Halifax Politics dot ca

“On behalf of the Halifax Regional Municipality, I apologize to the former Africville residents and their descendants for what they have endured for almost 50 years, ever since the loss of their community that had stood on the shores of Bedford Basin for more than 150 years. You lost your houses, your church, all of the places where you gathered with family and friends to mark the milestones of your lives. For all that, we apologize. We apologize to the community elders, including those who did not live to see this day, for the pain and loss of dignity you experienced. We apologize to the generations who followed, for the deep wounds you have inherited and the way your lives were disrupted by the disappearance of your community. We apologize for the heartache experienced at the loss of the Seaview United Baptist Church, the spiritual heart of the community, removed in the middle of the night. We acknowledge the tremendous importance the church had, both for the congregation and the community as a whole. We realize words cannot undo what has been done, but we are profoundly sorry and apologize to all the former residents and their descendants. The repercussions of what happened in Africville linger to this day. They haunt us in the form of lost opportunities for young people who were never nurtured in the rich traditions, culture and heritage of Africville. They play out in lingering feelings of hurt and distrust, emotions that this municipality continues to work hard with the African Nova Scotian community to overcome. For all the distressing consequences, we apologize. Our history cannot be rewritten but, thankfully, the future is a blank page and, starting today, we hold the pen with which we can write a shared tomorrow. It is in that spirit of respect and reconciliation that we ask your forgiveness.” His Worship the Mayor Peter Kelly on behalf of the people of Halifax, February 24, 2010.

Budd Car Interior after refurbishment

I had an opportunity to talk to Tim Outhit, councilor for Bedford, for an hour or so last week. The conversation was wide ranging, covering topics from passenger rail to community councils to taxes.

What was most exciting was the discussion around rail service in HRM, or even to Truro some day.

Now I know that some city staff have historically been pretty against any rail proposal, though to be fair, I think the discussion of rail back in the 1990s was premature. HRM had just been put together, there was a lot of work to do to normalize by-laws, taxes, services, work that admittedly continues to this day.

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There is a furor, yes, a raging furor, on the internet right now over Blogger’s deletion of some music/mp3 blogs from their service.

For those of you who don’t know, an mp3 blog posts a review of an album AND a song or two as mp3. Usually, the reputable blogs have permission, which marketing people are more than willing to give, because many of these blogs get hundreds of thousands of unique views.  And the RIAA and music business lawyers hate ‘em, even though their colleagues in A&R and Marketing love ‘em.

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I talked about how to make sure we have some fairness across the region in my last post. This discussion is all driven by the recent “tax reform” debate. Really, the failed and arguably unfair HRM Tax Reform proposal was not conceived strictly to enrich the wealthy, though it clearly would do so. The debate is a sign of a system under stress.

The speed of change in property values in the region has accelerated, during the same decade in which the Savage government rationalized (or downloaded) municipal spending.

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The debate on downtown, the future of Halifax, and taxes (oh taxes) continues on my Facebook and to a lesser degree on this blog. Ah Facebook, if only you had an API that talked to WordPress, you would be perfect.

I have said before that I was against the proposed flat tax model of “reform”, defeated recently at HRM council. I have not yet really spoken up about what I think would work, a daunting task.
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