Following the housing minister’s proposal of changes that, in his opinion, will hasten the housing building process, the mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality and his fellow council members are criticising the provincial government.
Mike Savage, the mayor, said he is unhappy, but the main problem is a lack of communication and cooperation between the two tiers of government.
Savage tells Global News that she is “quite disappointed.”
In addition to being a dramatic violation of municipal authority, we received no warning or advance warning of this.
On Friday, John Lohr, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, tabled legislation to amend the Halifax Regional Municipality Charter, which would allow the Nova Scotia government to override any municipal by-laws that “are impeding housing development and construction.
” However, according to Lohr, the province is just currently examining the city’s approved revisions to its noise by-law.
Previous changes approved by the municipality would limit the hours that construction noise could occur, beginning November 21, bumping the end time back from 9:30 p. m. to 8:00 p. m. , and preventing rock-breaking from occurring on weekends.
“A lot of people in communities don’t want this kind of noise at all,” Savage says.
Some others have claimed “workday only,” which may indicate 5 or 6 o’clock.
But in a booming metropolis, noise from building is unavoidable.
A housing crisis exists, Lohr declared on Friday. “Building more housing units is really difficult. We don’t have enough trained labour, thus we can’t accept limiting the number of hours these people can work in the construction business.
”
When asked if the province was considering invalidating any additional municipal by-laws, Lohr responded emphatically in the no.
Sam Austin, the Dartmouth Centre municipal councillor, is perplexed by the developments, though.
Austin complains, “They’re basically stepping into my profession and poking us all in the eye.”
“While we hope there will not be a situation when we have to use this authority, these amendments will allow the minister to intervene on behalf of Nova Scotians when bylaws are impeding housing development and construction,” a news release from Lohr reads.
According to the province, Quebec, New Brunswick, and British Columbia all have identical laws in place.
While the government and the municipality have frequently consulted about housing in the past, according to Savage, that hasn’t happened this time. He claims that the city was only informed of the amendments the evening before they were put out for consideration in the legislature.
Any time the provincial law amendments committee hears about the legislation, he will speak out against it.
Savage says, “I’m not the kind of man that goes around saying the world is ending and the hair is on fire, but this offends me. “As someone who has served in a different branch of government, I don’t believe this is the proper way to conduct business.”
We may collaborate on these issues, but don’t interfere with local government, he says. “We’re already going beyond our mission to cooperate with the government to provide housing for those who don’t have it.
” Austin says there isn’t a ton of construction occurring between the 8:00 p. m. and 9:30 p. m. hours and even if they approved more development, it would still take plenty of time due to the labour shortage.
He hopes the provincial administration will review the decision, but he is concerned it won’t happen.
Don’t encroach on municipal jurisdiction when it comes to housing, Halifax mayor tells the province.
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