Councillor Cleary backstops HRM’s failed strategic plans

Thanks to Liberal member of Parliament Andy Fillmore talking to some of his constituents about municipal politics, the Transportation Standing Committee started with a lot of public speakers talking about the city’s ongoing water main replacement around Coburg Road. Part of this work includes building a mixed-use pathway on Coburg Road because it will save the city a lot of money and is in line with multiple municipal strategic plans. Fillmore also wrote a letter to the committee asking them to reconsider this fiscally responsible municipal infrastructure building. The Coast reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office asking if Fillmore’s meddling in the municipal bikeway was on behalf of the federal Liberals but did not receive a response from the PMO in time for publication.

Several members of the public spoke in favour of the city finally doing some good governance and long-term planning and building. Others, like doctor Magda Bernard, who lives near Coburg, argued that the city should keep the roads as dangerous as they are in the name of public health. This orthodontist argued that narrowing roads slows emergency vehicles, but this is not true.

After the public speakers finished, committee chair Pam Lovelace reminded everyone that they all talked about something that was not on the agenda and was not likely to change since construction had already started.

Once the committee got to the agenda, Halifax Transit gave their quarterly report. More people are riding the bus even as reliability drops. The demand for Access-A-Bus has increased, and the city was unable to provide 2,140 Access-A-Bus trips. This is double the amount of denied trips compared to last year due to people retiring and “an unusually high level of absenteeism.” Councillor Trish Purdy asked why absenteeism was “unusually high” and city staff explained that they asked employees to stay home when they were sick, and they did. Councillors will likely get more information on this in camera.

Councillor Shawn Cleary asked about ferry ridership since the ridership numbers were down. City staff said that they hadn’t done any analysis yet, but anecdotally ridership patterns are consistent with people not taking the ferry because there are fewer people working downtown. It should be noted that the ferry was often cancelled at the last minute during rush hour, which would make people less likely to plan a commute to the office on the ferry if there’s no guarantee that it’ll be running.

In good transit news, the city is spending less than expected on bus maintenance.

After the Transit update councillor Cleary put two motions on the floor. The first motion asks staff to write a report and come back with suggestions to increase parking permit fees for trucks and SUVs. The second motion asks staff to adjust traffic signs and signals to actually prioritize pedestrian safety. While it is good that these will both get staff reports, the city has an Integrated Mobility Plan, HalifACT the climate action plan, a Strategic Road Safety Framework and an Enterprise Risk Register that should all have prompted staff to generate these reports (and reports like them) on their own. The fact that Cleary has to put forward motions to direct staff to do things that strategic plans are already directing staff to do highlights a massive failure of Halifax’s municipal bureaucracy, Halifax’s strategic plans and Halifax’s city staff.

Councillor Waye Mason reluctantly supported Cleary’s motion (and Halifax’s strategic plans) for increased parking fees for larger vehicles because motorcycles should be cheaper. Councillor Patty Cuttell asked the committee to amend the motion to exclude weight because electric vehicles are heavy. This motion was amended to undermine the new Road Safety Framework and decrease pedestrian safety because electric vehicles are environmentally friendly. This will get a staff report.

For Cleary’s second motion, he pointed out that the city has a bunch of “pedestrian-oriented streets” with infrastructure that prioritizes car traffic. This doesn’t make sense, especially when you consider Halifax’s multiple strategic plans, which should have already prompted these changes. But that would require Halifax’s strategic plans to be functional documents that affect staff work and make the city of Halifax better.

Councillor Purdy put forward a motion to remove the traffic islands on Colby Village Drive and then immediately amended the motion to change the traffic calming administrative order to allow the city to remove traffic calming. Councillor Outhit wanted to know why, if this pilot was a failure, staff couldn’t come back to the committee with alternatives (ideally in line with the city’s strategic plans)? The new head of the Department of Public Works, Lucas Pitts, explained that this amendment is needed because the traffic calming administrative order currently requires a petition to enact changes to traffic calming and that traffic calming can only be changed when roads are being repaved anyway. These changes to the administrative order should allow for more flexibility for the HRM to enact its strategic plans if it ever finds the political will to do so.

Councillor Mason said that he was going to support the staff report on changes to the traffic calming administrative order, but he pointed out that this will still require council to approve spending money during next year’s budget to remove these islands, which is unlikely.

In response to a comment from a member of the public at the top of the meeting councillor Cuttell pointed out that big trucks are allowed to park on Connaught and block traffic if they’re working on properties, but instead of suggesting that people should have to pay for trucks to block Connaught and Colby drive, Cuttell suggested that we should allow people to cause congestion for free on both Connaught and Colby. It should be noted that allowing people to cause congestion for free exposes the HRM to increased risk as defined by the HRM in its Enterprise Risk Register.

Councillor Mason took the bus to the airport and realized the route was a bit garbage. He put forward a motion to try to get this rerouted. Deputy mayor Cathie Deagle Gammon has been trying to get this changed for years but hasn’t been able to. But now that the AeroTech connector is going to be complete by Christmas, things have changed. This will get a staff report.

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