District 1 is a massive area, ranging north and east from the Sackville outskirts of the urban core to the far edges of our PEI-sized Halifax Regional Municipality. It boasts rural farming communities and, closer to the core, “downtown” Fall River—once a bustling community hub turned parking lot, which in turn has become an THE unofficial motorcycle meeting place due to the proximity of the fun-to-ride Waverley Road.
There are many mixed rural-suburban districts in the Halifax Regional Municipality, that sprawling amalgam of town, city and country. The challenge for anyone who seeks to become councillor for such a district in the October 19 HRM elections is that the two voter bases, the rural and the suburban, need very different things. Rural voters would like their taxes to pay for municipal services, so rural communities don’t have to rely so heavily on volunteers to provide things like fire fighting or recreation services. Suburban voters want lower taxes.
But it’s hard to efficiently provide more municipal services in rural parts of the HRM. In District 1, many of the suburbs are the far-flung, even-lower-density mutation of burbs known as exurbs, which are only accessible by car. These suburban properties should be paying more taxes. A study out of Dalhousie University in 2017 found that these exurbs cost a metric fuckton of money, while generating only enough tax revenue to offset a very small fraction of the millions of dollars their roads put the HRM into the red.
(As an aside, this study also found that the higher-density portions of the HRM have healthier transportation and that the city makes way more money in those areas.)
(And if graphs aren't your thing, the Dalhousie team that did that study also created an infographic of their key findings.)
In political terms, the voter base in District 1 is naturally divided, each half opposed to the other. The rural residents want to see more for their tax dollars, but in order for that to happen, the exurban residents either need to pay a lot more, or exurbs need to cost the city a lot less. Generally speaking, the folks who live in exurbs don’t want to or can’t afford to pay more in taxes, and moved to exurbs to avoid the type of density that would make exurbs sustainable. This also has the added wrinkle of exurbs in District 1 being in rural parts of the HRM that are also reliant on volunteer-led municipal services. It’s an uphill battle for any councillor trying to tell people reliant on volunteer-run municipal services that they don’t pay enough in taxes.
To try and determine which candidates are equipped to face the complex challenges facing the city in the four years to come, The Coast sent out a candidate questionnaire to see what each candidate knows about the issues facing the city. The Coast followed up with more detailed questions to test the policy chops of each candidate.
With nominations closed for the election, the three-way race for District 1 is between a sitting councillor and two people of such low profile that they didn’t try to raise it when The Coast invited them to. So let’s start our analysis of the candidates with the incumbent.
Cathy Deagle Gammon
Being a new councillor is no easy task. People generally decide to run wanting to make their community a better place, then as soon as they’re elected they slam face first into the vast complexity of political problems for the entire city. And the only tool to fix this? A bureaucratic machine made sluggish by inertia and subservience to the status quo. So it’s understandable that at times during the past four years Halifax’s current deputy mayor, the first-term councillor for District 1, Cathy Deagle Gammon, had a sluggish start to her tenure as a councillor.
In sports, it’s common to see rookie athletes struggling with the big step up into the professional game. Some rookies, the greats who become household names, make the transition effortlessly. Some rookies, like three out of the four Staal brothers who made it to the NHL, had to put in the work. This work, in sports and in politics, is a euphemism for making mistakes. In sports and politics it’s important to give rookies room to make mistakes, if they are trying to do the right thing but not quite performing at the level required by the professional game. They need to be given room to demonstrate they can learn, grow and adapt.
The good news for voters in District 1 is that Deagle Gammon has been demonstrating that growth. In recent years she has been pushing hard for the HRM to accelerate plans to deal with the problems created by past suburban and rural development choices, municipal planning strategies and land-use bylaws. The city has known about these issues and has had two plans to fix them on the back burner for years. The creatively named The Rural Plan and The Suburban Plan. These plans have been expedited by federal housing accelerator fund money and are expected to come to council within the next council’s term. If Deagle Gammon’s first term is any indication, she is likely to perform as a capable legislator in these two planning exercises as she has demonstrated that she is a thorough, thoughtful and methodical researcher, and has generally positive contributions to policy debates.
The tradeoff to a solid policy foundation is that it takes time to build. In the early years of Deagle Gammon’s first term, she was a little weak in the transportation file. And to be fair, it is hard to fully grasp the political and communications complexities wrapped up in Halifax’s transportation (here’s an explainer about the climate and national security risks of car-first transportation, and here’s one on the fiscal insolvency of car-first transportation). But the good news is that even though she’s a little late to the game, her answers to the Coast’s questionnaire indicate that she understands the PR battle of Halifax’s transportation conundrum. In an interview with The Coast, she expanded on her answer, saying she now feels equipped to start the policy side of fixing transportation and updating the red book. (The Red Book is the HRM’s road design bible and is expected to be renewed in the next council term.)
Cathy Deagle Gammon’s website can be found here: http://cathydistrict1.ca/
Angela Dennison
Has not completed The Coast’s candidate questionnaire. If candidates complete the questionnaire after the deadline of September 18. The Coast will attempt to complete a review in time for October’s election. Until then, we cannot determine if this candidate is worth your vote and would advise sticking to the known candidate in your district. If you would like The Coast to assess Angela Dennison’s potential as a councillor, please ask her to complete the questionnaire.
Her website can be found here: https://dennisonfordistrict1.com
Chris Balcom
Has not completed The Coast’s candidate questionnaire. If candidates complete the questionnaire after the deadline of September 18. The Coast will attempt to complete a review in time for October’s election. Until then, we cannot determine if this candidate is worth your vote and would advise sticking to the known candidate in your district. If you would like The Coast to assess Chris Balcom’s potential as a councillor, please ask him to complete the questionnaire.
His website can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/chrisbalcomhrm
