How to choose a candidate in Halifax’s 2024 municipal election

In October, Haligonians will go to the polls to elect a new council. For democratically engaged citizens in the HRM, voting has a few parts. There are some easy parts like knowing where and when to vote. That’s the easy part because the city creates websites informing everyone that voting happens between October 8 and October 19, 2024. People can vote online from October 8 to 16. In-person advance voting will happen on October 12 and 15. On election day, October 19, 2024, polls will be open throughout the HRM from 8am to 7pm. The city also lays out who can vote right here, and if you meet the criteria of being a citizen of Canada and resident of Halifax over the age of 18 you can make sure you’re on the list of electors right here.

Once a voter has all of that information and is registered to vote, the only thing left to do is choose the right candidate. Even though the act of voting is easy, a few clicks on a website or drawing an X in a circle, choosing who to vote for is hard. There are a lot of issues, from potholes to property taxes to parking to people in parks, and trying to determine who is the best person to vote for is a complex question but one we can only answer by drawing an X.

In the leadup to the municipal election, The Coast did a series of interviews with experts in various fields of municipal government and published them as a series of podcasts. They’re the ones with HFX Votes 2024 in the title and can be found here. During that series, the CEO of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, Paul MacKinnon, explained that part of the success of Halifax’s downtown is due to how they vet candidates for their board. The commission gets candidates to read their organization's strategic plans. Then the commission asks potential board members about the existing strategic plans and what, if anything, new candidates would want to change. In this way, the commission can ensure established strategic plans come to fruition and accommodate fresh new ideas, especially if those ideas are good. Not one to let a good idea go to waste, that’s what The Coast is doing for this fall’s municipal election.

Halifax’s strategic plans

There are a lot of issues facing the city of Halifax: Housing is unaffordable, transit sucks, congestion is brutal, the rural exurbs are death traps, there aren’t enough fire fighters, the roads have potholes, flagship buildings like the Forum and Centennial Pool are falling apart, and people are sleeping in parks. To name a few. On top of all those issues, even though Haligonians are amongst the highest-taxed populations in the country, the city is perpetually broke and doesn’t have enough money.

Most, if not all, of HRM’s issues stem from bad political and governance decisions that date back to (and pre-date) amalgamation. The very short version is that even though people in the suburbs pay a lot in property taxes, it’s nowhere near enough money to cover the cost the city has to pay to provide municipal services to the suburbs. A more detailed explanation of this budget crunch can be found here if you prefer reading:

And here, if you prefer listening:

To rectify this pretty big fiscal issue, the city has undertaken many planning exercises, from the Centre Plan, to the Housing Accelerator Fund Bylaw changes to the upcoming Suburban Plan, which all aim to increase municipal revenues from property taxes while trying to limit the amount property taxes will go up in the future. This is the municipal version of living with roommates to save money. Because each suburban property can’t afford to exist independently, the city will change the bylaws for single-family lots to get lot mates.

The city has strategic plans for most, if not all, issues facing the city today. Are cars too inefficient for everyone to drive everywhere all the time and not clog the roads, especially considering the geographic choke points? There’s the Integrated Mobility Plan. Does the city need to plan for major infrastructure issues today and into the future? There’s the Infrastructure Asset Management Administrative Order. Is the city too hot? Bam, urban forestry plan. Want to play sports outside? There’s a playing field strategy for that.

But even if the city’s planning is good (with some exceptions) and will be good for the future, there is a pretty substantial roadblock to these plans success

The political problem

Fixing the city is unpopular. We all want it to be fixed, sure, but for generations Canadians have been sold a dream of the middle class: A house in the suburbs, a car, and enough money for a vacation or two. But this dream comes at a massive cost. For example we know (and ignore) that our lives are subsidized heavily by slave labour, which saves us a lot of money on clothes and food. Closer to home, the cost of driving is heavily subsidized, from the cost of fuel to the cost of private vehicle storage to the cost of roads transportation all heavily subsidized.

When times were precedented and borrowing money was cheap, Halifax could coast on inertia, and the long-term problems of such a heavily subsidized existence were problems for our grandchildren. But just because we ignored them, doesn’t mean the fundamental unsustainability of our world went away. Thanks to the one-two punch of COVID followed by the Upper Tantallon Wildfires, we now recognize that those problems for our grandchildren are actually problems for Halifax today.

These political issues are compounded even further by the “me-cession,” a phenomenon in which the country’s economy is doing fine on the macro level but we are all struggling to pay the bills. It will come as no surprise that people telling people they have to start paying full price for the cost of their living is crazy unpopular in a cost of living crisis.

The Coast’s candidate vetting

The challenge then is how to determine who is capable of navigating the city's issues while simultaneously juggling the political reality that fixing Halifax’s long-term issues will be initially unpopular.

At The Coast, we’ve decided to gauge a candidate’s suitability for office by asking them to explain some major issues facing the HRM as best they understand them. We’ve also asked candidates to read key municipal plans and explain how the municipal plans attempt to fix them. We’ve also asked them what, if anything, they would change in those strategic plans.

It’s an exam. We’ve given candidates an exam. Based on the number of extension requests received, it’s a pretty challenging one. Once The Coast receives the exam answers, we will follow up with some interviews and follow-up questions. The Coast will then provide a list of candidates we believe are up for the challenge of governing the city of Halifax at a point in history where how we live needs to change massively in relatively short order.

The Exam

1. True or False, the climate is changing is an emergency and needs to be treated as such?
2. Every year the municipal budget has far less money than the city needs to do everything it wants. This year is shaping up to be the worst one yet. Why do you think this is?
3. In June of this year, council passed an Infrastructure Asset Management Administrative Order. What does this AO do? Do you think it is needed? Why or why not?
4. One of the first major policies you're likely to vote on is the on-going regional plan review. What do you know about this review?
5. In the current draft of the plan there are a lot of proposed changes to municipal governance. What are some of your favourites and why?
6. What are some of the proposals that you would change and why?
7. Earlier this year, the city passed a set of bylaw changes known as the Housing Accelerator Fund By-laws. In your own words please describe what the point of this policy change is. Do you agree with it?
8. What changes would you make to the HAF bylaws, if any? (Please be as specific as possible.)
9. As part of the Housing Accelerator Fund money, the federal government asked Halifax to expedite its suburban plan review. The provincial government did the same when they announced the most recent special planning areas. Why do Halifax's suburbs need to change?
10. In the current draft of the suburban plan there are a lot of proposed changes. What are some of your favourites and why?
11. What are some of the proposals that you would change? What would you change and why? (Please be as specific as possible.)
12. As we all know, driving in this city low-key sucks. The city's plan to fix this is something called the Integrated Mobility Plan. In your own words please describe what this plan aims to achieve and how it aims to achieve it.
13. If you believe the IMP is a good plan, please explain why you think it has not been as successful as its ambitions. How do you hope to change this? If you believe the IMP is a bad plan, please explain your preferred alternative.
14. Over the past few years the city has taken a "managed encampment" approach to people living outside. Before saying whether or not you agree with this, please describe, as best you understand it, why city staff are recommending this approach.
15. If you would do anything different, what would you do and how would you do it? Please limit your answer to things possible with municipal powers.
16. The city of Halifax is undertaking some pretty substantial police reform. Can you please describe what the city is doing and where it is in the process?
17. Would you do anything differently around police reform? If so, what and why?
18. And finally, what is your primary goal should you be elected? How do you plan to achieve it?