The Grand Parade podcast: How HRM council might just have radically changed budgets for the better

It would be natural to think that Halifax’s five-year Strategic Priorities Plan, a vision set forth to clearly identify HRM council’s priorities—things like a “prosperous economy” with “safe, inclusive and affordable communities” and a “sustainable mobility network”—would have a bearing on how the region determines its annual budget. (Why else call them priorities?) But in recent years, the five-year vision has been just that: A vision, or a “mood board,” if you will. And that’s because—until now—Halifax’s budgets have been determined by prior spending, rather than future goals.

In one single meeting, on Nov. 28, 2023, councillor Tim Outhit flipped that on its head.

It happened as councillors were debating keeping the property tax rate low again, rather than going with the suggested 9.7% increase. Councillors are in a catch-22: They can vote to keep tax bills low (good for homeowners), but in doing so underfund much-needed municipal services (bad for everyone). Or they can fund municipal services (good for everyone) and raise taxes (bad for homeowners—and probably renters, too, who’d find themselves in a housing market with even higher rents to account for the higher taxes).

In other years, council would defer to its previous budgets to determine what it could afford to keep or would have to cut. But councillor Outhit wondered why the Strategic Priorities Plan wasn’t being used as it could be.

“We have our wishlist here. We all agree on this wishlist,” he said to CAO Cathie O’Toole. Why not, then, start with the wishlist when directing staff to set the HRM’s budget, rather than giving it second-fiddle treatment?

In this week’s episode of The Grand Parade, Coast city hall reporter Matt Stickland explains to Martin Bauman why this could change everything about Halifax’s budgeting process—and for the better. The two also discuss the Board of Police Commissioners’ latest meeting, and explored what would happen if advisory board positions were elected like the rest of HRM council.

For more city hall coverage, become a Coast Insider and you’ll receive Matt’s weekly dispatches on what’s happening at the HRM’s councils and committees—and why it matters to you.