronical Herald

The peninsula pays, everyone else brays

By JIM MEEK
Sat. Apr 26 - 6:36 AM

IF YOU LIVE in many parts of peninsular Halifax, this city is a ripoff.

For instance, it turns out the “old south end” isn’t the painted lady of legend after all.

Instead, peninsular Halifax plays the role of sugar daddy to the city’s rural areas and many of its suburbs.

I used two documents to figure this out.

One shows 2006 census figures by electoral district in greater Halifax.

The second document is the one that Mayor Peter Kelly and the people who work for him don’t want you to see.

Generated by city staff in 2007, this document reveals the residential tax Halifax collects by electoral district.

Do the math and here’s what you get.

South-enders paid residential taxes averaging $1,466 per person in 2007, about twice the average for greater Halifax.

The comparable figure for the average Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley resident was $524.

The total per capita (residential and commercial) tax take in downtown Halifax was $3,276 last year, compared to $668 in Spryfield-Herring Cove.

Yet no one blinks when some cretin suggests that that the downtown swimming pool – Centennial – should be closed. Just try closing the wave pool in Spryfield and see what happens.

The rich should pay, you say – and I half agree.

But the politics of entitlement is totally out of hand in Halifax, with rural areas making demands that are way out of proportion to their tax payouts.

Already, council has agreed to finance new recreation centres in Low-Tax-Villes. At the same time, as downtown Councillor Dawn Sloane has pointed out, it’s become virtually impossible to get money for new projects on the peninsula – except sewage treatment plants.

The wonky political calculus of amalgamation only deepens the frustration. Halifax peninsula has four councillors; the remaining 18 can easily gang up on the city slickers.

And why not?

The politics is sound, even if the principles of tax equity and good government are violated.

I know, I know – you’re saying to yourself that peninsular Halifax can look after itself.

But you’re wrong. The peninsula has been rolling with the punches so long that it doesn’t know how to fight back.

Also remember that the people who often complain most about the peninsula take the most out of the city.

According to one 2005 study, it costs more than $5,000 per household to provide municipal services in a sparsely populated rural area, compared to $1,400 per household in a densely populated part of the peninsula.

Still, the peninsula lost tens of thousands of people over the past three decades while the suburbs grew apace.

Not only that, but municipal governments historically subsidized suburban sprawl by failing to charge developers adequate fees for sidewalk, road, garbage, police, fire and other services in new neighbourhoods.

As a consequence, some developers got rich with a little too much help from taxpayers. The indirect subsidies to developers easily amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. (I will detail this story in The Sunday Herald tomorrow.)

Here’s what you have to know for now: In pre-amalgamation Halifax, developers’ fees were a joke.

The good news is that we now have a chance to put the jewel back in the crown. Halifax’s tax reform commission, which goes into full public consultation mode next week, can fix it all.

And as the Greater Halifax Partnership reported this week, a new survey shows people throughout the municipality support growth – and even tall buildings downtown.

The city core, by the way, is in a sad state – featuring ugly parking lots and boarded-up stores alongside spectacular assets like the Common, the Public Gardens and Point Pleasant Park.

This much is certain: If we let the peninsula fray around the edges, all of greater Halifax will pay.

Why? Because no one smart or educated or young will want to move here, stay here, or invest here.

As celebrity economist Richard Florida says, creative people are now the great wealth generators in North America, and they flock to attractive cities – Boston or San Francisco, Seattle or New York.

Halifax won’t succeed in this brave new world by transforming itself into a giant Beaver Bank.

So for everyone’s sake, let’s hear three cheers for the peninsula, the south end and even its much-maligned lawyers.

We need them now more than ever, whether we like it or not.

( jmeek@herald.ca)

 

 

COMMENTS

POST YOUR COMMENT

gordo wrote:
Hallelujah! I live in an old salt box a few houses from the Commons and love it. It is not a mansion and it is not in the South End. I came to Halifax 15 years ago and love the closeness of everything.Unfortunately the taxes for my little house are a bit outrageous - $2500. I await tax reform with bated breathe as the services in my neighbourhood have been around for hundreds of years while I help subsidize development and amenities in far flung “low-tax-ville”. Lord help the municipality if penisular Halifax acts like some of those people out in Bedford…..

Common not a venue wrote:
And Mr. Meek what type of Services does the Valley get for the money they pay ? Certainly The Valley does not get sidewalks, Two major parks maintained by city or outside contract workers. What About Water and Sewer ? Do south enders pay for the Wells or spetic systems a rural resident must maintain ? Then you have fire fighting Most rural communities had volunteer Departments where as there is a great cost to have fulltime Pros in the South end. Then we can look at public transportation . There is none in Rural HRM or Nova Scotia Your Idea the pennisula somehow pays for the valley is bunk. Last I checked the Valley didn’t have a neptune theatre running in the red or a metro centre or a world trade and convention centre among all the White Elephants all nova scotians get saddled paying for residing in old Halifax.

mayhar wrote:
I didn’t realize the valley was in Halifax. He said Musquodoboit Valley. If you’re going to complain, at least read what you’re complaining about.

McNeil_hfx wrote:
I suspected as much, but I had no idea it was this bad! The peninsula (and probably downtown Dartmouth too!) need to take a stand. Something must be done to turn this around. There are way too many rural/ suburban councillors driving the agenda at City Hall. If the financials of sprawl in HRM are this dire, why does the regional plan aim to direct 75% of new growth outside the regional center? Why are the new suburbs getting all the services and schools? Isn’t that just going to make it worse? Is this why Council can’t control the budget? We clearly need a third party audit of where our taxes are generated and where they are spent to help us plan better. As a regional municipality we could be a lot smarter than this, but for some reason (likely the 19 to 4 situation at city hall!), it’s not politically feasible. Looking forward to tomorrow’s column!

11.8 per cent of Halifax workforce nearing retirement: census

By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Tue. Mar 4 - 1:55 PM

OTTAWA — Nearly 12 per cent of the workforce in the Halifax region is nearing retirement age, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday as it released new census data which shows a national trend of a declining rate of young people entering the workforce to replace retiring baby boomers.

Information from the 2006 census indicates 11.8 per cent of the workforce of the Halifax region was aged 55 to 64. Provincially, 13.2 per cent of the workforce was in the 55-64 age group and nationally the figure was 12.9.

Among that age group nearing retirement in the Halifax region, 22.6 per cent work in business, finance and administration occupations and 22.2 per cent work in sales and service occupations.

The median age of a worker in the Halifax region was 40.2 in 2006. In 2001, the last time the census was taken, the median age was 38.3. Nationally, the median age of a worker was 41.2, compared to 39.5 in 2001.

Statistics Canada defines median age as a middle value — the point where exactly one half of the working-age population is older than the median age and the other half is younger.

The census shows a continuing national trend of fewer young people entering the workforce to replace retiring baby boomers.

Across Canada, there were 1.9 entrants to the labour force aged 20-34 for every person over 55 on their way out. Five years ago, there were 2.7 entrants for every potential retiree and 25 years ago, the figure was 3.7 entrants.

The census numbers show that in 2006, there were 2.4 entrants to the labour force of Halifax region aged 20-34 for every person over 55 who was on their way out.

For several years, researchers have been warning about potential labour shortages across Canada based on the aging of baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — and lower fertility rates. Within the next three years, almost one-fifth of Canadian baby boomers will be at least 61 years of age.

Labour market analysts are predicting a widespread shortage of workers impacting a broad range of occupations.

A shortage of suitable workers can hurt a healthy economy because the labour market and economy are so tightly bound. When the ratio of workers arriving to the workplace dips below the number leaving it, it could create a drag on the economy and stagnate growth.

A recent report by the Conference Board of Canada put a price tag on job shortages: a projected shortage of 90,000 IT workers over the next five years will cost the economy an estimated $120,000 for each worker not replaced in each year. Other sectors of the workforce identified as particularly vulnerable to potential labour shortfalls include health care and skilled trades.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said the federal government must find ways to help Canada hold onto its skilled workers and draw talented immigrants to cover the gaps.

In the Halifax area, the median age of workers in health occupations was 42.4. For those working in trades and related occupations, the median age was 42.5.

The census information released Tuesday also gives insight into the education levels of people in the Halifax region.

A total of 34.1 per cent of the population in the Halifax region aged 25-64 have attained a university certificate, diploma or degree. A further 22.0 per cent have a college diploma; 11.4 per cent earned a trade certificate; 20.2 per cent have nothing higher than a secondary school education and 12.3 per cent didn’t earn a high school diploma.

Among those in the Halifax area who are in the 25-34 age group and have probably entered the workforce, 14.8 per cent studied business/management/public administration. The next most popular field of study was architecture/engineering (11 per cent), followed by social sciences/law (10 per cent).

The census also showed that 6.1 per cent of the total employed workforce of the Halifax region worked at home in 2006. A total of 8.9 per cent of working population in the Halifax region was self-employed.

Statistics Canada also uses the census to find out about unpaid work, such as housework, child care or elderly care. In 2006, women in the Halifax region did more unpaid work than their male counterparts — 53.7 per cent among women to 46.3 per cent for men.

The census is conducted every five years by Statistics Canada and is based on information filled out by Canadians on May 16, 2006. The data released Tuesday on work and education follows information released earlier on overall population growth, families, age and sex breakdowns of the population, immigration and a look at the country’s aboriginal communities.

 

Technorati Tags: StatsCan,Sencus Report,Halifax 2007

Metro firms in running

Companies in Halifax and Dartmouth vie for offshore living quarters

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Wed. Feb 20 - 6:29 AM

Joseph Lovett, vice-president of North American sales with Single Buoy Moorings, speaks at a Halifax break­fast meeting Wednesday. Single Buoy, with headquarters in Monaco, will own and operate the Deep Panuke production field centre, about 175 kilometres offshore. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

Two metro companies have been shortlisted for a lucrative multimillion-dollar contract to build the offshore living quarters for EnCana’s $700-million Deep Panuke natural gas project.

Irving Shipbuilding Inc. of Halifax and Atlantic Fabricators Ltd. of Dartmouth, a joint venture of Cherubini Metal and Black & MacDonald, have been selected as the finalists for the offshore contract to build the five-storey structure for 100 people.

An executive of Single Buoy Moorings, the provider and operator of the Deep Panuke mobile offshore production platform unit, released the names of the two companies in Halifax.

Single Buoy executives were to continue meetings today with the two companies, which are expected to make their final submissions March 21. A decision on the successful bidder will be made in April.

GJ Cahill& Co. and Aecon Fabco, both of Dartmouth, are now out of the running.

Single Buoy wants more information about the two bids, Joseph Lovett of Houston, vice-president of sales in North America, said after speaking to oil and gas executives at a breakfast meeting in Halifax.

“(We’re) just trying to get a better handle on what they’re going to be offering,” said Mr. Lovett, a 41-year-veteran of the oil and gas business who was born in Glace Bay. “They were the two companies that . . . put in the two sharpest bids.

Single Buoy, with headquarters in Monaco, will own and operate the production field centre, about 175 kilometres offshore, and will lease it to EnCana for the life of the project. It’s estimated that enough gas will be flowing by 2010 to supply three million homes a year and last for 13 years.

Mr. Lovett said the price of building the living quarters is confidential. EnCana estimated in regulatory documents that the annual operating costs during production of Deep Panuke would be $150 million, including the leasing of the field centre.

The production facility will stand in about 44 metres of water. The natural gas is about 3,500 metres below the seabed.

EnCana’s project will produce natural gas from the field, about 175 kilometres off Nova Scotia. The gas will be transported by subsea pipeline to Goldboro, where it will be transported via the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline to markets in Eastern Canada and the northeast United States.

Single Buoy has yet to decide where to locate the onshore supply base for the project but is looking at two options: Halifax and Mulgrave.

Mr. Lovett said there isn’t a clear advantage to either site but appeared to favour the Halifax location.

“I just think one is in existence and that’s ExxonMobil, and it’s here in Halifax,” Mr. Lovett said.

“It’s well developed; it has great warehousing and dock facilities. The same can be said of Mulgrave. A lot of exploration drilling activity was hosted out of Mulgrave.

“So they’re both just two facilities that we’re looking at and one of them we’d like to work with is ExxonMobil if that works out. If that doesn’t work out we have another place to go in Mulgrave.”

Single Buoy is expected to open an office next to EnCana’s corporate offices at 1701 Hollis St. in Halifax with Ian Moss as general manager.

( jmyrden@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Deep Panuke,ExxonMobile,Irving Shipbuilding,Single Buoy,Encana,Offshore Housing

Moncton mayor denies big-act rivalry

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Fri. Feb 15 - 1:29 PM

If there’s a rivalry between Halifax and Moncton, the mayor of the New Brunswick city says he’s not aware of it.

The two cities have been jostling behind the scenes, each hoping to secure an Eagles concert for an outdoor venue this summer. The country-rock legends are rumoured to be playing Aug. 2 in Moncton, which also beat out Halifax last year in their battle to host the Tim McGraw-Faith Hill country concert.

But Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton says there’s nothing personal against Halifax in his city’s bid to attract concerts.

“Some of the media reports say that we’re ‘outbidding’ one another, and that’s not quite true,” he said from Moncton city hall on Thursday.

“We’re not out there competing against anyone. Really, we’re out there selling our venue, not trying to outdo anybody.”

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly told The Chronicle Herald on Wednesday that he had brought in a New York promoter to help the city secure big-name acts for outdoor shows this summer.

“It’s about trying to meet some of the public’s expectations when it comes to concerts, so we need to try some innovative and new and unique ways to do so,” Mr. Kelly said.

Mr. Mitton said Halifax has proven itself a capable host of numerous sports events.

“You’ve had big curling events in the Metro Centre, which can hold 10,000 people,” he said, noting that Moncton’s Coliseum seats only 7,000.

“And your big hockey event coming up, well, we’d love to have that,” he said, referring to the world hockey championship in May.

“So there are things that Halifax can do that Moncton can’t do, and we understand that.”

Meanwhile, Dartmouth promoter Harold MacKay said Moncton hasn’t actually won the latest concert war — yet. He said there’s still a chance the Eagles could fly to Halifax instead.

“It’s still not over yet,” he said.

“There’s nothing inked yet.”

Encouraging a band to come to town is an extremely long process, Mr. MacKay said. “You have to convince the agency, and then they have to convince the manager, who then has to convince the band.”

That might be difficult right now because an industry insider says all the concert commotion created in Halifax recently is stirring up bad feelings about the city, and the area in general.

“People read newspapers from cities they plan to play in,” the insider said.

Halifax found that out last fall when Celine Dion pulled out of a concert slated for next August on the Commons. Her husband, Rene Angelil, blamed negative public response and newspaper coverage for the cancellation.

“Even before the sale of 20,000 tickets, journalists have to write that it was a place for the Rolling Stones to rock, not Celine Dion,” Mr. Angelil told a French-language online newspaper. “So if we are not welcome in Halifax, we won’t come.”

That news spread in entertainment circles and cast a negative light on Halifax, the insider said.

“It doesn’t create a good environment for Halifax.”

Confusion in the marketplace over who is booking concerts for Halifax doesn’t help either, a regional councillor said.

That’s especially true now that the mayor has committed to a New York promoter after council had already secured Events Halifax to do the job, said Coun. Harry McInroy (Cole Harbour).

Last spring, council signed a memorandum of understanding with Events Halifax to have the provincial agency book up to three outdoor summer concerts.

“Now we have every Tom, Dick and Harry — but not this Harry — involved in this thing and it’s an absolute mess,” Mr. McInroy said. “We have too many cooks in the kitchen and most of them don’t know how to cook.

“I think council has to make it absolutely clear that nobody, including the mayor, negotiates on behalf of . . . council — that it’s Events Halifax or we make some other arrangement.”

At Province House, Premier Rodney MacDonald said the Country Rocks 2008 concert featuring Keith Urban on the Commons on Aug. 30 will be good for the city.

“That is going to be a significant draw from across the province,” Mr. MacDonald said.

The premier said work is being done to bring more events this way.

With Amy Smith, provincial reporter

( apugsley@herald.ca)

 

Technorati Tags: Rivalry,Moncton,Halifax,Music

Condo projects proceeding despite signs of instability

 

Condo projects proceeding despite signs of instability

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist

Fri. Feb 8 - 6:22 AM

Despite delays caused by a shortage of skilled tradespeople, which among other things has helped to increase construction costs, the metro condo and apartment market seems to be going full steam ahead.

The continued building boom has some people wondering if there is economic justification for the construction or if it may be part of some kind of building frenzy in the metro area.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the agency that tracks these things, told a conference earlier this week that it expects about 900 condo units will be built within the urban part of Halifax Regional Municipality over the next two years — 200 units on the Halifax peninsula, 400 on the Halifax mainland, 200 in Dartmouth and 100 in Lower Sackville.

Wunderkind developer Joe Metlege of Halifax says he has changed his mind about trying to sell his $15-million, seven-storey, 97-unit Palace Royale project in Clayton Park as condos and has instead decided to rent the units out as “condo-quality” apartments beginning in September.

“The condo market is not too stable right now, so we’re going to finish it like a condo with granite countertops, six appliances, large spacious rooms, key card access for the units,” the 25-year-old told me in a recent phone conversation.

According to CMHC, in addition to the condos that will be built in metro, there are also a healthy number of apartments about to come on the market in the next couple of years.

It is projecting there will be an additional 1,250 apartment units available in metro by 2010.

About 225 apartment units will be built on the Halifax peninsula, 525 on the mainland, 450 in Dartmouth and 50 in the Bedford/Sackville area, according to analysts at CMHC.

As almost everyone knows, location is the key to the success of any real estate transaction and the market for apartments and condos is no exception.

Metlege is president of Jono Developments Ltd. and is also the president of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia. In addition to the Palace Royale project, he has embarked on an even more ambitious project on the periphery of Halifax’s downtown.

He recently acquired the property that’s home to Trinity Anglican Church at the corner of Brunswick and Cogswell streets. That’s where he plans to construct a $50-million, mixed-use, 19-storey building.

Work on that project could begin as early as this fall, he says. The church called for proposals for the site last year and Metlege says the package he offered won the bid.

In exchange for the church and the land downtown, Metlege is building a new church in the Clayton Park area near his Palace Royale project.

There was a cash payment to the church as well.

There is no heritage claim on the existing downtown structure and there are no height restrictions in that part of the city either, so Jono Developments can proceed with its plans without having to go through the costly and time-consuming appeals process faced by many downtown development proposals in recent years.

He says the site is strategically located and should become even more valuable once the city proceeds with plans to tear down the often-criticized Cogswell interchange to allow for even more development.

Metlege says plans for the building have not been finalized but one idea is to set aside part of the building as a four- or five-star hotel. The top floors would be apartments. Plan B for the site would eliminate the hotel component and replace it with about 150,000 square feet of office space.

In addition to having to have vision about what type of construction project will become a successful investment, under today’s conditions, developers also have to have a lot of guts.

( rtaylor@herald.ca)

Roger Taylor’s column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Technorati Tags: Condo Development,Halifax,Market Conditions

Daily News demise like a death in the family

 

By PETER DUFFY
Thu. Feb 14 - 5:26 AM

In its heyday, the Halifax Daily News was feisty and full of spunk, and made other Nova Scotia media outlets sit up and take notice. (Eric Wynne / Staff)

THE ANNOUNCEMENT hit like a bomb.

The Daily News has folded!

We were stunned. Had we heard correctly? Unfortunately, we had.

Monday morning, our competitor down the street, the tabloid we’d known affectionately as the Daily Snooze, went under. Just like that. Hardly a ripple. Gone, taking with it a history reaching back more than 30 years.

It happened so fast. The owners didn’t even allow the poor thing a chance to print its own obituary.

It was a shock and yet, not really. Here at The Chronicle Herald, we’d had an inkling its days were numbered for some time and so, I’d be willing to bet, did most of the men and women who worked there. At the very least, they must have been toiling with one eye over their shoulder.

Three different corporate owners in slightly more than a decade will do that to you.

The hard reality was the tabloid’s audience never came close to matching ours, no matter what imaginative new ideas it came up with to attract readers. But the curious thing was, it always seemed more.

Our stubborn competitor seemed to be everywhere. It was hard to go anywhere without seeing copies lying on tables, on counters, in coffee shops, fast-food joints and service stations.

Whenever I came across one, I’d grab it and read it, and therein lay the problem. Too many of us were in the habit of reading someone else’s copy; not enough of us were buying our own.

Not that our own circulation had been growing dramatically; it hadn’t. But it wasn’t draining away, either. Whatever we were doing, it seemed to be working because we were holding our own, bucking a national downward trend.

These are tough times for newspapers everywhere. Not only are advertising dollars in short supply but the pack of media outlets competing for them is larger and hungrier than ever before. Circulations are stagnant, fragmented or shrinking and, most worrisome of all, more and more readers, especially younger ones, are getting their daily fix from new media like the Internet.

Like The Herald, the Daily News was trying to find its bearings in cyberspace and, by all accounts, it wasn’t doing too badly. It boasted Canada’s first online edition and, when the end came, its readership was larger than for the newspaper itself. The problem was all those eyeballs weren’t translating into sufficient revenues to keep everything afloat.

Personally, I think the paper lost its way. Its various owners ignored its history; they were careless with the precocious spark that had been passed down by its predecessor, the feisty Bedford-Sackville Daily News.

Now there was my kind of newspaper! It was loud, boisterous and fearless from the start. It went after the kinds of stories that shook walls and rattled windows around metro. It championed the little guy and challenged authority with all guns blazing.

When I arrived in Halifax in 1980, I was so impressed with its spunk that I applied for a job. It was the first place I tried. (Co-founder David Bentley gave me an interview but never did get back to me. To this day, I still don’t know why.)

Now, to be fair, The Herald wasn’t ignoring all the juicy news flying around back then, but it moved at its own pace and reported in a much more restrained fashion. It was the paper of record, trying to be all things to all people across the province. It was an institution and, like all institutions, it needed time to evaluate this new day dawning and make the changes.

And change it did. In my time here, the roles of the two papers have almost reversed. The Herald has become the conscience of the community, the chronicler of injustice, the anticipator and exposer of official skulduggery.

And more. We’ve overcome our shyness and learned to make a joyful din about Nova Scotia, its people and their accomplishments. Heck, we’ve even developed a sense of humour!

Frankly, I believe much of the credit goes to the example set by the Daily News, when it was young, exciting and trailblazing.

The thing was, as we were emerging from our shell, the tabloid was becoming more subdued. Sure, it still went after the stories but its heart didn’t seem to be in it any longer. It was like the fire was going out.

Instead of yelling, it began to whisper. Scoop-wise, the paper had long since ceased to be our competition. That role had been assumed by Steve Murphy and the crew at CTV.

Which isn’t to say the Daily News didn’t continue to have an impact on us; it did. It showed us the way with its Sunday edition; it consistently put together excellent sports and entertainment packages; and its use of graphics and colour were in a class by themselves, until we invested in the technology to put on an impressive showing of our own.

Here in The Herald newsroom, Monday’s announcement felt like a death in the family. There was no cheering, no high-fiving. Instead, our mood was muted, reflecting the anguish we felt for the 90-plus staffers involved, many of whom we knew.

Those poor people, we murmured.

And as we mourned, we felt a sudden chill.

We shivered for the Daily News. We shivered for newspapers. And we shivered for ourselves.

( pduffy@herald.ca)

Peter Duffy appears Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

Technorati Tags: Peter Duffy,Daily News Dies,Death in The Family

Special interest groups cropping up to get a voice at city hall

 

Special interest committees crop up to represent Bedford, labour interests, creation of separate rural municipality

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Thu. Feb 7 - 5:34 AM

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS:

Three groups currently mobilizing in advance of October’s municipal election in Halifax:

•Bedford Community Council Association: Currently has about 50 members, with seven committee members. The inaugural meeting will be held at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bedford legion. Its website is www.futureofbedford.com

•Citizens for Halifax: Currently selling memberships and its Facebook group has 493 members. An introductory breakfast meeting in November brought 150 to the World Trade and Convention Centre. The inaugural members meeting will be held 6-8:30 p.m., Feb. 12, at the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. Its website is www.citizensforhalifax.ca.

•Municipalities Matter: A group dedicated to community and labour priorities for the Halifax Regional Municipality. Led by the Halifax-Dartmouth and district labour council of the Canadian Labour Congress, it organized an all-day forum last month and drew about 50 people to a local high school.

( apugsley@herald.ca)

New special interest groups are mobilizing forces well in advance of municipal election day on Oct. 18, when they hope to force change at Halifax City Hall. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff)

With eight months to go until October’s municipal election, Halifax city hall and its politicians are facing attack from a few different angles.

Groups like Citizens for Halifax, Municipalities Matter and the newest, Bedford Community Council Association, are mobilizing forces, and well in advance of election day on Oct. 18.

Uniting together under the banners of special interest groups is a new tack in municipal politics.

And it’s not resonating well with most councillors.

“Obviously, there are people who are really frustrated and they’ve banded together with common interests,” Coun. Steve Streatch (Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley) said Wednesday.

“But when you start going off in individual corners, what’s that going to accomplish?”

He guesses there may be some political posturing at work, with a leader in each group waiting to announce that they want to run themselves.

They’re using “rhetoric to get people to jump onto their cause.”

Another councillor, who took out a membership in Citizens for Halifax so she could attend the inaugural meeting late last year, says she’s not surprised that the special interest groups are rallying so hard this time around.

“It’s the silent majority who is now coming forth to say, ‘We sat here quietly and now we want something done,’ ” Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) said Wednesday.

“And, traditionally, governments react to those who scream the loudest.”

Deputy Mayor Stephen Adams (Spryfield-Herring Cove) said he prefers the grassroots approach to municipal governing, where no one particular agenda is pushed to the forefront through sheer volume, influence or affluence.

“I prefer to look at citizens for citizens,” he said Wednesday.

“I’m not going to get involved with any group, and then be beholden to anybody except the people I represent.”

Mayor Peter Kelly, who served five years as Bedford mayor before representing the district on Halifax’s first regional municipal council, says he’s not personally offended by the creation of the newest group supporting Bedford.

“I don’t see this as being a change of support or non-support,” he said Wednesday.

In fact, he plans to attend their meeting tonight in the Bedford legion.

He sees it as “an opportunity to explore challenges faced by the community,” like the on-again, off-again privately-driven triplex rink.

“There’s frustration that this (arena) has been discussed and discussed and discussed and promised and promised and promised and people are getting peeved,” he says.

“And I’m one of those people getting peeved as well. I see no reason why we can’t say, ‘Either do it or move out of the way so someone else can do it.’ ”

If communities like Bedford want to have more power through taxation or levying area rates through their community councils, then city hall will thoroughly look into that, he says.

“Who are we to stand in the way of change that can make our representation that much better?”

However, the group behind Citizens for Halifax feels that certain municipal representatives are doing exactly that.

According to their recently-drafted memorandum of association, they would like to field a roster of candidates in the fall election “that promote the governance of the Halifax Regional Municipality by promoting the creation of two municipal units, one for urban residents and one for rural residents.”

The citizens for Bedford group differs in their outlook, says committee member Donna Lugar, because they’re not interested in lopping off pieces of the municipality.

They want to work with what they’ve got and make it better.

“Bedford went into amalgamation kicking and screaming . . . and lately people are getting a little concerned that things weren’t undertaken,” Ms. Lugar said Wednesday.

She said it is not a reflection of the area’s representation through councillors Len Goucher (now an MLA) and Gary Martin, who was excused from his council duties just one month ago due to his long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Despite that assurance, Coun. Debbie Hum (Rockingham-Wentworth) says she’s “disturbed” that the group is holding their very first public meeting this week.

“To go public like that, at this point, is somewhat disrespectful of the position that the current councillor finds himself in,” she said of Mr. Martin’s stay in hospital.

“They’re not recognizing and appreciating the fact that Coun. Martin is really quite sick and not able to conduct his normal responsibilities.”

A few other councillors say that Mr. Christie is positioning his son for a run at the Bedford seat in the October election.

“That’s always the rumour,” Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) said Wednesday.

However, Mr. Christie says the group doesn’t currently support any candidates. He also says that about 200 are expected to turn out to today’s meeting because “there are a lot of issues out here now.”

“There are people who want rinks, who want community centres, who want schools and what they’re saying is that they want a vehicle to be able to voice all these things and I think that is what has hit the hot button out here.”

Mayor Peter Kelly’s only declared challenger says the emergence of all three groups signals a general discontent in the municipality.

Coun. Sheila Fougere (Connaught-Quinpool) thinks all of the groups have a lot in common but notes “they may not want to hear that.”

“I think that they are feeling that municipal government is not addressing what they think are their pressing needs.”

She hopes the groups will generate enough interest to get people out to the polls on election day.

“We have a very low voter turnout and it does make a difference whether they participate or not.”

( apugsley@herald.ca)

COMMENTS

POST YOUR COMMENT

bigmonkey wrote:
I’ve read this article twice now and wonder why these councillors are so concerned about political posturing. I hope this group in Bedford is not about that at all, and if it comes out that there are members of the group posturing, they should be asked to leave. This is about our community, not their agenda.

The population of the Bedford Community has doulbed over the last decade I think, correct me if I’m wrong yet, have the services kept up? No. It is time that this community started to be heard. I look forward to seeing our leaders join our meeting. Debbie Hum, leave your judgements at home and grow up. Just because a councillor is sick, and we know it’s a difficult time for Mr. Martin and his family, that being said, we can still hold meetings, “publicly”, I”m sure this meeting is not designed to attack Mr. Martin and the work he has done to date.

Time to speak up people of Bedford, and I put this out to the younger generation of Bedford, get involved. I’ve been to a couple meetings about the long term planning of Bedford and the majority of the attendees to those meetings were, let’s say, not of the baby boomer age. Ken

Billp wrote:
As far as “Citizens for Halifax ” they only care for only Halifax not the rest of HRM

Technorati Tags: Bedford,Halifax,Peter Kelly,Citizens for Halifax,Representation,unrest

Weighing in on basic wage

 

Editorial Staff

Tue. Feb 5 - 4:47 AM

FIVE YEARS AGO, the idea of a $2 hike in the minimum wage within three years would have triggered a stampede of protest from the business community. Anyone who floated such a concept would have been run out of town, along with the horse they rode in on. Well, that starter gun has now been fired. As for the horses, they aren’t even startled.

Reaction from corporate Nova Scotia was decidedly muted last week after the province’s Minimum Wage Review Committee, composed of employer and employee representatives, recommended incremental increases that would see the benchmark wage reach $9.65 by the end of the decade.

The government is now reviewing the report – and public input is welcomed until March 3 – but its initial reaction has been uniformly positive.

Something has changed, and it’s the realities on the ground. Demand for labour – both skilled and unskilled – is growing, while the pool of available labour is shrinking due to an aging population and the call of the West. “This trend will continue into the future and by 2016, it is forecast, there will be a province-wide shortage of labour in many occupations,” the report says. “The labour shortage puts upward pressure on wages. In response, a number of minimum wage employers have been offering higher wages in order to recruit and retain employees.”

In other words, market forces are already making the current minimum wage of $7.60 an hour uncompetitive. It’s also out of whack with the commonly used poverty barometer known as the low-income cut-off, as calculated by Statistics Canada. While it’s true that the minimum wage is only one mechanism with which to address poverty, and that it’s counterproductive to turn employers into beasts of burden, the fact is the working poor have been falling behind. According to the report, “from 1965 to 2006, the minimum wage worker’s real income when adjusted for inflation increased by five per cent. During the same period, the wage for the average worker adjusted for inflation increased by 88 per cent. For this reason alone, it is fair and reasonable to increase the minimum wage substantially and quickly to make up some of this lost ground.”

It also makes sense to stagger the increases over a three-year period so that employers can project labour costs, in the same way they would with a union contract, and to link the minimum wage to the cost of living beyond 2010.

What’s unfair is to create another tier of minimum wage for those who receive tips as they serve alcohol. While we do not wish to preclude the conclusions of a study now underway into that issue, clawing back gratuities strikes us as gratuitous and mean-spirited.

Technorati Tags: Minimum Wage,Halifax Public Libraries,Two Tier,editorial

HRM to review request by Bedford developers

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter

 

Technorati Tags: Bedford Development,Hum,Hensbee,Planning & development

Thu. Feb 7 - 5:47 AM

Permitting a new residential development in Bedford before a highway interchange is built to enable easy access to it is unacceptable, a councillor says.

“When I first received this, I was shocked,” Coun. Linda Mosher (Purcells Cove-Armdale) told councillors Tuesday night about a request to review the possibility of adding 2,000 building lots in Wentworth/Bedford South without a required Highway 102 connector.

“I don’t see why we should review this.”

Despite her vocal opposition, council voted in favour of staff reviewing the situation that now prevents the 2,000 new units from going ahead without a proposed interchange linking Larry Uteck Boulevard to Highway 102.

The lots have been on hold because of a clause in the Bedford South Secondary Planning Strategy that says developers have to wait until the interchange is in place.

But city planners have received several requests to permit development of a 190-hectare area, planner Andrew Bone told council Tuesday night.

A councillor who regularly uses the Bedford Highway says traffic counts and capacity studies don’t always paint an accurate picture.

“You only have to travel on it to know that, for many of us, we feel it’s already reached capacity,” said Coun. Debbie Hum (Rockingham-Wentworth).

“Critical to this (development) is the Larry Uteck interchange. We need to ensure that that moves forward.”

A staff report written for Tuesday night’s council meeting said the proposed interchange is to be in place by January 2010. But another councillor noted that timelines aren’t carved in stone.

“What if the interchange is not built in time?” said Coun. Reg Rankin (Timberlea-Prospect).

Another asked if staff will also research the strain that new developments place on other infrastructure.

“What about the septic capacity at Mill Cove?” asked Coun. David Hendsbee (Preston-Lawrencetown-Chezzetcook), pointing out that schools and community centres also bear the brunt of an influx of new residents.

“The developers want to push through with their investment, and I can understand that,” he said.

But all aspects of the development should be researched, he said.

( apugsley@herald.ca)