Budget committee recommends $318M in capital spending

Halifax Regional Municipality’s budget committee approved a $318-million draft capital budget on Friday. 

The budget plans $234 million for service maintenance projects and $84 million for strategic initiatives. These include just over $20 million for Cogswell interchange redevelopment and $25 million to buy land for integrated mobility projects. 

About 23 per cent of the budget’s funds will come from debt. The capital budget is used to maintain and expand municipal assets. The largest line items are for roads, bridges and active transportation assets at $80 million, and buildings and facilities at $62 million. 

Councillors’ attention at the meeting focused on the looming costs of the project to redevelop the nearly 100-year old Halifax Forum, which is still in the design phase. 

The capital plan allocates $4.2 million in 2026-27 and with a total project cost estimated at $110 million. 

Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini (District 6, Dartmouth East-Burnside) said council could save money by revoking its heritage status. 

Sam Austin (District 5, Dartmouth Centre) said the Forum’s character has value worth more than the bottom line. He said revoking its heritage status would only save around five per cent of the total expense. 

“Turning the Forum into a corrugated box, trying to cheap out on it, that’s not the way I think it’s worth doing,” said Austin. 

Police headquarters 

Aside from discussions of the armoured rescue vehicle, the committee also talked about the plan for a new Halifax Regional Police headquarters. 

Virginia Hinch (District 8, Halifax Peninsula North) questioned one of the land options for the new headquarters: the current location of Centennial Pool. She said the pool is important to her constituents. She added the location is close to a homeless shelter and the planned new Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, both serving groups that have had a fraught relationship with police. 

Halifax Regional Police Chief Don MacLean said even if the new headquarters is elsewhere, the existing site would likely remain for policing, so the friendship centre would be across the street from police in either scenario. 

Roads 

David Hendsbee (District 2, Lawrencetown-The Lakes-Chezzetcook-Eastern Shore) asked if paving 11.5 kilometres of road shoulder along his district’s Main Street could be added to the budget. He said it would improve rural active transportation networks. 

Brad Anguish, the municipality’s commissioner of operations, had a short answer for him: “No.” 

“Why not?” asked Hendsbee. 

Anguish said the province estimated paving the shoulder of this provincial road would cost $350,000 a kilometre, totalling more than $3 million for the entire length. He also said there had been no direction from council to do so.  

The municipality occasionally works with the province to share costs paving roads the province owns.  

Laura White (District 7, Halifax South Downtown) questioned this practice in the case of work on Loriann Drive in Porters Lake, which is included in the capital budget. The municipality will pay about $83,000, or 16.67 per cent of the cost and would take on debt to fund its part of the road. 

“I don’t want to be a huge meanie,” she said with a laugh. “But I don’t understand why we are paying for roads that are not ours.” 

Population growth

At an earlier meeting of the committee Wednesday, the municipality’s senior asset management analyst, Holly Power-Garrett, said the region is playing catch-up with its infrastructure due to unprecedented population growth. 

Patty Cuttell (District 11, Spryfield-Sambro Loop) raised a transportation concern about the Mumford Terminal. She said the current terminal should have more bus shelters, better lights and better pedestrian accessibility. She pushed for its redevelopment to be completed before the 2030 date in the budget. 

“I get complaints about it all the time,” she said. “When we have facilities like that it doesn’t attract and encourage people to and use it, especially when you have to, like, trollop through the mud to catch your bus.” 

Patricia Hughes, director of planning and customer engagement for Halifax Transit, said 2030 is the end year for a larger redevelopment plan, but the transit service has a a second, shorter-term plan as well. 

The committee will be able to review the budget again when it comes back in April.