April 20, 2022 at 1:23 pm
CBRM council met on Tuesday to hash out details of its 5%, across-the-board tax cut but before they got into it, District 8 Councilor James Edwards moved that the cut be phased in over three years rather than introduced in one fell swoop. This led to a reprise of muchRead More
April 13, 2022 at 12:25 pm
CBRM council voted on a 5%, across-the-board — residential and commercial — property tax cut this week. I think this chart, from the province’s Open Data portal, helps provide some perspective on this. It shows average Nova Scotia municipal residential property tax rates from 2009/10 to 2020/21. (It’s interactive, youRead More
April 13, 2022 at 12:23 pm
When we left off, CBRM District 8 Councilor James Edwards (who, as noted in Part I of this article on the CBRM tax cut, is a former Canada Revenue employee), was agreeing that he too, would like to pay less tax, but arguing that to be “fiscally responsible,” any reductionRead More
December 1, 2021 at 1:16 pm
Here’s an item from last week’s CBRM council session on affordable housing that I really wanted to follow up on:Â Deputy Mayor (and District 2 Councilor) Earlene MacMullin proposed the municipality look into the possibility of turning the Northside General Hospital, scheduled for closure and demolition, into affordable housing —Read More
October 13, 2021 at 11:51 am
Editor’s Note: I’m trying something new this week to see how it pans out: I’m writing the first part of this article based on the information attached to the CBRM council agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. I will then write the second part based on what actually unfolds during the meeting.Read More
September 15, 2021 at 12:08 pm
There was a wonderfully wonky — yet important — item on the agenda of last night’s CBRM council meeting, and I am not talking about the CBRM declaring Paul’s Pizza Burgers the official food of the municipality for 2021. I am talking about an item that pleased me personally first,Read More
July 14, 2021 at 12:51 pm
CBRM council seems to have righted a three-year-old wrong during its July 6 meeting by declining to extend a waterfront pre-development agreement with Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Ltd (HRDL) — an agreement that included a new central library. As Mayor Amanda McDougall explained to council, this does not precludeRead More
March 31, 2021 at 2:24 pm
Here are the important takeaways from this morning’s CBRM special council meeting on the proposed new CBRM Central Library: Aurevoir, HRDL? Council took a major step toward ending the agreement that has given a private developer, Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Limited, control over the proposed new library. AtRead More
February 10, 2021 at 12:53 pm
Yesterday’s CBRM council meeting was a relatively short (just under an hour) and swiftly moving affair. The agenda contained just six items, the first three of which were approval of minutes, approval of agenda and proclamations (CBRM will mark White Cane Week from February 7 to 13). So I willRead More