Housing affordability and traffic congestion dominate Halifax’s election
Posted October 4, 2024
Haligonians will vote for their municipal representatives on October 19, with early voting opportunities available beginning on October 8th.
No fewer than 16 citizens are competing for the job to replace Mike Savage, who is retiring after 12 years of service. This space is not large enough to consider them all. Regretfully it will only talk about three, each of whom agreed to an interview.
Readers can find websites for candidates here.” That site will also provide the list of 63 councillor candidates distributed among the 16 districts. Many of them have websites where their backgrounds and ideas can be found.
Pam Lovelace and Waye Mason are experienced HRM councillors; Andy Fillmore was a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2015 until September 3rd this year.
The mayor’s scope is less than that of a prime minister or provincial premier. Many, often most, of the members of those assemblies belong to the premier’s or prime minister’s political party. Securing the necessary votes for legislation is not a big concern.
Civic counsellors do not belong to party groupings. For any measure to pass requires a majority of independent thinkers. Fillmore likens the job to that of a board of directors chairperson. They have no role in the appointment of councillors, each of which is chosen by their district’s voters.
He and Mason agree that the mayor has to work with the councillors to fashion a consensus. The council elected on October 19 will include at least five new faces. The mayor should be involved in helping them to become knowledgeable and effective.
Lovelace views the job as having a more outward focus: promote economic development, bring in new businesses, negotiate with federal and provincial decision makers. She would challenge the province to grant greater powers for mayors, and to willingly giving up some of their share of property taxes. She would urge councillors to consider what is good for the whole municipality, not just their districts.
Fillmore and Mason applaud Savage’s twelve years as Mayor. They say he led a positive response to the unprecedented increase in population.
Fillmore applauds Savage’s efforts in marketing the municipality and working with economic development agencies. Asked what he would do differently ,he says less time at community events and more at the desk addressing the housing crisis, establishing key relationships, and finding new sources of funding.
To fulfill all of his ideas would increase taxes. He believes that his experience in federal politics would help him tap funds from the infrastructure fund; that may be more difficult after the likely end of Liberal rule. He would support innovative building methods and accelerate the permitting of new areas for development.
He supports bus rapid transit, which may get provincial support and will require major road modifications. He says that HRM must find a way to hire and retain more bus drivers and ferry operators.
All of this is going to cost money. To avoid increasing tax rates, he plans to find savings by eliminating inefficiencies, a favourite political promise which is rarely achieved. He is playing catchup with the others; as of October 3 his website does not provide a platform.
Mason admires Savage’s work with councillors but feels that more of that is needed. He would seek to have councillors converge on an overall direction that would guide the council for the next few years.
His list of commitments provides a something-for-everyone list reminiscent of federal and provincial platforms.
He asserts that there are more than enough areas approved for housing development. What is needed is faster building, which may mean allowing different kinds of prebuilt modules.
He favours an integrated traffic operations system which would, for example, have waiting time for lights adjusted to reflect traffic volumes in different directions. Transit vehicles should be privileged.
He acknowledges that all this will require more taxes.
Lovelace says that Savage is a great guy, but feels he has lost a vision for the region, and is not a leader on housing. She says he is more interested in bikes than transit. She is more outwardly focused and wants to spend her time on external audiences.
She feels that the rules governing the federal infrastructure fund do not address the municipality’s needs for housing or transportation. She advocates for car sharing, express routes, more transit (buses and ferries) and possibly a monorail. All of this would add costs and taxes.
She is confident that she can persuade the province to give up its share of property taxes, which currently help to pay for schools and social services. That seems unlikely.
As mayor, much of her time would be spent outside of city hall, pressing the provincial and federal governments on the size of their contributions and how they are restrictive, and with outside community groups. She underestimates the need to develop a working consensus among councillors.
Almost all of the platform commitments by candidates are subject to getting support from the elected councillors.
The best choice for mayor will be the one who can develop effective relationships with them, and with the other levels of government.
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