Tales from council: The cats that ate city hall and other discussions around the table

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter, The Chronicle Herald
September 15, 2008

WITH A CITY HALL ELECTION just one month away, a few regional councillors reflected Sunday on some of the debates and decisions they’ve made over the past four years.

And the result?

Too much time spent on cats and taxis, both around the council table and in the media, while meatier issues were left in the background.

Much has been achieved and overlooked, they say, including improved bus service, a unified water and sewer commission, a streamlined planning and development process and the decision not to bid on the Commonwealth Games, which saved the city hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most of the current batch of councillors took their oath of office on Nov. 2, 2004, in the Bicentennial Theatre in Musquodoboit, home of then-deputy mayor Steve Streatch.

Council has acquired two new faces since then.

Coun. Becky Kent (Woodside-Eastern Passage) moved on to provincial politics and was replaced by Coun. Jackie Barkhouse in a December 2007 byelection.

And Coun. Gary Martin (Bedford) passed away earlier this year after a battle with cancer.

He was replaced, in May, by Coun. Tim Outhit. Despite his very short time in council chambers, Mr. Outhit has been exposed to many of council’s big ticket items.

That includes debates on the Bedford fast ferry, council’s approval of three major downtown developments, the tender to widen Chebucto Road ("which I voted against – twice," he says) and even a couple of rounds on cats.

"So it’s been lively," he said.

A few things surprised him about city hall, he says.

"There’s certainly more camaraderie and more collaboration than I expected, and the bureaucracy is far more helpful than I expected."

He’d like to see councillors have fewer opportunities to repeat points over and over so that meetings can be a little more efficient.

"I think the rules have got to change: We talk a little too often and a little too long," he said.

There’s a lot of talk, agrees Coun. Harry McInroy (Cole Harbour).

"I’ve always said the meetings are the most onerous because, typically, an awful lot of time is spent to get to a decision."

The mayor agrees.

"Sometimes it feels as though we get sidetracked on issues with a lack of substance, like the cat bylaw," he said Sunday.

"It took a while to get that (issue) where it should have gone in the first place," he said about council’s June decision to move responsibility of the issue over to the Nuisance Bylaw.

"But the fact is, it’s now there and we’ve moved on and it hasn’t been an issue since."

Taxi issues – including a staffrecommendation to de-regulate the industry which was rejected by council in June – also took up a lot of time.

And, sometimes council even gets blamed for wasting time on an issue when it didn’t even crop up at all.

Coun. Sheila Fougere (Connaught-Quinpool), who is running against Mr. Kelly to be mayor of Halifax, pointed out Sunday that regional council didn’t actually ever discuss another pet problem: Chickens.

"It got more coverage than anything we did, and it didn’t even come to council," she said Sunday.

The issue did come up at Peninsula Community Council, though, a subset of regional council that deals with planning matters for the four districts that make up part of the old city of Halifax.

It started when a west-end resident started keeping backyard hens for the dozen eggs they laid each week. It didn’t go over well with her neighbours, who complained that their feed would invite rats to set up shop too.

Despite the less meaty issues discussed around the table, council has had some great successes in the past four years, the mayor said.

"We now have one of the greatest integrated water and waste water systems in the country," he said, referring to the transfer of responsibility for the city’s wastewater and storm water assets to the Halifax Regional Water Commission in May, 2007.

"And I think it will be the prototype for others to follow."

Other achievements include the regional plan – the blueprint for the municipality’s future development patterns which was passed in April 2006 – and the current HRM By Design process, the fine-tuning of that plan for the downtown area, he says.

It’s significant to note how much public participation has grown with those, and other development-related issues, he says.

"What stands out for me is that over the last few years, you’re seeing more public participation into the planning process . . . and council is making better, more well-informed decisions because of it."

Another achievement, Mr. Kelly says, was putting an end, in March, 2007, to the city hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The games would likely have cost in the $2 billion range, he says.

While the Chamber of Halifax said the decision was "prudent," a few councillors – including Ms. Fougere – said the city and the province should have fought harder to host the games.

The mayor disagrees.

"I have no regrets whatsoever about what we did. The public is far better off financially because of it."

"Stopping the Commonwealth Games was a big decision," Coun. Gloria McCluskey (Dartmouth Centre) said Sunday.

"And I’m particularly proud of that."

Whether big or small, though, she says every decision is important because the issues stem from – and affect – the people they serve and represent.

"Even though (the issues) took time . . . and whether we thought they were frivolous or not, we have to deal with them because they come from the residents."

Coun. Harry McInroy, who is leaving municipal politics at the end of this term, is proud of the fact that the harbour is finally getting cleaned up through the $333-million project.

The Halifax treatment facility was commissioned in February of this year and two more – Dartmouth and Herring Cove – will follow.

"There’s no question that that was a significant highlight in the term," he said, stressing that the initiative got underway "two councils ago" under Mayor Walter Fitzgerald.

Key to his district, too, was the introduction of the MetroLink – a direct commuter bus line from Cole Harbour — in the summer of 2005.

A Sackville MetroLink route was added a year later.

The routes have proven so popular that park-and-ride lots at both locations have been increased in size to handle the onslaught of cars.