The times they are a changing…… at least politically.

  There is a bielection today in Bedford with two worthy candidates each hoping to fill Gary Martin’s seat. They will face a challenge ….. Gary left a large void to be filled and the winner will only be in office till October and then its back to the poles.

When I arrived home yesterday there was a message from Stephen McNeil inviting me to the Nomination Meeting for Halifax Citadel …a reminder of how easily we could be facing a federal election.

Halifax councillor Sheila Fougere was in Dartmouth on Friday to unveil her mayoral campaign platform that has such planks as safer communities, improved public transit, better conditions for the city’s needy, more recreation centres and a smaller regional council.

All political parties and their candidates have to face the fact that the world has changed. The old world of ‘what’s your father’s name ….’ as an indicator of how you voted is over. The current generation of voters needs of feel that they are being heard, that their votes count and they will hold the political system to its promises….  or the next time they vote for somebody else.

This years mayoralty election in HRM will be interesting, this is the first time that Peter Kelley will face a credible opponent. In the previous election the only competition was from disgruntled bus drivers without any political capital.

Its still early and there very well be more people throw their hats in the ring but if it comes down to a choice between Peter & Sheila … to me its a no brainer… Sheila’s got my vote.

Waste ban worries Atlantic mayors

New federal guidelines hot topic at Atlantic congress
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter
Sat. Apr 12 - 5:00 AM

Small-town mayors like Woodrow French worry they won’t be able to cough up their share of the cost to meet federal guidelines that will ban communities from dumping raw or partially treated sewage into the ocean.

Mr. French, mayor of Conception Bay South, near St. John’s, N.L., says part of the town of 24,000 has no water and no sewer system — residents are on individual wells and septic systems — and the other part has a treatment facility that’s on its last legs.

“I now have a sewage treatment plant that is worn out,” Mr. French told the Atlantic Mayors Congress in Halifax on Friday.

“I have no business base in my community and all the moneys that are raised are basically on provincial and federal funding and on taxation as well.

“I’ve got crumbling infrastructure. I’ve got no money and part of the problem, I am dumping all sewage into a pristine bay, Conception Bay, and I feel bad about doing this.”

Environment Minister John Baird said Tuesday the federal government is prepared to make an $8-billion investment in cleaner water and hopes Canada’s provinces and municipalities will also chip in $8 billion each.

Halifax Regional Municipality’s $330-million primary sewage treatment system, which is just now being finished, was designed so it could be modified to provide secondary processing. That upgrade is expected to cost about $100 million.

Carl Yates, general manager of Halifax Water, says his heart goes out to small towns that may be starting from scratch to get proper infrastructure in place to handle their sewage.

“It is a bit overwhelming for them,” Mr. Yates said. “It is a very difficult challenge, in particular recognizing this is coming just after what we call in the industry, the Walkerton way. There’s been a tremendous push for new regulations for drinking water, which we believe in. We think that’s appropriate.”

More stringent regulations for drinking water were introduced in the wake of the Walkerton tragedy, in which seven people died in 2000 in Ontario after drinking water contam-inated with E. coli bacteria.

Halifax’s inland treatment plants that discharge into fresh water already provide secondary treatment or better, and so does the Mill Cove plant on Bedford Basin. The three new Harbour Solutions plants offer advanced primary treatment and would have to be upgraded to meet the new rules.

Though the cost-sharing between the three levels of government to implement the standards is not yet finalized, Atlantic mayors agreed Friday the usual one-third equal share for each no longer cuts it for the municipalities.

“We cannot continue to operate on this concept,” Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee said.

While the mayors support the new guidelines and recognize the importance of protecting the environment, one thing not being looked at is the funding side, he said.

“We need, as a nation, to sit down and say who are we paying our taxes to and what are we getting for it?” Mr. Lee said.

“We know what the roles of municipal governments are in this country. This is the level that provides the services that everybody in this country depends on, on a day-to-day basis.”

“Who is the taxpayer paying the least amount of money to? It’s to this level of government.”

A recent expansion to Charlottetown’s waste-water treatment plant has meant the cost of operating it “is a lot higher this year than it was last year,” Mr. Lee said in an interview.

“We just brought down our budget for 2008 a few weeks ago and we had to increase the water and sewer rates in the city of Charlottetown (by four per cent) to provide what we provided last year,” he said. “And, actually, we had to cut some of the level of services of maintenance in our system to get the budget passed.”

Corner Brook Mayor Charles Pender said the Newfoundland town was caught off guard by this week’s announcement.

“Up to this point, absolutely, we had no consultation from the federal or provincial governments that this was coming,” Mr. Pender told his counterparts. “For us, it was an awful shock.”

“We had originally looked at about $24 million for sewage treatment for Corner Brook, using a combination of primary and some secondary,” he said.

“Now, we’ve had to go to secondary, which now means we would have to go from $24 million to $32 million. . . . By the time we get there then, we might be looking at $40 million to $50 million to deal with this one issue.”

Port Hawkesbury is ahead of the game with its $11-million regional sewage treatment plant, the second phase of which will open in two weeks.

“Basically, in Port Hawkesbury, we were very fortunate in the sense that five years ago we decided to do an assessment study environmentally to see just what we should put in place,” Mayor Billy Joe MacLean said in an interview.

“The laws we’re talking about today, five years ago, we thought that’s what the law should be and will be. So therefore we jumped on board and went ahead and did it.”

If the guidelines proceed, the mayors congress will work with municipal associations, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and provinces to ensure that federal funding to municipalities to meet the standards is included as part of the implementation strategy to enable all regions to comply.

The mayors are also calling upon the federal and provincial governments, in designing and developing the funding strategy, to address the capital and operating costs.

The congress, formed in 2001, consists of mayors from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

( sborden@herald.ca)

Technorati Tags: Halifax Chronical Herald,S Borden,Political Comment,Wast Cost,Mayors

COMMENTS

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Frawin wrote:
As a Nova Scotian now living in a small town in Newfoundland, I am wondering what these small municipal units will do to meet the new guidelines. You become very aware of the outmigration in Newfoundland when you are living here. The jobs aren’t here nor the money. Our property tax and water bill went up 25% from last year - from $600 to $804. Does anyone really think that retired people can continue to come up with additional funds? I support the government’s efforts to keep pollutants out of water ways but how can people who live on retirement income in communities that are hanging on by a thread possibly be expected to cough up even more money?

Wingman wrote:
This going green and the enviornment is going to bankrupt everyone.

Will they ever learn? I doubt it!

By Les Muise, March 26/08 posted to www.myhalifaxca.wordpress.com & www.lesmuise.wordpress.com

Recently MLA Diana Whalen posed an interesting question in her Letter to the Editor of the Halifax Chronicle Herald that pointed at the shoddy handling of the ‘ Mainland Common Recreation Center by the staff and elected officials of the Halifax Regional Municipality. I’m in full agreement with Mrs Whalen’s position and the comments offered by Bette El-Hawary, P.A. Kidd, Rhonda Beers, Francis MacDonald, and Doug Boudreau each in their own Letters to the Editor, all of whom speak from their personal frustration with the whole process and lack of involvement by our elected leaders.

I have a few comments of my own but first some personal history.

Where to start?

This issue has been part of my world for as long as I can remember.

• I’ve lived between Meadowlark Crest.,Chadwick Place and Westridge Drive for 30 of the past 35 years.
• I attended Halifax West High School when it was on Dutch Village Road and was considered a New School with 1,500 students from the area now serviced by Halifax West, J.L. Ilsley & Sir John A MacDonald. All bussed in each day by a fleet of 50 buses and requiring 6 portable classrooms and split shifts in my grade 10 year.
• I remember when Lacewood Dr. stopped at Bayview, when the YMCA opened the Northcliff Pool with its inflatable roof, and when there was no Dunbrack Dr or Bayers Lake or Parkland Drive.
• I remember when the old city of Halifax took over the Northcliff Pool from the YMCA (they could not afford the upkeep of the roof) to serve a population of   20,0000 in its catchment area.
• I’ve witnessed the phenomenal growth of the community referred to as Clayton Park & Clayton Park West from a sleepy bedroom community, where new homes sold for $  28,000 to $35,000 as it grew into a dynamic, thriving, multicultural center with new homes in the $  250,000 to $ 500,000 range and a population in the service catchment area that is pushing past the  200,0000 mark. Most of that growth exploded into the area in the last 10 – 14 years.
• I have watched the change in what ‘we the people‘ want in our community. There is a much greater demand for municipal services that would not have been considered in the past.
• I have campaigned door to door with the candidate in the past two Provincial Elections and was campaign coordinator for a candidate in the past Municipal Election   & was at his side at every door, every day of that champagne and I have a pretty good idea of what this community was asking for at that time.
• I have attended Chebucto Community Council meetings on this issue when I was one of a dozen people in attendance & when the room was over filled with angry residence objecting to a proposed Recreation Center that resembled a resort with out the floating bar.
• I have attended ‘Town Hall’ meetings at the New Halifax West with a couple of hundred other concerned citizens where we were treated as unwanted interference and at one session managed and controlled as to what we were allowed to ask.
  • I have spoken out at every one of these sessions of my concern that the      City was not building a facility for the future of our community but was doing the minimal that it could get away with and ducking the responsibility.
• I have been involved with the Build It Right group from its inception as a public participant, a petition signature gatherer and I’ve attended meetings as a member with the Managers of both the Department of Planning        & Development and Recreation and Sport. where our concerns were treated with a rather condescending attitude.
• I have talked personally with those same Department managers where they have commented that ‘anything is possible if there is the political will’. And there is the biggest part of this problem, that lack of political will starts right at the top.
  • Every project with in the Recreation and Sport domain had been waiting with baited breath for a successful Commonwealth Games Bid. It was absolutely mind boggling the number of times that the Management of those departments commented that ‘everything depends on getting the Commonwealth Games and being able to tap into the ‘extra’ funding that would be available from the Federal Government because we were hosting an international event of this stature.
  • This logic came to a grinding halt the day that his highness Peter Kelley unceremoniously pulled the City’s support of that Bid. Not only was that decision an insult to the hundreds of bid participants in business community but it ended every one of those projects that had been using the strategy of waiting for the Holy Grail…. there was no plan B, so back to the drawing board we go…. effectively pushing each of those projects a year or two further down the road or in some cases off the road all together.

The Current Reality

After ten (10) years of public involvement it angers me that here we are seven     (7) months before the next Municipal Election and the City & Province are still stonewalling the public as to their plans for this facility.

• How can anyone be expected to believe that the huge amount of heavy earth moving that is currently being done on the proposed site is in preparation….without a plan!!! Talk about throwing money away! I f you believe that I’ve got some swamp land in Florida that you can buy for $1,000.00

From my perspective in this situation the ‘City’ lacks leadership and any firm vision & direction that would come as part of a strong Mayor & Council. There has been a deliberate effort to pacify the community by using the       HRM’s version of Public Consultation and much like what has been happening with the    School Review Process and lets be clear …. this attempt has failed.

By ignoring the the input of community based organizations like    Build It Right and the hundreds of voices heard at the many public meetings the ‘City‘ is setting its self up for ridicule, criticism and controversy.

The attitude of ‘Concerned Citizens’ has changed over the years. The hundreds of people from this community who have taken the time out of their busy lives to be involved in the process, to make their concerns known, ultimately   need to know that their voice was heard and taken into consideration.

Short of that, the process is flawed, the project will become a lightning rod for all the complaints that will be rightly aired.

The Missing Link

In all of the years that this situation has dragged through the painfully slow process, the missing component has been the political will of our elected representatives. The counselors for this area have resisted any objective input from the public and for the most part have avoided any involvement, despite repeated invitations. Not once have I seen, heard or read of Mayor Kelley having attended a meeting on this matter, nor has his opinion ever been expressed publicly although comments from staff as to the lack of Political Will starting at the top have made it clear what position        Mr Kelly has taken.

If Halifax wants to continue to grow and keep its youth, to keep some of the new graduates from our universities and have the young geniuses of the (RIM) technology world make this their home its time to face reality.

• Its time to invest in our youth by giving them a chance to grow to their potential with a ‘Center of Excellence’ .
• Its time to invest in a positive and healthy community by providing a community / recreation canter that promotes an active and involved lifestyle for all ages.
• Its time to invest in our communities by putting the services where they are convenient and stop using the logic that oh well you can do that over there … on the other side of the city …    45 minutes each way [by car  & 2 hrs by bus ... during peak hours]
• Its time for strong, aggressive leadership that chases all potential stakeholders and doesn’t stop till they get the best for Halifax. If Port Hawksbury can raise the funds…. you know the rest of that comment!
• Its time to make the changes in all of the processes to effective allow public participation    &   to speed up those processes thereby allowing Halifax to grow into the great city that it could be.

In Closing

Halifax is a great city & Clayton Park is a fabulous area in which to live.

To me the fix for this situation comes down to a change in attitude and a new approach. The key objective of any project undertaken by the Halifax Regional Municipal  should be;

• by using effective community consultation the project meets the needs of the community,
• all the participants can be proud of their involvement, proud of the facility      and proud of Halifax.

In reality it is a team approach with bottom up concept development combined with conciliation and facilitation, add some creative problem solving along with a consistently positive attitude by all involved. And that’s an approach will make the difference. I’ve been known to say on more than one occasion “give me the right attitude and anything is possible”.

Couple that approach & attitude with a strong leadership team that is willing to be involved in the community, to be transparent in its methods, accountable to the voters, and willing to promote Halifax as a great place to live at every opportunity and through every method and most importantly be ready & willing to fight for every ounce of funding that we are due.

No matter what Moncton says Halifax is the regional center and should start acting accordingly, on all levels. Invest in the infrastructure, the facilities and the people …. the rest will be here or come here.

Unfortunately it appears that the Mayor and Counselors have decided to go into the upcoming election with a [potentially] flawed proposed facility hoping to gain community support for their version of what is needed.

I wouldn’t want to be knocking on doors this fall with any of them…. its not going to be nice.

Aging roads, bridges worry Halifax

By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter
Wed. Feb 20 - 5:27 AM

City hall’s senior managers urged Halifax regional council Tuesday to make the municipality’s aging infrastructure a priority during budget talks this spring.

But perennial cost pressures will make it a challenge to focus on such things as city streets and overpasses and rural bridges, they said.

Dan English, the city’s chief administrative officer, told councillors during a fiscal planning session they should not only earmark a significant amount of money to cover crucial infrastructure projects but should also turn their attention to recruiting and keeping municipal staff.

“Our staff are our most important resource, and we face the same challenges as other employers as we struggle to attract and retain talent,” Mr. English said. “Not unlike our infrastructure, we have not made the kind of investments that we should have in our people.”

Mr. English said “progress has been made” on the personnel front — he cited planned pension improvements and modest pay increases — but these are “just a first step in our journey to becoming an employer of choice.”

He encouraged his political masters to consider staffing municipal departments with the future in mind.

“It will take a long-term commitment to making the kind of investment that is required to ensure we are more competitive” in the labour market, Mr. English said.

Canadian municipalities have long complained to Ottawa about crumbling infrastructure and the need to invest in improvements. Halifax city hall officials are hopeful the federal government will earmark considerable cash for projects in next week’s federal budget.

The city’s proposed 2008-09 budget is to be released in April. Mayor Peter Kelly asked municipal staff to explore tapping into new revenue sources, such as borrowing against a Halifax Regional Water Commission dividend fund, as a way to bankroll infrastructure work.

The mayor said boosting the city’s ability to pay for needed projects would help end the “Band-Aid” treatment of old infrastructure.

City staff presented council with a list of “priority (capital project) items” that haven’t been funded yet. These include Metro Transit’s Rural Express ($1.3 million), the expansion of the Woodlawn public library ($1.1 million), a retrofit for the Captain William Spry Centre in Spryfield ($1.4 million) and needed improvements around Lake Banook in Dartmouth for the 2009 world canoe championships ($1 million).

A couple of councillors noted the projects are missing in action and there “is a public expectation” that work that council authorizes will get done. Staff said the priority items can still be worked on, but the city can only do so much with the financial, and human, resources it has.

Staffing levels have steadily gone down recently, councillors were told.

This being a municipal election year, the subject of the city’s tax rate for homeowners and business operators reared its head at times during Tuesday’s money meeting. There were councillors who made a point of saying they wouldn’t support a rate increase, while others said it’s premature to rule out a hike.

The best way to handle the dilemma of funding capital projects, the meeting was told, would be to use a triage method of assigning priority to the various things that need to be done.

( mlightstone@herald.ca)

 

Technorati Tags: Halifax,Budget,Infastructure,Roads

Kelly wants URB to speed it up

  By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Fri. Feb 15 - 5:49 AM

The Utility and Review Board should deliver its decisions quicker to bring the development appeal process to a speedier conclusion, Mayor Peter Kelly says.

“Anyone is entitled to due process, and to me, a 30-day rendering is reasonable,” he said in an interview.

The review board is the quasi-judicial tribunal that hears appeals of city hall’s decisions on downtown development.

Recent appeals involved the Midtown Tower Hotel, which was to go on the current Midtown Tavern site on Grafton Street, and the so-called Twisted Sisters, a 27-storey twin-tower development United Gulf proposed for the old Tex-Park site on Hollis Street.

In both cases, regional council approved the developments but heritage groups and other interested parties appealed the decisions within weeks.

The Twisted Sisters project will go ahead, the Midtown Tower Hotel will not.

Although the length of the hearing process is hard to control, Mr. Kelly said the 90-day decision-making process should be shortened.

“I know that it is sometimes challenging, but to be fair to the appellants and the development community, there needs to be some definition of time frames in order to clearly see from start to finish,” the mayor said.

“There is nothing that complicated in development issues or appeals in development.

“It should be a 30-day rendering and that should be made law.”

The city is already working on changes to its own processes to streamline things for developers, Mr. Kelly said. There are plans to cut wait times for applications by 30 per cent, he said.

“This would reduce the average number of months required for a plan amendment to approximately nine months, for a rezoning to approximately six months, and for a development agreement to eight months.”

As well, the city is drafting a new set of guidelines for downtown development in its HRM by Design initiative. Essentially, it will determine “what goes where” downtown, the mayor said.

“That will set the tone for the downtown so there will be less room for interpretation and more definition of what you can and can’t do,” he said. “That should reduce the number of appeals.”

A report is expected to come before council in about April, he said, with final public participation sessions occurring after that.

“We need to do our piece, which we are doing,” the mayor said.

“But they (the province) need to do their piece, which is refining the Utility and Review Board process.”

Premier Rodney MacDonald made his own promise this week to curb delays in downtown Halifax’s development process.

At last weekend’s provincial Conservative convention, he said the province hopes to “fix the issue.”

“We’re not going to sit back and wait for things to happen,” the premier told reporters.

“That means working with the city to make sure the process is clearly defined and is not going to stop development from taking place.”

This week, the premier’s spokesman said the province is already pondering changes.

“Basically we’re looking at how we can streamline the process to make sure the appeals process is more efficient and consistent,” Joe Gillis said.

“One of the problems developers and businesses face is that the appeals process can be unwieldy and uncertain, and that leaves uncertainty in their business case and bottom line.”

If they know upfront what the rules of engagement are and what the timelines are, they are better able to make decisions, Mr. Gillis said.

“Beyond the ‘Whose role is it?’ though, one of (the province’s) roles is to attract business and help business grow, and Halifax being Halifax, we know what businesses want, so it’s our job to work with the city to get beyond or reduce barriers.

“It just makes sense.”

( apugsley@herald.ca)

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Urban Coyote wrote:
Geez, is this the same Peter Kelly who drags his feet and creates committees and focus groups, and panels to study different situations endlessly? Is this the same Peter Kelly who can’t create any forward momentum, or make decisions on anything? Now he wants to speed up a decision process? Why the sudden change? Ahhhh yes, must be an election coming up. Trying to make himself look good after years of sitting on his rear end.

Technorati Tags: Peter Kelly,Development,PUB

Moncton mayor denies big-act rivalry

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Fri. Feb 15 - 5:41 AM

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: Halifax,Moncton,Event Competition,Misic

Mayor hooks up with Big Apple concert promoter

Relationship ‘cost us nothing’; opponents fear duplicated efforts
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Thu. Feb 14 - 3:45 PM

A New York concert promoter is busy working on Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly’s behalf to secure a concert for the Commons this summer.

The problem is, regional council had already authorized the provincial agency Events Halifax to do the same thing.

And the result could cost the city, some councillors say.

“It’s probably leading to some confusion in the marketplace,” Coun. Andrew Younger (East Dartmouth-The Lakes) said Wednesday.

“You have two groups trying to promote Halifax, and at the end of the day, they’re competing with one another. Which isn’t good for anybody.

“It will either cost more money or it will cost us concerts. Either way, it’s not good.”

Last year, the city approved and signed a memorandum of understanding with Events Halifax to bring up to three concerts to the Commons this summer. No other side deals were meant to be going on, one councillor said Wednesday.

“We didn’t authorize a sole-source to another agency,” said Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End).

The mix-up is one reason Halifax could lose a proposed Eagles concert to Moncton, she said, although she pointed out that nothing has been signed yet.

“Tour promoters are not going to know who they are supposed to be dealing with,” she said.

“Concert promoters do not like to negotiate through the public, but you can land this latest failure squarely with management and the mayor.”

The president of Creative Entertainment Group confirmed Wednesday that she has a “written contract” with Halifax to pursue acts on the city’s behalf. But Sharon Kim-Dion, speaking from New York, was tight-lipped about what concerts she is trying to land.

“It’s a written agreement but only for very specific artists,” she said. “And those artists are the kind that can fill the Commons space,” that is, those that can attract more than 40,000 people.

“There’s only about half a dozen artists in the world that can fill that kind of venue.”

It’s a “very informal” agreement, Ms. Kim-Dion said.

“The way we work is very confidentially. We don’t make any announcements about our roles. We’re simply advising city council and the mayor to bring some real top-tier entertainment to the city.”

But Mr. Younger said something is out of whack if a concert promoter other than Events Halifax is on board.

“We signed a memorandum of understanding with Events Halifax to be the sole promoter on our behalf,” he said. “We did that because council is not in the business of being concert promoters. And EH is.

“I mean, I’d love to see the Dave Matthews Band play, but I don’t plan on calling them up and asking them if they want to come play. I’ll leave it to the professionals.”

The mayor said Wednesday that CEG was brought in to alleviate some of the confusion created by the loss of three key concerts last year.

“There were bidding wars over a couple of acts that were possibly coming here,” he said, naming Justin Timberlake, Elton John and Kiss.

“It got so intense that they said, ‘Not interested.’

“So we developed a relationship with CEG, it cost us nothing, they are working with a local promoter here and they are trying to bring acts to HRM.”

Pressed further, Mr. Kelly said the relationship with CEG started with a letter written on his mayoral stationery.

“I was the one that wrote the correspondence to them,” he said, indicating he wrote it on his own behalf, not for council or city staff.

“It was in response to the concerns we faced last year (with the bidding war), so we entered into an understanding that they would work with local promoters and try to bring some quality name act or acts here and that is what we were trying to achieve.”

Asked about the impression that CEG and Events Halifax are doing the same thing, Mr. Kelly said: “The one (memorandum of understanding) for Events Halifax is not exclusive. Although we would certainly welcome any acts that they may bring.”

The mayor said the dual involvement of CEG and Events Halifax won’t hurt chances of more Commons concerts.

“There is already one concert booked for this summer, Keith Urban, and there are more in negotiation, so the chances are, there will be two.”

He said no taxpayers’ money has gone to CEG.”There is no cost here,” he said. “This has cost the municipality not one thin dime, other than the cost of postage.

“For us, 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, and we’ll work with all the stakeholders to make sure that we remain a place of desirability for concerts.

“We just tried an approach that was unique for us but one that we hope will bring a return.”

When pressed further, though, Mr. Kelly acknowledged that the only name on the original letter to CEG is his.

“I believe that trying to assist in a leadership role here for us is being more aggressive in trying to work with our stakeholders to bring acts to HRM,” he said.

The mayor came under fire last summer for getting involved in concert promotion. He met with an English promoter and sent postcards inviting bands to play in Halifax. None of it was on council’s behalf, Ms. Uteck noted at the time.

“Sometimes you’re darned if you do and darned if you don’t in terms of showing that leadership,” Mr. Kelly said.

Fred MacGillivray, CEO of Events Halifax, said the agency will continue to bring concerts to Halifax as it has done for years.

“The city has obviously made a decision on their own, whether it’s the mayor’s office or whoever it is, to try and go off on their own and do these things. So that’s their business.

“Obviously, if you listen to the feedback from the concert business, bidding up concerts and concert opportunities doesn’t help the marketplace.”

( apugsley@herald.ca)

COMMENTS

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Peter M wrote:
Obviously Events Halifax is not doing a good enough job or we would have the big shows here. It seems to me that all they care about it hockey and anything else that they can try to get their stadium for. I’m glad Peter Kelly is taking the initiative to do something about getting concerts. Now if they would make it easier for the promoter instead of having every bylaw enforcer out, it would be even easier. Moncton knows how to do this and mabye we should learn from them as we can’t seem to get it right here.

jp29 wrote:
The Police just announced their final string of dates ever with Elvis Costello opening. Now that would be a show worth having on the Commons.

Halifax wrote:
I’m glad Peter Kelly is taking the bull by the horns. Someone has to have the guts to do it. So thank you for trying, Mr. Kelly.

spaustin wrote:
I’m all for concerts but since when was it the mayors job to get involved in this whole business? This concert focus of his is ridiculous. Get on with governing the municipality already.

corvus wrote:
I’ve never understood why Moncton and Halifax haven’t got together and tried to sell the idea of two maritime shows in venues that hold more than 50,000. Instead we play into this phoney competition with Moncton which only results in the winning party paying more than they have to for the concert. Sue Uteck will use ANY issue to slam the mayor because she’s already working on the next election and any commentary she has regarding the Mayor can’t be taken seriously. Whoever she supports for Mayor in the next will NOT get my vote.

bondjamesbond wrote:
The Mayor says it isn’t costing the taxpayer “one thin dime”. Well he is the paid mayor of the city and he has obviously spent quite a bit of time and energy on this. It looks like he and the rest of the councillors will spend a lot more of their time and energies getting some B - list has-beens to come in for a show. So that’s time and energy that could have been spent on some of the city’s many other problems. There is a cost. These folks are paid to run the city and they’re taking time away from their core duties for this stuff. Concerts should be left to commercial enterprise. If there’s a market for the product, promoters will make it happen. But maybe the mayor & co would rather hobnob with their high school idols and pretend they’re in the bigtime rather than deal with crime in the streets, school violence, crumbling streets, taxes, transit etc etc. which is what they were elected to do and paid by the taxpayers to do. Back to work Your Worship!

Heatherdee wrote:
I don’t live in the HRM but it did occur to me this is the second time Mayor Kelly has cast his eye towards a NYC organization to assist in his ailing fortunes. The Mayor has a responsibility to work with council and the established framework, not go it alone. Hey, Province of NS - where is the Annapolis Valley’s “Events” arm? Or the South Shore’s, or…? So much for promoting rural economic development.

hali79 wrote:
nova scotia is the worst province in canada. back water dummies!!!!! i hate it here …

steve80 wrote:
Well, now our micro-managing mayor is apparently also an expert in the world of entertainment business. Is it not enough that he presides over the annual blaring of Christmas music from City Hall? Give us a break. Mr. Kelly…

Dartmouth’sbetter wrote:
The Halifax Commons is a terrible venue. It’s just a flat field. The Citadel is much better. Driving 2 hours to Moncton is better than driving to Montreal or Toronto to see a show. Moncton is the most sensible concert spot, considering how central it is. They draw better crowds because of it.It’s actually better for many northern Nova Scotians to travel to Moncton rather than Halifax. It’s time for certain Halifax-types to stop being so petty and let Moncton have the big shows.

DennisM wrote:
If I were a taxpayer in Halifax, I would be calling my local councilor and demand they and the rest of city council focus on nuturing the local music industry rather than trying to get themselves free tickets to big shows. I enjoy a good concert as much as the next person (I’m sure AC/DC would attract about 100000 people easily), however one-time concerts won’t differentiate Halifax from most other cities. Rather than focusing on one-time events, the city would be better off trying to promote a music festival. The New Orleans Jazz Festival, South By Southwest, The Edmonton Folk Fest are just a few examples. A Halifax music festival would not only help to showcase the tremendous local talent that Halifax has, over time you’d see the big acts lining up to make sure they played the event too. I would love to come visit Halifax every year to see all the local acts in one place and not an industry event like the ECMAs which take place in the winter in different cities. Just a few acts that come to mind include Dog Day, Jenn Grant, Joel Plaskett, and October Game. I’m sure people could name a lot of others. Halifax should be looking to help it’s own rather than trying to add a few more bucks into the pockets of millionaires from other countries.

jiggawatt wrote:
Halifax NOT getting the Eagles is just another after-effect of the fiasco that was the Common Wealth bid and the ‘joke’ of trying to get Celine Dion on the Commons. Mayor Kelly is an embarrassment. He should NOT be in the business of being promoter — frankly he sucks at it. And frankly he also sucks at being a Mayor!! This turkey needs to leave the promoting to Events Halifax and attend to more important city matters. But frankly I don’t think he’s capable of taking care of complex city issues. Simply, he should take some finger painting classes and do some wall murals down on Barrington —– we’ll make sure its water paint so he does less damage.

Backlash brewing in Bedford

By MARILLA STEPHENSON
Thu. Feb 7 - 6:22 AM

MARILLA STEPHENSON

A DOZEN YEARS into the grand vision of a Halifax supercity, the reality is turning out to be anything but.

A group of Bedford residents — led by Peter Christie, the former mayor and cabinet minister — is pushing for new powers to provide the former town with additional clout to help decide how its tax dollars are spent. The group is the latest to demand changes to the municipal government struc­ture imposed upon the four units that preceded Halifax Regional Municipality.

Christie says they want changes that would also be available to other communi­ties, indicating that the dissat­isfaction with the current model is not unique to Bedford. “I don’t think it is different at all,” he told me this week.

“We don’t argue that Bedford should have something that others don’t; we’re just arguing that we need a new model.

“We’re not saying that we’re different or better than anyone else. We’re simply saying that we find ourselves with finan­cial capacity and no ability to do anything.” Information sent out by the group indicates Bedford’s tax­able assessment has increased by 95 per cent in the past 25 years while the population has grown to 20,000 residents from 6,000. Like many other commu­nities with significant growth, there is a feeling in Bedford, Christie says, that correspond­ing increases in services, espe­cially for recreation facilities, have not kept pace.

“We have one councillor out of 23 and, God bless them, they all have their own needs and desires. I don’t think I need to tell you that HRM council is a tad dysfunctional. We simply can’t get anything done.”

The group is holding a public meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bedford legion. The plan is to find out how much support there is to push forward with a request to the municipality to allow Bedford to have its own community council, with an increase in powers that would enable the council to decide on items such as recreation spend­ing and other infrastructure.

This is a messy kettle of fish for Mayor Peter Kelly, who, like Christie, was a former Bedford mayor before moving on to bigger things. Trouble on Kel­ly’s home turf will not sit well in an election year. Coun. Shei­la Fougere, who announced last year that she will chal­lenge Kelly for the mayoral crown, was quick to respond to the political opportunity the Bedford uproar has offered.

“After nearly 12 years and various configurations for HRM’s community councils, it’s time to refine this concept to bring local government back to where it is supposed to be — closest to the people it affects,” Fougere said in a statement.

“A common theme that comes from every part of the municipality is that broad­brush decisions are being made that are irrelevant to many residents in divergent parts of HRM.”

While the Bedford group’s letter commends local council­lor Gary Martin and prede­cessor Len Goucher for work­ing “long and hard” to get Bedford’s concerns heard, any reference to Kelly is notably absent.

That may be in part because of a controversy over a private proposal to build a multi-arena complex in Bedford to address ice shortages.

Christie says it is three years since the developer and a group of businessmen (in­cluding him) asked city hall for a report on whether such a complex would receive a tax exemption for its ice surfaces, as is the case for other rinks in the province.

“We are now three years later and there has been no report; no response. Do I just wait until my grandchildren are grown up and gone? When is the drop-dead date? We’ve concluded it’s now.”

The situation was exacerbat­ed by the city’s decision to request a call for proposals for a public-private partnership to build rinks, says Christie, undermining the developer and his investors.

“On Thursday night, people will hear a lot of hockey moms say that it’s the last straw. For some people, it’s the need for a community centre.

“A number of our group sat on town council and they know how you get it done. They know those levers aren’t available to us anymore. So we want some of those levers back.”

Christie points out that another group has come forward demanding the municipality be split into two regions, one urban and one rural. It seemed like a good time to join the debate.

“We’re saying here’s our two cents’ worth. For us it’s not a boundary issue. It’s an issue of having some autonomy and some local control.”

It all sounds quite reasonable, until one considers the potential impact of what could quickly evolve into a two­tier government structure that might prove expensive. But since pretty well every community in the region feels it is paying higher taxes to provide better services for somebody further down the road, some control over local spending might help address those concerns. Hey, that almost sounds like de-amalgamation, on a smaller scale.

Regardless of where this discussion leads, it is clear that our regional council has fallen short in terms of meeting the expectations of communi­ties in the region — or even of provid­ing answers in a timely fashion.

I asked Christie whether council’s inability to move on issues is part of the problem. “It is the problem,” he was quick to reply.

(mstephenson@herald.ca)

 

Technorati Tags: Peter Christie,Peter Kelly,Bedford Unrest,Representation

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

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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

HRM mum on pool in Mainland Common rec centre plans

Technorati Tags: Build it right,Mainland Common,Humm,Wild,Recreation

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Tue. Feb 5 - 5:49 AM

After years of community consultations and a few return trips to the drawing board, the city has finally decided on a design for a Mainland Common recreation centre.

But the dimensions of the centre’s highly contentious pool — and its price tag — will remain under wraps pending financing arrangements and council’s appro